Safeguarding
Our school is committed to ensuring the welfare of every child:
- It is the responsibility of all adults to safeguard and promote the welfare of pupils
- Adults who work with children are responsible for their own actions and behaviours and should avoid any conduct which could lead any reasonable person to question their motivation and intention
- Adults must work and be seen to work in an open, transparent way.
- The same professional standards must always be applied regardless of culture, disability, gender, language, racial origin, religious beliefs and sexual identity.
We foster a culture of openness and support and have in place a Whistleblowing policy to ensure there are clear procedures in place for dealing with allegations against staff which are in line with our Local Safeguarding Children Board’s procedures
As part of our induction procedure, all new staff receive the following training and information:
- Briefing on Child Protection
- Health and Safety induction checklist
- Guidance for Safer Working Practice for adults who work with children and young people in education settings.
- Copy of the Child Protection Policy
- Copy of Keeping Children Safe in Education 2019
The Safeguarding Team
Mr P Hynan - Headteacher and Designated Safeguarding Lead
Mr D Martin - Deputy Headteacher and Deputy Designated Safeguarding Lead
Mrs N Begum - Family Support Worker and Designated Safeguarding Lead
Mrs D Delgado - EYFS Lead and Deputy Designated Safeguarding Lead
Mrs K Devi - Learning Mentor and Deputy Designated Safeguarding Lead
Key Documents
Click here to access the following key safeguarding policies and documents:
- Acceptable Use of IT Policy
- Anti-Bullying Policy
- Behaviour Policy
- Educational Visits Policy
- Health and Safety Policy
- Inclusion Policy
- Intimate Care Policy
- Keeping Children Safe in Education
- Safeguarding and Child Protection Policy
- Suspensions and Permanent Exclusions
What is meant by the term 'safeguarding'?
Safeguarding is the action that is taken to promote the welfare of children and protect them from harm.
Safeguarding means:
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protecting children from abuse and maltreatment
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preventing harm to children's health or development
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ensuring children grow up with the provision of safe and effective care-taking action to enable all children and young people to have the best outcomes.
Child protection is part of the safeguarding process. It focuses on protecting individual children identified as suffering or likely to suffer significant harm. This includes child protection procedures which detail how to respond to concerns about a child. Safeguarding children and child protection guidance and legislation applies to all children up to the age of 18. You may wish to read further - the DFE has published a document called 'Keeping Children Safe in Education, which can be found here.
Safeguarding: Frequently Asked Questions
What training have staff at St. Michael's received to help safeguard children?
- Annual child protection training
- DfE PREVENT Training
- National Cyber Security Centre: Cyber security training for school staff
- GDPR Training
- Annual Keeping Children Safe in Education update
- All staff have been given access to, and read key government documents and guidelines
- Attachment and trauma informed practice
- New Staff Induction - including CPOMS training
- Regular updates and safeguarding question for staff as part of weekly briefing
- Safer recruitment training for designated staff
- Designated Safeguarding Training for safeguarding team
- Health and Safety
- Paediatric first aid
- Annual medical needs training - anaphylaxis, epilepsy, asthma and diabetes
- DfE Prevent training
- Team Teach positive handling
What is cyber-bullying?
The Department for Education define cyber-bullying as an aggressive, intentional act carried out by a group or individual, using electronic forms of contact, repeatedly and over time against a victim who can not easily defend him of herself.
Why does cyber-bullying often happen between children who were friends?
Traditionally in the past, when children 'fell out' with each other, they either waited until the following day or spoke over the phone to put things right. Unfortunately, text messages are more immediate (you can send one before you have thought it through), written (so they do not just go away) and do not usually reflect the feeling behind the message.
Similarly, children have always talked about each other behind their backs and swapped stories about each other etc. Electronic media, such as 'Facebook', allows conversations between a few people to be seen by many and throw away comments are now written down for all to see.
Should I contact the school if my child has been a victim of cyber-bullying?
It is most likely that cyber-bullying will happen outside of school time. For example, pupils should not be using mobile phones whilst in school and web-sites such as 'Facebook' are not accessible through the school ICT network.
However, if we are notified about an issue we will always talk to all the children involved and warn them of the consequences. Most incidents will stop in this way. We will of course always deal with any follow-up incident that happens in school using our regular school sanctions.
