Overview and who’s who
Keeping children safe and protecting them from harm is the most important thing we do as a school. If children are not safe, they cannot flourish, form effective relationships with adults or their peers, or achieve their full potential in life. We therefore take our responsibilities in this area with the utmost seriousness. We believe that safeguarding children is everyone’s responsibility. All children are special and we work hard to provide an accessible and stimulating environment which cares for the diverse needs of all our children. We will do everything we can to protect our children.
All staff and governors are trained in Child Protection and Safeguarding, and this is updated regularly. The key roles in the school are:
What is safeguarding and child protection?
Safeguarding is a term which is broader than ‘child protection’ and relates to the action taken to promote the welfare of children and protect them from harm. Safeguarding is everyone’s responsibility. It includes action against bullying, including cyberbullying and online safety, treating all children equally regardless of gender, ethnicity, disability, sexuality or beliefs, preventing impairment of health and development, ensuring that all children are effectively cared for, and taking action to enable all children to have the best outcomes.
Child protection relates to system-wide procedures for keeping children safe. This includes staff training and awareness, liaison with other agencies (e.g. Early Help Team, Social Care, the police), safer recruitment (including rigorous vetting and background checks on appointed staff), and protecting children from issues such as domestic violence, forced marriage, female genital mutilation, children missing from education, child sexual exploitation, racism, extremism and so on.
Specifically, child protection focuses mainly on four categories of abuse: physical, sexual, emotional and neglect. Neglect, physical and sexual abuse will also include emotional abuse, but this can be a category on its own. For definitions, see our Safeguarding and Child Protection Policy.
What to do if you are concerned about a child
If you have any concerns about a child, including in relation to any of the areas above (especially the four categories of abuse), you can call Derbyshire Social Care (Starting Point) on 01629-533190.
Your child’s safety is of paramount importance. We regularly review our safeguarding procedures and ask for your co-operation in implementing the safety measures we put in place to safeguard your child. It is important that you keep us informed about:
- Changes of address or telephone numbers
- Your child’s medical details
- Changes to emergency contact numbers
Any safeguarding information and/or concerns can be communicated directly to the Safeguarding Team via the following secure email address: safeguarding@scargill.derbyshire.sch.uk or by contacting the office and requesting to speak to a DSL. This email address will be checked both during he school day and also out of school hours too.
We believe that safeguarding children is everyone’s responsibility. All children are special and we work hard to provide an accessible and stimulating environment which cares for the diverse needs of all our children. We will do everything we can to protect our children.
Staff Training
After appropriate background checks (e.g. enhanced DBS), all staff receive induction training in safeguarding. Staff must read a variety of documents, and leaders ensure that they have understood the information and a document is signed to confirm this. All adults who work in school have their details kept on the ‘Single Central Record’, which is managed by the School Business Offer, Mrs Furniss, and checked by the Head of school and Link Governor for Safeguarding. Staff receive training around being vigilant to forms of harm and abuse, and understand which procedures to follow if they suspect that this may have happened. All records are kept securely by the safeguarding team, and the school uses an online system for this called My Concern.
The DSL completes an annual safeguarding audit (s175), and from this writes and shares a s175 action plan with governors.
Site Security
All staff and visiting adults sign in to school and wear identification tags. The outer doors and gates are locked. The site supervisor conducts perimeter checks every morning, and ensures that the site is secure. The school has risk assessed the premises, and children are not allowed to enter the school via the car park unless accompanied by an adult. All stakeholders are encouraged to use the pedestrian gate entrances whenever these are unlocked.
Parents who wish to bring cars to school should note that they are not allowed to use the school car park. This includes when dropping off or collecting from any clubs/ breakfast club.
Curriculum
Regular visitors come to teach the children about aspects of personal safety (e.g. fire service, health, police), and children are kept informed via whole school assemblies of how to stay safe and what to do if certain situations occur (e.g. cyberbullying). Teachers also give age-appropriate messages via PSHE lessons and class worship every week.
The Internet and use of Images/Photographs
We have an online safety policy and restrict access to the internet, with a number of safety elements, including blocking sites not appropriate for children.
Each year we ask parents to let us know if they object to their child’s photograph being used in newspapers, twitter and on our school website. The use of cameras and video equipment is prohibited in order to safeguard all our children, as we do have children in school who are not allowed to be photographed. Children are photographed by staff as part of their normal lessons to aid assessment, evaluation and discussion, these images are only used within school, unless permission ha been given to share via our website/ twitter.