Safeguarding at Kirkheaton Primary School
Safeguarding Policy 2023 / 2024
Safeguarding at Kirkheaton Primary
Safeguarding at our school
Everyone at Kirkheaton Primary School is passionate about and committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children and young people. We expect all staff and visitors to share this commitment. Our staff are trained at regular intervals and are aware of how to keep our pupils safe and what signs to look for. Our pupils are encouraged to share any concerns that they have.
We are fully committed to ensuring that consistent effective procedures support families, children and staff who are part of our school.
Keeping Children Safe
Everyone at Kirkheaton Primary School is passionate about and committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children and young people. We expect all staff and visitors to share this commitment.
Key people you can talk to in school about safeguarding:
Mr Richard Coates
Designated Safeguarding Lead (Designated member of staff responsibile for looked after children)
Miss Helen Lumb,
Miss Sarah Bevan
Deputy Safeguarding Leads
Mr Leigh Blanchard
Designated Safeguarding Governor
If you have any concerns about safeguarding or bullying you can also email the school by using the email: safeguarding@kirkheatonprimary.com
Child Protection
In cases where the school has reason to be concerned that a child may be subject to ill treatment, neglect or other forms of abuse, the Designated Safeguarding Lead or Deputy Safeguarding Lead may report this concern to Social Services or other appropriate agencies.
Please remember that when a school refers a concern about a child, it is not accusing the parents of abuse but requesting that further investigation takes place to establish whether a child is at risk.
Recruitment
Only adults who are safe to work with our children may be employed or volunteer at Kirkheaton Primary. We undertake thorough checks including DBS checks, references, ID and full employment history.
We keep a Single Central Record of all of this information and this is regularly monitored.
Attendance
Children come to school to learn and good attendance is important if they are to gain as much as possible from their time in school. When children miss lessons, it is harder for them to reach their full potential.
Poor attendance and punctuality can:
- Lead to children feeling unsettled at school
- Affect friendships
- Reduce confidence
- Lead to academic problems, reducing the long-term life chances of children
Please support us in making sure your child comes to school regularly – this is a parents’ legal responsibility. Failing to come to school regularly will be considered a safeguarding matter.
Mrs Jemma Muncaster and Mr Richard Coates are our attendance officers – please contact them on 01484 548049 if you would like to discuss any aspect of attendance.
What we Teach
We offer a secure and encouraging environment where children feel safe and their spiritual, moral and cultural development is enhanced through our PSHE/RSE curriculum, core values and our work with the local community and other agencies.
Our Safety Curriculum underpins all of our education, as we aim to give the children the skills and language to keep themselves safe. See the overview below.
Online Safety
Pupils are taught how to safe online and this is reinforced in lessons and through assemblies. Pupils are taught what to do or who they can talk to if they are worried.
Operation Encompass
Kirkheaton Primary School takes part in Operation Encompass. This is where information from the police and social care regarding domestic incidents is shared with school. This means we can make sure that our pupils are fully supported in school.
Mr Richard Coates is the lead for Operation Encompass.
Link to the KCSIE 2022: Keeping children safe in education 2022 (publishing.service.gov.uk)
Useful websites:
The Kirklees Safeguarding Children's Partnership offer a free on-line learning module called 'Working Together to Safeguard Children'. It is recommended that if you work in a child care setting you should do the on-line training at least annually. You will need to register to be able to complete the learning module:- Kirklees On-Line Learning - Registration Page. You will be able to download and print a certificate when you have successfully completed the training.
https://www.kirkleessafeguardingchildren.co.uk/
Kirklees Safeguarding Children's Board
At Kirkheaton Primary School we follow the procedure set by the Kirklees Safeguarding Children's Board (KSCB).
We are highly pro-active at dealing with safeguarding concerns and have close relationships with external agencies. Our open door policy means we are consistently providing early help support to our families. We are aware of our vulnerable families and offer support through early help and involving external agencies. We are currently establishing our community hub and this involves many external providers from all professions.
Every single person at the academy is aware of safeguarding and the relevant policies and procedures due to our robust induction and training. Staff complete a variety of training from Kirklees Safeguarding Children's Partnership, Our E-Learning Safety modules provided by Ellis Whittam and in house safeguarding training. Our in house safeguarding training is covered on the teacher and teaching assistant agenda weekly with relevant updates shared as well as training based on the needs of our local community. The governors and trust members have all completed safeguarding training as well as the safeguarding governor attending the Kirklees safeguarding board training on child neglect. DSL’s ensure they have attended refreshers as well as level 3 Kirklees council courses based upon current themes and needs of our pupils and families. The South Pennine Academy trust have established a network which meets regularly and includes training, support, problem solving and other relevant and useful information to ensure all DSL’s are supported within their role. The Trust have a supervision policy which is used for the DSL as the nature of safeguarding can be emotionally challenging on those dealing with concerns and cases.
Prevent
Safeguarding is covered and continuously revisited throughout the academic year. Pupils are aware of how to keep safe and actions to take if they do not feel safe. We protect children from the risk of radicalisation and discuss in age appropriate manners the actions they can take to be not drawn into terrorist behaviours/ radicalisation. This is covered particularly through our RE and PSHE curriculum as well as through the RRS articles which pupils are made aware of frequently and how to respect their rights. The British Values underpin the RRS covered within the academy. Pupils have engaged in workshops from external providers as well as within the academy which promote our British Values.
All Kirklees Schools, includingKirkheton Primary School follow the procedure set by the Kirklees Safeguarding Children's Partnership (KSCP). If you do not feel safe or if you are worried about the safety of someone else, please speak to us about any concerns.
Operation Encompass
Operation Encompass Safeguarding Statement
Our school is part of Operation Encompass. This is a police and education early intervention safeguarding partnership which supports children and young people who experience Domestic Abuse.
Operation Encompass means that the Education Safeguarding Service will share information about Domestic Abuse incidents with our school PRIOR to the start of the next school day when the police have been called to a domestic incident.
Once DSL has attended at an Operation Encompass briefing, they will cascade the principles of Operation Encompass to all DDSL’s.
Our parents are fully aware that we are an Operation Encompass school.
The Operation Encompass information is stored in line with all other confidential safeguarding and child protection information.
The DSL has also led training for all school staff and Governors about Operation Encompass, the prevalence of Domestic Abuse and the impact of this abuse on children. We have also discussed how we can support our children following the Operation Encompass notification.
We are aware that we must do nothing that puts the child/ren or the non-abusing adult at risk.
Please find the links below that give more detail to the Operation Encompass team and the work they do around safeguarding in collaboration with the police.
https://www.operationencompass.org
https://www.operationencompass.org/why-was-operation-encompass-created
Road Safety
Please find a fantastic link for road safety.
Online Safety Calendar