IF YOU BELIEVE A CHILD TO BE SUFFERING FROM ABUSE AND/OR IS IN IMMEDIATE DANGER
CALL THE POLICE ON 999 OR 101
Safeguarding
“The leadership team has ensured that all safeguarding arrangements are fit for purpose.” Ofsted June 2019
Meet the Team, we believe that Child Protection is everyone's responsibility!
If you have a concern about a child or any other safeguarding issue, please contact one of the following people by calling
01262 488444 or 01262 488227
The Safeguarding and Wellbeing Committee meet twice a term and provide support and guidance for the Head-teacher in all matters relating to Safeguarding and Wellbeing.
You can also contact the Local Authority's SaPH Team (Safeguarding and Partnership Hub)
If you are worried about a child or young person or think they might be at risk of harm, abuse or neglect,
you can contact SaPH to talk about your concerns and receive advice.
Tel: 01482 395500 between 8am and 6pm
Out of hours - 01482 393939
Safeguarding Children Hub email - safeguardingchildrenshub@eastriding.gov.uk
We ensure that our pupils feel secure, are encouraged to talk, are listened to and are safe.
Throughout our curriculum, we provide activities and opportunities that equip our children to stay safe and develop essential life skills,
through our focus on core values, developing personal, social and health education and through our program of assemblies and focus sessions.
We regularly talk to the children to find out their opinions of school life and how well we keep them safe.
We also have a school council with representatives from each class. We regularly discuss with all our children how they can share worries or concerns at school.
Safeguarding - Keeping Children Healthy and Safe from Harm
At Beeford CE (VC) Primary School, we recognise that your child is our responsibility and concern. We want to work in partnership with you, and discuss with you, any concerns we may have or that you may have.
It is a priority to inform and involve you at every stage in your child’s time at the school.
However, the first priority is your child’s welfare and there may be rare occasions when our concern about your child means that we have to consult with other agencies before we contact you.
The ER Safeguarding Children Partnership has laid down the procedures we follow, and the school has adopted a Child Protection Policy in line with this for the safety of all.
If you want to know more about our procedures or the policy, please speak to the child’s class teacher or Mr Bell. Alternatively, Mrs H Winterbottom / Dr M Sowerby are the Governors with responsibility for Child Protection.
We ensure that safeguarding is everyone’s responsibility and that all staff, visitors, parents and carers understand their roles and responsibilities in keeping children safe. We have key information on our website related to safeguarding and would invite parents and families to familiarise themselves with this.
Safeguarding is defined in the government document, “Working together to safeguard children” as:
¨ Protecting children from maltreatment
¨ Preventing impairment of children’s health and development
¨ Ensuring that children grow up in circumstances consistent with the provision of safe and
effective care
¨ Taking action to enable all children to have the best outcomes.
All staff have clear roles and responsibilities relating to keeping children safe within our care. Whether this is related to supervising children safely at break and lunch times, ensuring our behaviour policy is fully implemented, carrying out health and safety checks, reminding families about road safety or undertaking risk assessments, we are always are on high alert to ensure that every child is safe.
Safeguarding encompasses everything that we do in school, so that children are safe, well, healthy and ready to learn. There are a number of key concerns that staff are trained to look for including signs of neglect, abuse or mistreatment and also how to manage a disclosure that a child may make. We are continually checking issues like poor attendance and lateness as this can be an indication of other concern.
School policies are in place to ensure that there is a consistent approach to practices throughout our school and that they are understood and adhered to by staff, governors and volunteers. Adults have a tremendous impact on young children and, with this in mind, Beeford CE (VC) Primary School
- are good role models for children
- enjoy their work and working with children
- welcome and support visitors in school
- recognise and value strengths in each other and use these to support everyone
- work within the agreed policies of the school
- promote a happy, caring and safe school
- encourage children to think for themselves, ask questions and find answers
- create an environment of trust whereby children are trusted to do their best and mistakes are seen as
- part of the learning process
- challenge and support children’s learning.
- We pride ourselves on being a ‘caring and nurturing’ school and doing the very best we can for every child in our care. There are numerous policies in place to safeguard our children and they include:
Child Protection – this is a key area in which all staff receive regular training. School and other services for children and families all work together to support the needs of children. There is a named governor for Child Protection, Dr Mary Sowerby, who, along with other Governors, meet half termly as the Safeguarding and Wellbeing Committee. A number of safeguarding policies can be viewed by parents, here on the school’s website.
Operation Encompass and Domestic Abuse - Our school is part of Operation Encompass which is a national scheme that operates jointly between schools and police forces. Operation Encompass is the reporting to schools, prior to the start of the next school day, when a child or young person has experienced domestic abuse.
Attendance – children’s attendance in school is monitored on a daily basis and notable absences or patterns of absences are followed up by our Education Welfare Officer. As a school, we work hard to promote the importance of good attendance and work in partnership with parents to achieve this.
Behaviour – high standards of behaviour are expected in school. Any incidents of poor behaviour between children are dealt with sensitively by an adult who gives both children time to calm down, explain what the problem is and helps the issue to be resolved. More serious incidents of poor behaviour are carefully monitored by staff and dealt with in accordance with the school’s Behaviour and Anti-Bullying Policy. Children are constantly reminded about our school rules and they know we have them in order for everyone to be happy and safe at school.
Health and Safety – everyone here at Beeford CE (VC) Primary School knows they have a responsibility to ensure that children and adults are able to work in a healthy and safe environment. Staff are trained in Paediatric and Emergency First Aid and the school has several fully trained first aid members of staff who deal with accidents should they occur following the school’s first aid and medicine policies.
Curriculum – through the planned curriculum we ensure that the issues of healthy eating, physical exercise and how to keep ourselves safe are taught. This aspect is enhanced by the many visitors to school e.g. Road Safety Officers, Police, Dental Nurse, Optician, Fire Safety Officers and the School Nurse
Safer Recruitment and Selection – Governors and the school ensure that all staff new to the school and volunteers who work in school on a regular basis undertake a Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) check, full references, identity checks and right to work checks are required before a person takes up a post. The required number of governors and staff have undertaken the government safer recruitment training.
Complaints – should parents have any complaints the school staff will listen to your concerns and will follow up issues arising. There is a clear procedure in place. The school is committed to working closely with parents/carers for the benefit of the children. If any parent feels that an issue has not been resolved then there are complaints policies in place which are dealt with by the complaints committee of the governing body.
Filtering and Monitoring - The school uses Smoothwall as our filtering system which blocks students from harmful content by denying access. The DSL monitors the on-screen activity of students, staff and visitors on a daily basis.
Policies which make up the school’s safeguarding policy include:
- Anti-Bullying
- Attendance
- Behaviour
- Child protection
- Drugs and substance misuse
- Educating children with medical needs
- Equal opportunities
- E-safety and acceptable usage
- First aid (including management of medical conditions, intimate care)
- Health and safety
- Home School Agreements
- Initial allegation management policy
- Looked after children
- Mental Health and Wellbeing
- Personal Social and Health Education (PSHE) curriculum
- Recruitment and selection
- Relationships, sex and health education
- Single equalities
- Special educational needs
- Staff appraisal
- Staff code of conduct
- Use of positive handling
- Visitors in school
- Use of photographs/video
- Whistle-blowing