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Safeguarding

Safeguarding our Children in School

 

We ensure that  safeguarding permeates all aspects of our school life. There can be no issue of greater importance to our staff, governors and  parents and carers, than the safety of our children. We ensure that the following underpins everything we do:

 

  • Protect our children and learners from maltreatment
  • Prevent impairment of  our children’s and learners’ health or development
  • Ensure that  our children and learners are growing up in circumstances consistent with the provision of safe and effective care
  • Undertake a role so as to enable those children and learners to have optimum life chances and to enter adulthood successfully

  We actively pursue safeguarding and promote the welfare of all of our children. As soon as the children enter our setting, we give them the tools, trust and confidence to know they are safe in school and to be able to talk to us about things happening in their lives and how they feel. We recognise, utilise and develop the differing social and cultural identities and the experiences that these may bring. We know that children learn most effectively when they are healthy, safe and secure, when their individual needs are met and when they have positive relationships with the adults who care for them.   We recognise that because of the day to day contact with children, staff need to be constantly vigilant. We work closely with other organisations such as the NSPCC, Police and Children's Social Services.  All staff have been trained in Child Protection and Safeguarding and are aware of their duty of care. They receive regular high-quality training and updates.   

School Staff Responsible for Safeguarding:  

Designated Safeguarding Lead - Mrs Humprhey

Deputy Designated Safeguarding Lead - Miss West

Deputy Designated Safeguarding Lead - Mr Chipchase

Online Safety

 

It is the school’s aim to make sure everyone can enjoy the benefits of technology in the safest way possible. We provide weekly guides and tips to parents about keeping children safe on their apps, games, social media in our weekly newsletter. Our e-safety policy outlines clearly how we make sure our children are safe online and the steps we take as a school to address concerns. If you require a paper copy of this policy, then please contact our school office.

 

What If Cyber-Bullying Occurs?

 

Specialist websites offer advice (please see below).

BY PHONE: If the bullying is happening by phone, contact the mobile phone company. All UK mobile operators have nuisance call centres and procedures in place to deal with such incidents.

They may help you to change your number or, with help from the police, take action against the bully.

BY EMAIL: If the bullying is happening by Email contact the provider of the Email address that the bully is using.

For example, if the bully uses an @outlook.com address contact Microsoft.

 

Further Helplines:

 

Childline free 24hr. helpline for children & young people 0800 1111

Samaritans – 08457 90 90 90

Useful Websites:

 

A) Childnet – A range of resources for families and schools – http://www.childnet.com/

B) Talk to someone who is trained to help you at – https://www.familylives.org.uk/

C) kidshealth.org – A range of resources geared towards keeping children safe online – http://kidshealth.org/parent/positive/talk/cyberbullying.html

 

What If Your Child Is Uncomfortable With Something Online?

 

Encourage your child to tell a trusted adult if they ever feel awkward, embarrassed or worried by anything that they are asked to do or say by an online friend. Then the trusted adult can help them to take the appropriate form of action depending on the seriousness of the concern.

Many websites include a report abuse button. If you can’t find one you can access it here.

 

Making The Right Choices

 

We want everyone to make informed choices when accessing different websites on the internet, thinking about who the site was made for and why can help us to decide whether it is a good source of information. It is important for the young people to be responsible about the sites that they visit, if they aren’t sure that a website is suitable, the message is to not access it at all.

http://www.commonsensemedia.org/ gives excellent advice on this and if you find a site that you think is inappropriate you can report it to the Internet Watch Foundation at http://www.iwf.org.uk

 

Online safety is of paramount importance to us. As well as regularly planning dedicated curriculum time to the topic, tips and discussion points are often covered informally either as part of another topic or as part of informal chat. Our Computing curriculum progression document provides more detail regarding the themes we explore in line the Education for a Connected World framework (UK Council for Internet Safety, 2020).

 

Be an Internet Legend: CLICK HERE

  Safer Internet Day  

Safer Internet Day is a global campaign to promote the safe and responsible use of technology, which calls on children and young people, parents, carers, teachers, social workers, law enforcement, companies, policymakers and more, to help to create a better internet.  

 

Using the internet safely and positively is a key message that we promote in school and celebrating Safer Internet Day is a great opportunity for us to re-emphasise the online safety messages we deliver throughout the year.  

 

Whether you have 5 minutes to start a conversation or hours to spare, there are top tips, quizzes and films which you can use at home with your child. If you have any concerns or questions about keeping your child safe online, please do get in touch with your child’s class teacher or Mrs Humphrey, our Designated Safeguarding Lead. 

Kidsafe UK  

Kidsafe UK provides a child friendly mental health and safeguarding curriculum. Its aim is to provide children with the tools to speak out about any situation that has a negative impact on their mental health and emotional well-being. Our children really enjoy their Kidsafe lessons and particularly love to meet and learn with KS the monkey! They use the language they learn such as 'trusted grown ups', 'yucky feelings' and 'privates places' with confidence.