SAFEGUARDING

Thomas Barnes Primary School is committed to keeping our children safe. By providing a safe environment for children to learn and play and by identifying children who are, or may be, suffering harm, the school endeavor to ensure they are kept safe both at school and at home.

To achieve this, we have systems in place which are designed to:

• Creating and maintaining a safe learning environment.
• Identifying child welfare concerns and taking appropriate action.
• Using the curriculum to enable our children to develop keep safe strategies
• Creating a listening culture to hear the child’s voice
• Operating safe recruitment and selection procedures to prevent unsuitable people working with our children.

Anyone visiting the school shares the responsibility to keep children safe whilst on our premises and will be required to work within the guidelines of our safeguarding procedures.

For more detailed information, please ask to see our Safeguarding and Child Protection Policy which is part of a set of policies designed to create a safe environment for our children. All of these policies are available on request.

Safeguarding Guidance for Staff, Visitors & Volunteers

Thomas Barnes Primary School is committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of all of our children. It is a requirement that all staff, visitors, students and volunteers share this commitment.

We have a duty of care to our children to pass on any concerning information to a Designated Safeguarding Lead.

Our Procedures

• Be aware of and alert to the potential abuse of children.

• All Safeguarding and Child Protection issues or concerns must be reported to one or all of the following members of staff:

  Mr C. Reilly Co-Headteacher and Designated Safeguarding Lead

  Mrs E. Tibbitts Co-Headteacher and Designated Safeguarding Lead (working days Wednesday, Thursday and Friday)

  Mrs K. Phillips SENCO, KS1 teacher and Deputy Designated Safeguarding Lead (working days Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday)

  Miss K. Britnell KS2 teacher and Deputy Designated Safeguarding Lead

   

• If one of our pupils makes a disclosure to you; remain calm and reassure the child that they haven’t done anything wrong.
• DO NOT promise confidentiality; explain that you may need to tell someone.
• If you need to clarify information, ask open ended questions “Can you tell me/ explain/ describe?”
• Record the disclosure on a record of concern form (these can be found on the safeguarding board in the staff room, main office, safeguarding packs in every classroom, school hall) The information needs to be factually accurate and using the words of the child. Also include any emotions and body language the child is displaying.
• Staff members are to record concern directly onto the MY CONCERN system.
• DO NOT record your assumptions or interpretations.
• The record must be signed and dated.
• Pass the completed Record of Concern Form to a DSL immediately. 

If at anytime you want safeguarding advice, please speak to Mrs Tibbitts and Mr Reilly.. In their absence please speak to Deputy Designated Safeguarding Leads Mrs Phillips, Miss Green and Miss Britnell.

Don’t think “What if I’m wrong?”

Think “What if I’m right?”

The Act Early websites for parents, families and people around the vulnerable to radicalisation with concerns are www.actearly.uk and https://www.counterterrorism.police.uk/actearlypartners/ 

Keeping Children Safe in Education 2023:

https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/1181955/Keeping_children_safe_in_education_2023.pdf

Working Together to Safeguard Children: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/779401/Working_Together_to_Safeguard-Children.pdf

What to do if you are worried a child is being abused:

https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/419604/What_to_do_if_you_re_worried_a_child_is_being_abused.pdf

The Shield Team

This is our Children’s Safeguarding Board - it is made up of pupils from Key Stage 2. They meet regularly under the direction of Miss Bland.

Our Aims:

To ensure that we help ourselves and others in the school to stay safe at all times by sharing the knowledge and understanding that we will develop through the team.

We will have regular meetings and will work to inform children that they have a voice and how they can be heard. Areas of safety that we will cover will include topics such as: bullying, stranger danger and our differing relationships with people in our lives.

As the Shield Team we will:

• Lead assemblies – for example during ‘Anti-bullying Week’ and ‘Restart a Heart’ day.
• Talk to pupils, parents and other children.
• Wear our shield badge so that the children know where to turn if they need help.
• Write to pupils/parents about key issues
• Lead initiatives and competitions within school e.g. take a lead with the Buddy System
• Respond to what is happening in the world – for example, terrorist attacks, fire safety etc.

Stop It Now

Advice for parents on what to do of they are concerned about a child...

As caring adults we want to keep children as safe as possible. We can help you do this.

We all need to know about the issues and be able to understand the signs of harmful behaviours before we can begin to protect the vulnerable from them. To help protect children from sexual abuse we need to feel confident that we:

• Understand potential risks
• Recognise the signs of possible abuse in children
• Are aware of inappropriate behaviour in adults
• Know where to go for help if we have concerns and would like to talk about them
• If we notice changes that might mean that something is wrong we need to know where we can voice our concerns straight away, rather than feeling that we don’t know what to do.

You don’t have to take these steps alone – the Stop It Now website/ advice line can help you.

Call the confidential Stop It Now helpline on 0808 1000 900 for advice, support and information.

https://www.stopitnow.org.uk/

Child Safety Advice

https://www.parentsprotect.co.uk/

The Parents Protect child sexual abuse prevention website has information and guidance and resources to help you keep children safe online and offline. Its short films will help you to work through the issues at your own pace and aims to:

• Give you the information you need about child sexual abuse
• Show you how to create a family safety plan
• Tell you who you can talk to if you are worried

The first step in preventing or addressing issues about child sexual abuse is to seek help and advice.