Safeguarding

Safeguarding

What Should I do if I am Worried About a Child?

If you believe that a child is immediate danger from significant harm, dial 999 to report it. If you are concerned about a child and they are not in immediate danger, you can call 01609 780780 to talk anonymously to a duty Social Worker or call the NSPCC Helping Adults Protect Children Helpline on 0808 800 5000. More information can be found about this helpline by clicking here:

https://www.nspcc.org.uk/keeping-children-safe/our-services/nspcc-helpline/a-reason-to-call/

Where can Parents get Support and Advice from to Keep their Children Safe?

The North Yorkshire Safeguarding Children Partnership has a fantastic variety of resources to support you in keeping your children safe. Click here to access their resources:

https://www.safeguardingchildren.co.uk/parents-carers/

Safeguarding at Easingwold Primary School:

Easingwold Primary School is committed to ensuring the welfare and safety of all children in school. All North Yorkshire schools, including Easingwold Primary School, follow the North Yorkshire Safeguarding Children Board procedures. The school will, in most circumstances, endeavour to discuss all concerns with parents about their child/ren. However, there may be exceptional circumstances when the school will discuss concerns with Social Care and/or the Police without parental knowledge (in accordance with Child Protection procedures). The school will, of course, always aim to maintain a positive relationship with all parents. The school’s Child Protection Policy is available publicly through the website (link at the bottom of the page), in hard copy (available at the school office) or via email (please request a copy using the 'Contact Us' details on our website.

Easingwold Primary School takes its safeguarding responsibilities extremely seriously, in fact Safeguarding is central to the work that we do. At Easingwold Primary School we recognise the vital importance of robust procedures and practices which lead to a safe learning environment for every child in which they can achieve. We understand that there is a need to promote a culture where there is a shared responsibility for every aspect of safeguarding and to create an arena of safety for all our children.

Whether we are planning school visits to enrich our curriculum or inviting adults into our school we understand that it is our primary duty to keep children safe.

Through our policies and procedures we will:

ensure that we employ staff who are suitable to work with children.
create a culture where staff know that their behaviour with children must adhere to an agreed Code of Conduct.
create a culture where inappropriate behaviour would be challenged at every level within the school.
ensure that we have procedures and policies which keep children safe while they are in our care, regardless of the activity they are engaged in.
ensure that we have procedures and policies which keep staff safe while they are carrying out their duties.
ensure that there are clear rules and boundaries for children to follow, in order that their behaviour does not impact on the safety of one another.
ensure that we teach children strategies that will help them deal with dangerous situations outside school hours.
ensure that the school complies with legislative responsibilities regarding the management of hazards to health.

Our recruitment processes for all posts in school are rigorous and conform to current recommended guidance to do our utmost to ensure that only those suitable to work with children are employed. We ensure that those staff involved in recruitment have undergone the latest Safer Recruitment Training.

We have a Code of Conduct in place (known as Safer Working Practices) which sets out detailed policies and procedures for staff to follow – these have been put in place to keep everybody safe. Our Child Protection Policy also ensures that where a child makes a disclosure, there are appropriate procedures in place to ensure that action is taken to support the child.

Of course, safeguarding the children within our care is much wider than just policy documents. We aim to create a culture of safety at school where children feel valued, respected and cared for in a building that is safe, well maintained and conducive to learning. Our policy documents are shared with key stakeholders and implementation is monitored by our Governing Body and Senior Leaders in school. Our Governing Body have over arching responsibility for checking that our school complies with necessary regulations. Their recommendations are implemented in full.

Behaviour In School

We know that a contributor to children's safety is high expectations and standards of behaviour. Whilst our behaviour policy sets out how behaviours in school are managed, we teach children to uphold our school values which contributes to everybody's safety:

Resilience - We work hard and never give up

Respect - We are kind, honest and polite

Responsibility - We keep ourselves and each other safe

How does school support children and families who are affected by domestic abuse?

We are part of a project that runs jointly between all schools, academies and colleges in North Yorkshire and North Yorkshire Police called Operation Encompass. This project has been designed to provide early reporting to schools and any domestic abuse incidents that occur outside of normal school hours and that might have had an impact on a child attending our premises the following day. This information will be shared at the earliest opportunity between Monday to Thursday and, when an incident occurs on a Friday, Saturday or a Sunday, the police will contact us the following Monday. The Headteacher, known as a key adult, has received awareness training to enable them to liaise with the police. They use the information that has been shared with them, in confidence, to ensure that school is able to make provision for possible difficulties experienced by children or their families. Information will be shared where it is identified that a child or young person was present, witnessed or was involved in a domestic abuse incident.

Please visit www.operationencompass.org for more information.

We can also provide support for families by making referrals to IDAS who are a North East charity who specialise in supporting people affected by domestic abuse.

Click here for more information:

https://idas.org.uk/

What is Prevent?

As of the 1st July 2015 all schools and registered childcare providers are subject to a duty to, in the exercise of their functions, have 'due regard to the need to prevent people from being drawn into terrorism'. This is called the Prevent Duty. Further information on this and how to discuss it with your child can be found by clicking here:

https://educateagainsthate.com/parents/

At Easingwold Primary School this is seen as part of our school's wider safeguarding duties and is consistent with our other responsibilities in this area. The procedures we follow are set out in our Child Protection Policy (which can be found in the Policies section).

Where we identify that there is a need to refer an individual, the relevant safeguarding procedures are followed to ensure that an appropriate referral is made to Children's Social Care or Health and Adult Services in an effective and timely way. To enable us to discharge this duty effectively all colleagues completed the online Channel Training through the Home Office Website in October 2018.

How is Prevent Relevant to our Community?

Easingwold is a predominantly white community and you may not see the relevance of the Prevent Duty for our school. However, as a parent, you need to be aware that individuals and a wide variety of groups with extremist views use the internet and social media to spread their ideologies. Children spend a lot of time online, and this has made them more susceptible to extremism, whether from Islamists or white far right extremist groups. Extremism and radicalisation are a world wide threat and starting education about them at an early age and equipping parents and children with the right information and tools is one way of the ways we can tackle them.

Online Safety:

We spend a great deal of time teaching the children how to stay safe online and use the SMART acronym to teach children and parents how to keep safe online:

This is a useful visual reminder for parents of the age restrictions of some popular platforms to help you decide how appropriate they are for your child to access and what level of supervision needs to be in place. Age limits are there to protect children, please make sure you supervise very closely what your children are accessing.