Safeguarding Children is Everybody's Responsibility
Safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children is defined as: protecting children from maltreatment; preventing impairment of children’s health or development; ensuring that children grow up in circumstances consistent with the provision of safe and effective care; and taking action to enable all children to have the best outcomes.
Safeguarding is not just about protecting children from deliberate harm. It relates to aspects of school life including:
- pupils’ health and safety
- the use of reasonable force
- meeting the needs of pupils with medical conditions
- providing first aid
- educational visits
- intimate care
- internet or e-safety
- appropriate arrangements to ensure school security, taking into account the local context
At Great Marsden St John's Primary School our first priority is the welfare and safety of all the children in our care. We are committed to providing the highest standards in protecting and safeguarding all our children at all times.
If your child is not in school we will contact you, to make sure the child is with you. If we cannot contact the first identified person on our contact list, we will contact the second person. It is important that we confirm that your child is safe.
All safeguarding documentation is read and understood by all the teaching staff, non-teaching staff and governors of Great Marsden St John's Primary School.
The senior leadership team are responsible for the recording, implementation and tracking of all statutory updates and training requirements.
The Headteacher and SLT carry out induction meetings with newly appointed staff to ensure key messages, policies and procedures are followed.
Are you concerned that a child is being abused or neglected?
If you are concerned about a child and you feel they are being abused, neglected or at risk of abuse/neglect, then you should consider making a safeguarding child referral.
Contact Lancashire County Council on 0300 123 6720 or out of hours 0300 123 6722.
If you think a child is in immediate danger – don't delay call the police on 999.
The NSPCC website has advice about the signs, symptoms and effects of child abuse and neglect.
You can also report your concerns online:
NSPCC Website: www.nspcc.org.uk
Or you can also speak to:
NSPCC 0800 800 5000
Childline 0800 1111
Useful Information for Parents - Keeping Children Safe
Prevent Strategy
As part of Great Marsden St John's commitment to safeguarding and child protection we fully support the government's Prevent Strategy, and take guidance from Teaching Approaches to help build resilience to extremism.
The Headteacher is the Prevent Lead at Great Marsden St John's School.
What is the Prevent Strategy?
The Prevent strategy is a government strategy designed to stop people becoming terrorists, supporting terrorism, fundamentalism or extremist behaviours. It:-
- responds to the ideological challenge we face from terrorism and aspects of extremism, and the threat we face from those who promote these views
- provides practical help to prevent people from being drawn into terrorism and ensure they are given appropriate advice and support
- works with a wide range of sectors (including education, criminal justice, faith, charities, online and health).
Operation Encompass
Great Marsden St John's is part of Operation Encompass.
Operation Encompass is a police and education early information safeguarding partnership enabling schools to offer immediate support to children experiencing domestic abuse.
Operation Encompass ensures that there is a simple telephone call or notification to a school’s trained Designated Safeguarding Lead /Officer (known as key Adult) prior to the start of the next school day after an incident of police attended domestic abuse where there are children related to either of the adult parties involved.
Information is shared with a school’s Key Adult (Designated Safeguarding Lead or Officer) prior to the start of the next school day after officers have attended a domestic abuse incident. This sharing of information enables appropriate support to be given, dependent upon the needs and wishes of the child.
Children are negatively impacted by experiencing domestic abuse and without early intervention and support this negative impact can last through a child’s life course. Domestic abuse can impact upon social, psychological, physical, emotional and behavioural outcomes with an often negative impact upon a child’s academic success. Experiencing domestic abuse has been identified as an Adverse Childhood Experience.
Operation Encompass aims, by directly connecting police and schools, to secure better outcomes for children , to enable schools to better understand the impact living with domestic abuse has upon children, to help schools to better understand a child’s lived experience and to therefore be able to support and nurture each child , making a child’s day better and giving them a better tomorrow.
Internet and E-Safety
E-Safety is an important part of keeping children safe at Great Marsden St John's Primary School . We have extensive security measures in place in school to help safeguard pupils from potential dangers or unsuitable material. Internet and E-Safety is taught to all pupils explaining and demonstrating how to stay safe and behave appropriately online.
We can only be successful in keeping children safe online if we work with parents to ensure the e-Safety message is consistent. It is important that parents speak to their children about how they can keep safe and behave appropriately online.
It’s essential to be realistic - banning the internet or technology will not work and it often makes a child less likely to report a problem. Education around safe use is essential.
Filtering
Our filtering platform is Netsweeper (https://www.netsweeper.com/
Useful Information about staying safe online can be found at:
https://www.saferinternet.org.uk
Who do I go to in school if I am worried?
Mrs Michaela Underwood is the Designated Safeguarding Lead. She is the person you should speak to if you are concerned about anything to do with safeguarding. Alternatively you can contact the Deputy Safeguarding Lead who is Mrs Elaine Walsh. Both can be contacted by ringing school on 01282 615055.
Mrs Underwood Mrs Walsh