Safeguarding Statement:
Southwold Primary School is committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children and expects all staff and volunteers to share this commitment.
We have a number of policies and procedures in place that contribute to our safeguarding commitment.
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 parents/carers first, unless we have reason to believe that such a move would be contrary to the child’s welfare.
We actively support the Government’s Prevent Agenda to counter radicalism and extremism.
Child Protection Policy
Our Child Protection Policy has been written to ensure that all staff are fully informed about their responsibilities in relation to Child Protection, are aware of signs and symptoms which may suggest that a child is coming to harm, the various types of safeguarding issues that we may face as educators of children and who to speak to if they have a concern about a child or member of staff.
Keeping Children Safe in Education
Keeping Children Safe in Education is the statutory guidance for safeguarding in schools and colleges. Published in April 2014, it came into force immediately. This document replaces the previous information ‘Safeguarding children and Safer Recruitment’. All of our staff have received training on, read and understood the most up to date (September 2021) version of the document.
MyConcern
MyConcern system is used by school for monitoring child protection, safeguarding and pastoral and welfare issues. MyConcern provides our safeguarding team with a system to help with the management of child protection, behavioural issues, bullying, special educational needs and domestic issues. Every member of staff across school has an obligation to report any concerns which they may have. MyConcern allows this information to be recorded in a central repository and have relevant people alerted immediately. Senior leaders are able to build a chronology around a student and can produce reports for Case Conference Meetings, Governors and other professionals very easily.
Staff training
All of our staff receive safeguarding training to ensure that they have a level of understanding appropriate for working in school. This includes basic safeguarding and child protection training, more in depth training on the Keeping Children Safe in Education document and training on the Prevent strategy. All staff complete refresher training every year and course certificates are renewed when required.
Pupils
At Southwold, we work with a variety of agencies to ensure that our pupils have as much information as possible in relation to keeping themselves safe. Southwold follows the SCARF (Coram Education Life) program to support the delivery of relationships, health, wellbeing, and drugs education. All pupils also participate in E-safety lessons during the year. In addition, we use NSPCC resources to deliver assemblies and workshops to a range of children such as PANTS and ‘Speak Out, Stay Safe’. This year, Year 5 will continue to be involved in the Mini Police programme, covering topics such as ‘Anti-Social Behaviour and Consequences’.
Southwold Safeguarding Parent Carer Information Leaflet 2022 23
In light of Southwold Primary re-opening for the wider school community during the Covid-19 pandemic, please find below our Risk Assessment: