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Safeguarding
Safeguarding means keeping your child safe, healthy and happy in
school.
St Bede’s is committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children and
expects everyone involved with the school to share this commitment. Safeguarding
is everybody’s responsibility.
Staff are expected to be vigilant and curious about the children in their care; they are aware of how to keep our children safe and what signs to look out for.
Children are encouraged to share any concerns that they may have and know that
these will be taken seriously. We act as appropriate to enable all children to have the best outcomes.
We wish to work in partnership with parents and carers to safeguard and promote
the welfare of children and to support them to understand our statutory
responsibilities in this area.
Safeguarding means so much more than being ‘compliant’ with published
expectations.
We carefully check that all staff and volunteers are safe to work with our children. All necessary 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.
If you have any concerns at all and wish to talk to someone, please come into school to talk to any of our Designated Safeguarding Leads listed below or telephone them on 01670 822 389 or via email
Our Safeguarding Team:
Designated Safeguarding Lead (DSL)
Mrs Worrall – Headteacher
Deputy Designated Safeguarding Lead (DDSL)
Mrs McCarron – Deputy headteacher
Safeguarding officers
Mrs Craik
Mrs Heatley
If you are concerned about a child, please come and talk to us.
St Bede's Safeguarding and Child Protection Policy 2023-2024
Safeguarding policy for children
Child Protection
As a school, we follow our safeguarding and child protection policy (link above) in
order to follow our statutory duties. All staff must report any concerns they have about a child and not see these as insignificant. Staff will not assume a colleague or another professional will act and share the concern. On occasions, a referral to
Children’s Services is justified by a single incident such as an injury or disclosure of abuse. More often however, concerns accumulate over a period of time and are
evidenced by building up a picture over time; this is particularly true in cases of
emotional abuse and neglect. In these circumstances, staff record and pass on
concerns in accordance with this policy to allow the Designated Safeguarding Lead
to build up a picture and access support for the child at the earliest opportunity.
All concerns, discussions and decisions made, and the reasons for those decisions
will be recorded in writing on the school’s CPOMS system (this is an online system to monitor safeguarding, well-being and pastoral issues.)
Early Help
Early help is organised early intervention to provide support as soon as a problem
emerges at any point in a child’s life. If early help is appropriate, our DSLs will
generally lead on liaising with other agencies including Early Help staff and setting up an inter-agency assessment, as appropriate.
Staff may be required to support other agencies and professionals in an early help assessment and, in some cases, where education is the fundamental factor, act as the lead practitioner. Early help assessments will be kept under review and referred to Children’s Social Care for assessment if the child’s situation does not appear to be improving or is getting worse.
E-Safety
We actively promote and monitor e-safety. 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 (Senso) and this is backed up by a robust firewall and web filtering. 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.
E-Safety resources for parents
Operation Encompass
We are an 'Operation Encompass’ school Operation Encompass operates in all
police forces across England. It helps police and schools work together to provide
emotional and practical help to children. The system ensures that when police are
called to an incident of domestic abuse, where there are children in the household
who have experienced the domestic incident, the police should inform the key adult (usually the designated safeguarding lead) in school before the child or children arrive at school the following day. This ensures that the school has up to date relevant information about the child’s circumstances and can enable immediate support to be put in place, according to the child’s needs.
PREVENT
Children are vulnerable to extremist ideology and radicalisation. Similar to protecting children from other forms of harms and abuse, protecting children from this risk is part of our safeguarding approach.
The impact of the pandemic, social isolation and a rise in hateful extremism online is creating a situation which is making more young people vulnerable to radicalisation and other forms of grooming.
Prevent is a preventative programme, delivered locally by teachers, healthcare
practitioners, social workers, the police, charities, and religious leaders. It places
protection around people vulnerable to radicalisation, stopping them from being
drawn into terrorism – regardless of the ideology.
Parents, friends and families can also get specialist support to stop their loved ones
being drawn into harmful activities or groups, with the launch of ACT Early – a new dedicated safeguarding website and advice line from the specialists at Counter
Terrorism Policing (CTP).
If you are worried that someone you know is being radicalised,
visit http://www.actearly.uk/
For help and advice visit www.actearly.uk, or call the national Police Prevent Advice Line on 0800 011 3764, in confidence, and specially trained Prevent officers will listen carefully to your concerns.
Prevent Duty DfE guidance
Attendance
Please support us by ensuring that your child attends school regularly – this is a
parents’ legal responsibility. Failing to attend school on a regular basis will be
considered as a safeguarding matter. Any absence affects the pattern of a child’s
learning and regular absence will seriously affect it.
Absences are reported as follows:
1. Call the office on 01670 822 389 and leave a message
2. Email [email protected]
3. Send a message via School Gateway.
We expect all absence from school to be reported as soon as possible and at the
latest by 9am on the morning of absence. If we do not hear from parents or carers,
we will systematically go through each of the contacts we hold for the child until we are able to speak with someone. If we are unable to speak with anyone, the
absence will be recorded as unauthorised and this will be followed up with a letter
and reminder of our correct reporting procedures.
If you would like to discuss any aspect of attendance or any concerns you may have contact the Headteacher.
Health and Safety
We work hard to ensure that our site is as safe as possible. Staff closely supervise
the children in all areas of the school and they are visible and available to talk to at
all times. The grounds are checked by the caretaker every day and the building is
maintained to the highest standards. External experts come regularly to ensure
everything is fully functioning and safe – fire safety, water, electrics, etc
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 assessments reviews are carried out
regularly.
Our catering facilities meet the standards of hygiene and they are checked regularly by Environmental Health. We also meet the nutritional standards in place nationally and we are proactive and knowledgeable about the food of all pupils with allergies.
