What is Safeguarding

Our school is committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of all of our children.  Safeguarding is a priority and ‘the golden thread’ that runs through our school and our Academy Trust. We all have a responsibility to ensure that children and young people feel safe and well at all times. 

Safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children is defined, in Keeping Children Safe in Education (KCSIE), as:

• Protecting children from maltreatment;
• Preventing impairment of children’s health or development;
• Ensuring that children are growing up in circumstances consistent with the provision of safe and effective care;
• Taking action to enable all children to have the best outcomes.

School staff are particularly important, as they are in a position to identify concerns early, provide help for children, promote children’s welfare and prevent concerns from escalating.

All staff have a responsibility to provide a safe environment in which children can learn.  All staff should be prepared to identify children who may benefit from Early Help. Early Help means providing support as soon as a problem emerges at any point in a child’s life.

Our school believes that all Staff and Volunteers should provide a caring, positive, safe and stimulating environment that promotes the social, physical and moral development of every child.  We are fully committed to ensuring that consistent, effective safeguarding procedures are in place to support families, children and staff at our school.

Child Protection is a key aspect of safeguarding which is concerned with protecting children from abuse and maltreatment, and involves working with social care and/or the police when a child is deemed to be at risk of significant harm. There are 4 categories of abuse (click on each for further information):

Physical AbuseSexual Abuse

Emotional AbuseNeglect

Some of the signs of abuse, neglect and/or exploitation include the following indicators. However, it should be remembered that there may be a perfectly innocent explanation for any of these, and it is important not to jump to conclusions. To this end, our Pastoral and Safeguarding Teams will take any concerns seriously but ensure any enquiries are made in a sensitive manner:

• Changes in appearance including personal hygiene and weight loss
• Bruises and injuries, and evidence of pain or discomfort
• Clingy and/or fearful behaviour
• Changes in eating habits
• Uncharacteristic and/or secretive behaviour
• Problems with peer groups
• Changes in sleep patterns
• Self-harming behaviour
• Talk about suicide and/or death
• Changes in mood including prolonged anxiety, stress, fearfulness, being easily prone to tearfulness and/or a tendency to overreact
• Loss of interest in social events and/or hobbies
• Deterioration of attention span and/or restlessness
• Evidence of age-inappropriate sexual knowledge
• Unexplained gifts and possessions
• Regularly absent from school

Staff, Visitors and Volunteers

Our Staff have been recruited following safer recruitment procedures, which include relevant checks such as the DBS check. Staff wear a 'KTC' lanyard, which highlights to the children that the person wearing it is a member of staff and that they are a 'safe' adult within our school.

Visitors to our site fall into two categories, those who have undertaken a DBS check and those who have not. 

• Visitors who have undertaken a DBS check wear a green visitor lanyard, which highlights to everyone that, although the person wearing it is not a regular member of staff, they are considered to be a 'known' adult and are free to be on our site without accompaniment. 
• Visitors to the school who have not undertaken a DBS check wear a red visitor lanyard and are accompanied around the site at all times by a member of our staff. 

All of our volunteers have taken part in a risk assessment interview with a member of the DSL team and are asked to provide ID and references. Volunteers undertake a DBS check as part of our safeguarding procedures. Once this is complete, visitors will wear an appropriate lanyard as described above.