Safeguarding
PURPOSE & AIMS
The purpose of St. Aidan's safeguarding policy is to ensure every child who is a registered pupil at our school is safe and protected from harm. This means we will always work to:
• Protect children and young people at our school from maltreatment;
• Prevent impairment of our children’s and young people’s health or development;
• Ensure that children and young people at our school grow up in circumstances consistent with the provision of safe and effective care;
• Undertake that role so as to enable children and young people at our school to have the best outcomes.
This policy will give clear direction to staff, volunteers, visitors and parents about expected behaviour and our legal responsibility to safeguard and promote the welfare of all children at our school.
Our Designated Safeguarding Leads are Mr Sutcliffe and and Mrs Teer our Deputy Designated Safeguarding Leads is Miss Nichola Givens and Miss Carly Wright.
Our school fully recognises the contribution it can make to protect children from harm and supporting and promoting the welfare of all children who are registered pupils at our school. The elements of our policy are prevention, protection and support.
We recognise that our safeguarding responsibilities are clearly linked to our responsibilities for ensuring that appropriate safeguarding responses are in place for children who are absent from school or who go missing from education, particularly on repeat occasions. The DSL monitors attendance closely and liaise with the Education Welfare Officer to discuss all persistently absent pupils and those who go missing to identify the risk of abuse and neglect including sexual abuse or exploitation and to ensure that appropriate safeguarding responses have been put in place to reduce the risk of future harm.
This policy applies to all pupils, staff, parents, governors, volunteers and visitors.
You can read our Safeguarding and Child Protection Policy below:
Child Protection and Safeguarding PolicyIf 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 813308 or via email admin@st-aidans.northumberland.sch.uk
E-Safety
We actively promote and monitor e-safety. We have regular e-safety audits and this supports our comprehensive policy. All pupils, staff and visitors to school must read 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 (Smoothwall). 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
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.
10 things you should know and contact details
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.
