Safeguarding Statement
St Mary’s Catholic Primary School is committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children in all circumstances and expects all staff and volunteers to share this commitment. All staff are trained annually on the latest safeguarding requirements and it is a subject which is reviewed at each of our weekly staff briefings.
We all have a duty to safeguard our children from all forms of abuse:
- physical abuse
- sexual abuse
- emotional abuse
- neglect
and also from the dangers of being drawn into extremism. All of these areas of abuse can come from online abuse and we need to safeguard our children form this too.
These duties and procedures are set out in our Safeguarding Policies and procedures. Parents and carers are able to read our Policies here on the website and are free to discuss issues surrounding our policies and practice with the Executive Headteacher, Head of School, Assistant Head or our Safeguarding Link Governor.
Sometimes we may need to share information and work in partnership with other agencies when there are concerns about a child’s welfare. We will ensure that our concerns about our pupils are discussed with his/her parents/carers first unless we have reason to believe that such a move would be contrary to the child’s welfare.
Our Designated Safeguarding Leads (DSLs) are:
Mrs Gemma Nunes
Safeguard Lead
Mrs Sarah Clayton
Assistant DSL
Ms Zoe Rodway
SENCo and Assistant DSL​
Our Governor responsible for Safeguarding is Mrs Christina Bamin
If you are concerned about a child’s welfare, please record your concern, and any observations or conversation heard, and report to one of the DSLs as soon as possible the same day. Do NOT conduct your own investigation. You are able to make your own referrals to Children’s Services – see the link below
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 immediately to the either the Executive Head or Head of School (or the Chair of Governors if the concern relates to either the Executive Head or the Head of School) – who will consider what action to take.
Keeping Safe – part and parcel of our curriculum
Keeping children safe is always the highest priority at our school. Our curriculum supports the children’s safety in addition to an open, trusting and child focused ethos across the School.
Alongside our curriculum, we deliver a range of experiences to enrich and consolidate the children’s understanding of how to keep themselves safe. These include assemblies and activities on the themes of anti-bullying, online safety, road safety (including cycling safety for our Year 5s and 6s), bonfire and Rreworks safety, stranger danger, Protective Behaviours and appropriate behaviour and conduct in school.
We use the excellent services of Safety Net.
Before our children have access to the School’s computer system they all have online safety lessons and parents too are asked to attend online safety sessions led by the Local Authority IT consultant to ensure that they are as well equipped as possible to help protect their children online many of the resources we use can be found by following the links below
Bikeability
Road Safety Week
Childline
Online Safety
Each year we provide training for our parents and carers to support them to keep their children safe online. Our children have regular access to the internet as part of their learning and our curriculum teaches and encourages responsible online behaviour ensuring children are allowed to enhance their learning safely through the use of technology. Every year we take a full part in the National Safer Internet Day.
In School
In School we use a filtering system which prevents children from accessing inappropriate sites. Our computing curriculum ensures children are progressively taught how to keep themselves safe online.
At Home
Today’s society means that children will sometimes be given unsupervised access to the internet. Potentially, this will allow them access to all kinds of material both appropriate and inappropriate. Click on the links below to find some hints and tips to help you keep your child safe online. Families can use the CEOP Safety Centre (www.ceop.police.uk/safety-centre) where they can report abuse and exploitation direct to CEOP.
Here is some information on how to protect your child from unwanted access to inappropriate sites on YouTube which sound innocent but are not: Child Online Safety on You Tube
You can help protect your child by using all the possible safety settings on devices that they have access to.
A very helpful website for understanding and using these settings is internetmatters.org
Social Media
Many of the sites such as Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and SnapChat have a minimum age limit of 13, so children form St Mary’s should not be using them. However, in reality, we are aware that some of our children do access these sites.
More information is available at the link below. This site will allow you to make informed decisions about whether you feel social media sites are appropriate for your child or not.
Below are some additional helpful links with regard to online safety:
Think you Know
Childnet International
Know and see the signs
Prevent Duty
As part of St. Mary Magdalen’s RC Primary School's ongoing safeguarding and child protection duties we are fully behind the government's Prevent Strategy and Educate Against Hate initiatives.
From 1 July 2015 all schools are subject to a duty under section 26 of the Counter-Terrorism and Security Act 2015, in the exercise of their functions, to have “due regard to the need to prevent people from being drawn into terrorism”. This duty is known as the Prevent Duty for Schools.
At St. Mary Magdalen’s, we build pupils’ resilience to radicalisation by promoting fundamental British values and enabling our pupils to challenge extremist views. You can read about what we do to promote British values on our website.
The statutory guidance refers to the importance of Prevent awareness training to equip staff to identify pupils at risk of being drawn into terrorism and to challenge extremist ideas. The Home Office has developed a core training product for this purpose – Workshop to Raise Awareness of Prevent (WRAP). Staff have received training sessions provided in-house or by the local authority and the WRAP information on what Prevent is about and how to deal with any concerns they may see inside or outside school.
Please click here for a link to the Prevent pamphlet for parents.
Please click here for a link to the Prevent Duty for Schools.
Please click here for a link to the official Prevent Strategy document.
PREVENT Extremism
Prevent is part of CONTEST, the Government’s strategy to address terrorism. The main aim of Prevent is to stop people becoming terrorists or supporting terrorism. Prevent focuses on all forms of terrorist threats, eg. international terrorism, far right extremists (among others).
The Governments Prevent strategy can be found at the following address: https://www.gov.uk
Three key themes
- Safeguarding vulnerable individuals through the provision of advice and support and intervention projects.
- Working closely with institutions such as universities, schools, prisons, health, charities and faith establishments.
- Challenging terrorists ideology by working closely with other local and national agencies, partners and our communities.
The Prevent Engagement Team of oecers and police staL aim to encourage discussion ensuring that terrorism is prevented from taking root in our communities. They support the wider engagement activities already taking place in schools, places of worship and community groups.
Through this work they aim to strengthen communities in order to challenge the ideologies and messages of hate which lead to terrorism.
Principles
‘Schools should be safe spaces in which children and young people can understand and discuss sensitive topics, including terrorism and the extremist ideas that are part of terrorist ideology, and learn how to challenge these ideas....Schools should be mindful of their existing duties to forbid political indoctrination and secure a balanced presentation of political issues’
(HM Government Prevent Duty Guidance for England & wales, 2015).
At St Mary’s Catholic Primary School we ensure that these principles are adhered to. The Headteacher monitors the school’s work in this regards. What we do in school ‘Safeguarding’ pupils is our number one priority at this school.
Reporting Concerns
If you are concerned that a child is at risk of being exploited into radicalisation or violent extremism contact the Front Door For Families on 01273 290400
Any worker who believes a crime is being committed, or planned, or is aware of any terrorist activity, should contact Sussex Police Prevent team without delay on 101 ext. 550543 If you want advice from the Prevent team regarding concerns about an individual please email Channel.Prevent@brighton-hove.gcsx.gov.uk
Operation Encompass
Operation Encompass provides a confidential channel of communication between police and Key Adults within schools. This enables the immediate and discrete recognition of the child's situation by the Key Adult, ensuring a secure and sympathetic environment is provided and the broader effects of abuse are addressed. https://www. operationencompass.org
At St Mary Magdalen’s our key adults are our Mrs Nunes (DSL) and Mrs Sarah Clayton (Deputy DSL)
Front Door for Families
Front Door for Families provides support and guidance for parents, carers, members of the public, young people and professionals.
For more information, please click on the Council logo below.
Child Protection & Safeguarding Policy
St Mary Magdalen's Catholic Primary School and Nursery is committed to the development of good practice and effective procedures, ensuring that safeguarding concerns and referrals are handled sensitively, professionally and in a way that supports and protects the needs of the child.
Our Child Protection and Safeguarding Policy 2023