SAFEGUARDING

At Seton Community Primary School, we are committed to safegaurding and promoting the welfare of all children.  We expect all staff and volunteers to share this commitment.  Safeguarding means keeping children happy, healthy and safe in school.  All staff are trained at regular intervals and are aware of how to keep our pupils safe and what signs to look out for.  Our pupils are encouraged to share any concerns promptly and they are supported in doing so.. 

Safeguarding procedures at Seton Community Primary School are underpinned by three key principles:

    • Safeguarding is everyone’s responsibility: all staff, governors and volunteers play their full part in keeping our children safe and protecting them from abuse, neglect and other safeguarding concerns.
    • Seton operates a child-centred approach: a clear understanding of the needs, wishes, views and voices of children.
    • All staff, governors and volunteers have a clear understanding regarding abuse and neglect in all forms; including how to identify, respond and report. This also includes knowledge of the process for allegations against professionals.

We have robust policies in place which cover all aspects of safeguarding.   Those policies include:

Child Protection Policy

Anti-Bullying Policy

Mental Health & Wellbeing Policy

Online Safety Policy

Positive Behaviour Policy

Our Dedicated Safeguarding Team

The school’s Designated Safeguarding Lead, the three Deputy Designated Safeguarding Leads and the Safeguarding Governor are experienced and highly skilled in dealing with safeguarding concerns.  They can be contacted via the school office on 01947 840257:

 

Safeguarding Children – Information for Parents

We have a wealth of safeguarding information to support families on our dedicated webpage which can be found here:  Support for Families

It is important for parents to be aware that staff and volunteers in the school have a duty to report concerns about a child, whether this means the child may be in need of additional support or help of some kind or whether it is thought that a child may have been abused or be at risk of abuse.

There are four categories of abuse: physical, sexual, emotional, neglect.

In some cases, the school is obliged to refer children to Children’s Social Care staff, for children to be assessed for their needs or if an investigation into possible child abuse is required. In many cases, there will already have been discussions between school staff and the parents of the child, and the situation and concerns will not be a surprise to the parents.

However, parents may not be told that the school has referred their child to Children’s Social Care if it is thought that this might put the child at risk.

If school staff need to express concerns about a child or refer a child to Children’s Social Care, it is appreciated that this can cause distress or anger for the child’s parents/carers. It is important however, that all parties – parents and school staff – try to discuss these matters as reasonably as possible so that the best interests of the child can be secured.

Children’s Social Care also tries to carry out its enquiries sensitively. It has to gather information with parents about the steps being taken and it is therefore beneficial that discussions are as open and as constructive as possible.

Reporting Concerns

If you are concerned about a child’s welfare, please record your concern, and any observations or conversations heard, and report to one of the Designated Safeguarding Leads (DSLs) as soon as possible the same day. DO NOT conduct your own investigation.

If your concerns relate to the actions or behaviour of a member of staff (which could suggest that s/he is unsuitable to work with children) then you should report this to one of the Designated Safeguarding Leads in confidence, who will refer the matter to the Headteacher (or the Chair of Governors if the concern relates to the Headteacher).  Prompt action will always be taken with regard to safeguarding reports. 

The Bigger Picture

Safeguarding is not just about responding to concerns.   Within the context of our school, promoting the welfare and life opportunities for children is woven through all of our systems and procedures.  This includes:: 

Recruitment

Attendance

Positive Behaviour Management

Anti-Bullying

Protected Characteristics

Health and Safety

The Curriculum

Online Safety

Operation Encompass

At Seton, we try to take a holistic approach to safeguarding; not just preventing or dealing with harm but looking at the health and wellbeing, safety and security through every aspect of school life and beyond.

Recruitment

We carefully check that all staff and volunteers are safe to work with our children. A number of checks are made including DBS checks, references, ID and employment history. We keep a single central record of all this information and this is regularly monitored.

Visitors and volunteers are rigorously checked in much the same way staff are before they can have any unsupervised access to our children. Any contractors on site have to read a safety briefing before being signed into the building. All adults in school wear an ID badge with a coloured lanyard for quick identification.

Attendance

Please support us by ensuring that your child attends school regularly – this is a parents’ legal responsibility. Failing to attend school regularly may be considered a safeguarding matter.  Any absence affects the pattern of a child’s schooling and regular absence will seriously affect their learning.  We are always happy to discuss any concerns about attendance and we can offer tailored support to help to remove barriers.  (Further details can be found on our dedicated webpage here:  Attendance.

It is vital that parents inform us promptly regarding any absence - whatever the reason.  This should be before 8.45am on every day of absence.  We have robust safeguarding procedures for following up any unexplained absence, which includes home visits and requesting police welfare checks where necessary.  

Positive Behaviour Management

Our Positive Behaviour Management Policy details the three school rules which our children are taught from their earliest days with us:  Be Ready, Be Respectful, Be Safe.  Staff make regular reference to the three rules and help children to understand them and apply them to everything they do because they help us all to learn in a calm and safe environment and to become responsible citizens. 

We recognise that all children make mistakes and we support them to make the right choices and to make amends for any wrong decisions.  Our policy also details the consequences of poor choices because this is how we learn to take responsibility for our actions.  In very rare cases, this could include permanent exclusion.   

Where a child or children's behaviour is considered to present a safeguarding risk, our Positive Behaviour Management Policy clearly details the procedures we will take to address this.  

Anti-Bullying

Bullying is the repetitive, intentional hurting of one person or group by another person or groups, where the relationship involves an imbalance of power.  Bullying is an important safeguarding issue.  The impact of bullying can severely affect a child or young person - both in the short and long term.   Our Anti-Bullying Policy details the procedures we have in place, to prevent bullying happening in the first place and to deal with incidents of bullying, as well as detailing how we support children to identify and report bullying.  When there is `reasonable cause to suspect that a child is suffering, or is likely to suffer significant harm', a bullying incident will be addressed as a child protection concern.  

Protected Characteristics

We work to ensure that our children understand that:

  • There are no outsiders at Seton
  • Everyone is different
  • We celebrate our differences
  • We are all equal in our differences

The Equality Act became law in 2010. It covers everyone in Britain and protects people from discrimination, harassment and victimisation.  Everyone in Britain is protected.  This is because the Equality Act protects people against discrimination because of the protected characteristics that we all have. Under the Equality Act, there are nine Protected Characteristics:

  1. Age
  2. Disability
  3. Gender reassignment
  4. Race
  5. Religion or belief
  6. Marriage or civil partnership
  7. Sex
  8. Sexual orientation
  9. Pregnancy and maternity

At Seton, we seek to help our children understand their responsibilities concerning the protected characteristics, to gain an understanding of the world they are growing up in and to learn how to live alongside, and show respect for, a diverse range of people.  We help our children to apply their developing understanding to identify any forms of discrimination which they might notice in school or in the community and we take appropriate action to deal with those concerns. 

Health and Safety

We work hard to ensure that our facilities are as safe as possible.  Premises checks are completed every day and the building is maintained to the highest standards.  External experts come regularly to check things like the firefighting equipment, electrical equipment, water systems and security lights are in perfect working order.  The premises are accessible to pupils, parents and staff with disabilities.  We carry out regular fire alarm and evacuation tests and all of this is recorded in our Fire Log. An annual Fire Audit and risk assessment reviews are carried out regularly.

Our catering facilities meet the highest standards of hygiene and they are checked regularly by officers from NYC. We also meet the nutritional standards in place nationally and we are careful about the food of all pupils with allergies. 

We have worked closely with the Local Council and PCSO on road safety initiatives to help pupils stay safe before and after school too.

The Health & Safety team includes a member of the Governing Body.  The team regularly discuss all matters of Health and Safety, Safeguarding and Security.  The school complies with all national and local Health & Safety Regulations.

The Curriculum 

We offer a secure and encouraging environment where children feel safe.  Regular visits from our PCSO provide the children with up to date information on how to stay safe, particularly concerning risks relating to our local context.  

Children's spiritual, moral and cultural development is enhanced through the delivery of our whole school curriculum, our core values, and partnership work with external agencies, charities and the local community. Our PSHE Scheme of Work includes work on Domestic Violence, Drug and Alcohol Abuse, Bullying, Personal Safety, Inappropriate Touching, Secrets, Relationships, Cyber Bullying and Internet security. Children are also given clear information about how to report things they feel uncomfortable about.

Online Safety

We have an e-safety team in place at Seton who actively promote and monitor e-safety.  We carry out an annual e-safety audit and this supports our comprehensive in-school policy.  All pupils, staff and visitors to school must read and sign our Acceptable Use Policy before any access to our systems is allowed.  All usage is monitored by specialist software and this is backed up by a robust firewall and web filtering system.  Pupils are taught how to stay safe online and this is regularly reinforced in Computing lessons.   and what to do or who they can talk to if they are worried.

Operation Encompass

At Seton Community Primary School we are working in partnership with North Yorkshire Police and Redcar and Cleveland Police Children’s Services to identify and provide appropriate support to pupils who have experienced domestic violence in their household; this scheme is called Operation Encompass. 

The purpose of Operation Encompass is to safeguard and support children and young people who have been involved in or witnessed a domestic abuse incident.

Domestic abuse impacts on children in a number of ways. Children are at increased risk of physical injury during an incident, either by accident or because they attempt to intervene. Even when not directly injured, children are greatly distressed by witnessing the physical and emotional suffering of a parent.

Operation Encompass has been created to highlight this situation. It is the implementation of key partnership working between the police and schools. The aim of sharing information with local schools is to allow ‘key adults’, such as the Headteacher, Deputy Headteacher and Class Teacher or named Support Staff, the opportunity of engaging with the child and to provide access to support that allows them to remain in a safe but secure familiar environment. 

In order to achieve this, the Multi-Agency Safeguarding Team will share police information of all domestic incidents where one of our pupils has been present, with the Designated Safeguarding Lead(s) (DSL). 

On receipt of any information, the DSL will decide on the appropriate support the child requires. We will record this information and store this information in line with our Safeguarding Policy.

Further information can be found by clicking on the following link:

Operation Encompass