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Safeguarding
Our school is committed to safeguarding children and promoting children’s welfare and expects all staff, governors, volunteers and visitors to share this commitment and maintain a vigilant and safe environment. Everyone has a responsibility to act, without delay, to protect children by reporting anything that might suggest a child is being abused or neglected. It is our willingness to work safely and challenge inappropriate behaviours that underpins this commitment. The school seeks to work in partnership with families and other agencies to improve the outcomes for children who are vulnerable or in need
At St Robert Bellarmine Mrs Dowell is the Designated Lead for Safeguarding.
The Deputy Designated Leads are Mrs Davies, Mrs Austin and Mrs Clarke.
Our nominated Safeguarding governor is Mrs Roper.
The Local Authority Designated Officer (LADO) is Tracey Holyhead.
We will endeavour to provide a safe and welcoming environment where children are respected and valued.
The safety and well-being of all children and young people is of paramount importance. We recognise that parents and carers send their children to school each day with the expectation that the school provides a safe and secure environment in which their children can flourish.
We therefore have a wide range of measures in place to ensure this is put into practice and is maintained.
Child Protection at St Robert Bellarmine Catholic Primary
Our school staff are trained to be alert to signs of abuse and neglect and will follow the Sefton Safeguarding Children’s Partnership policies and procedures to ensure that children receive appropriate and effective support and protection.
Parents and carers should know that the law requires all school staff to pass on information which gives rise to concern about a child's welfare, including risk from abuse and neglect. The staff will seek to discuss any concerns with the parent/carer and, where possible, inform them of the referral to Children Social Care. This will only occur where such discussion will not place the child at increased risk of significant harm.
In accordance with local Information sharing protocols, we will ensure that information is shared securely and sensitively. Information will only be shared with other services where it is deemed necessary and proportionate to ensure that children are safe and receive the right support at the right time.
School will seek advice from the multi-agency safeguarding Hub (MASH) integrated front door when they have reasonable cause to suspect a child may be suffering or likely to suffer significant harm. Occasionally concerns are passed on which are later shown to be unfounded. Parents/carers will appreciate that the member of staff in the school responsible for Child Protection (known as the Designated Lead) is charged with carrying out their responsibilities in accordance with the law and acting in the best interest of the child.
Policies
We have a number of policies in place at St Robert Bellarmine which support our ethos for ensuring our children are safe, secure and in an environment where they can learn and feel secure.
These are available in the Policies section of the website or you can ask at the school office.
Induction and Training
All our staff and volunteers have an induction schedule, which includes safeguarding training plus every member of staff has formal training every year.
This knowledge is maintained throughout the school year with 7-minute briefings, regular reminders and updates from the Sefton Safeguarding Children’s Partnership
Robust Recruitment Procedures
As a school we take time to assess all applications and include clear expectations around safeguarding and suitability to work with children. We apply these protocols and expectations to regular volunteers too. Candidates should be expected to answer questions around safeguarding in their recruitment selection day.
PSHE Curriculum and Online Safety Curriculum
Through our Personal Social and Health Education curriculum, children will learn how to keep themselves safe (age appropriate).
Similarly, with IT taking a leading part in our children's everyday lives we teach them how to be safe on line and offer information and advice for parents and carers too.
Site Security
We have stringent management and maintenance of our site to ensure it is safe and secure which includes management of visitors to our site.
All visitors must sign in and wear a visitor badge and be escorted unless they have met our vetting requirements to work in school unsupervised.
First Aid
Our staff are trained to administer first aid and where necessary, we will advise parents of any treatment undertaken in school.
We also have additional paediatric first aiders around the school to support when necessary and to manage medicine administration.
Safeguarding Resources
WHAT YOU CAN DO TO TACKLE CHILD ABUSE
https://tacklechildabuse.campaign.gov.uk/
HOW TO REPORT SUSPECTED CHILD ABUSE OR SHARE CONCERNS IN SEFTON.
SEFTON SAFEGUARDING CHILDREN PARTNERSHIP
Sefton Local Safeguarding Children Partnership - (seftonscp.org.uk)
NSPCC SPEAK OUT STAY SAFE PROGRAMME
Speak out Stay safe programme | NSPCC Learning
KEEPING CHILDREN SAFE IN EDUCATION
BULLY BUSTERS PROJECT
https://www.bullybusters.org.uk/
TALKING TO CHILDREN AND YOUNG PEOPLE ABOUT TERROISM ATTACKS
talking_to_children_about_terror_attacks.pdf (seftonscp.org.uk)
SEFTON MENTAL HEALTH SUPPORT - CHILDREN AND YOUNG PEOPLE
Keeping ourselves and others safe
We all know how important it is to keep ourselves and others safe.
Here are a few reminders about how we help you to learn how to stay safe.
Remember – if something is worrying you, speak out and tell somebody. You can always talk about your worries to any of the trusted adults in school.
Look at some of the things we do in school to help you understand how to keep you safe.
- Assemblies
- Road Safety
- Stranger Danger
- E-Safety
- School Council
- Friendship Bench
- Anti bullying/Friendship fortnight
- British Values assemblies
- Prevent assembly
- School Nurse
- Hello Yellow Mental health awareness
- Inside Out day Mental health awareness
- Give Racism the red (or blue) card awareness day
Can you think of any that we may have missed?
If you are ever worried or have any questions you can always tell a trusted adult in school.
Operation Encompass
If a child has been involved in, heard or witnessed a domestic incident, St Robert Bellarmine’s Key Adult will be informed through Operation Encompass to allow immediate early intervention. St Robert Bellarmine Primary School Key Adult is Mrs Mairead Dowell.
Prevent
All children in Key Stage 2 have been given a safeguarding leaflet which outlines extremism and radicalisation. It is our responsibility to help children understand some of the risks that exist. As a class, they have already discussed the leaflet with their teacher and are now more aware of these risks. A copy of the leaflet can be found below.
Please take time to discuss this with your child at home too.
Anti Bullying
As part of our curriculum each year we work on aspects of Anti bullying during our Friendship Fortnight. Each class will discuss issues relating to; how to be a good friend, what happens when things go wrong, who to seek help from, what is the definition of bullying, the role of the onlooker.
These issues are addressed to support the age group of the child.
We celebrate some of the work which takes place during this fortnight with an Assembly in the Round for the whole school and parents.
Our Y6 children looked at our Anti Bullying policy and decided they wanted to make this much more child friendly.
They have produced a leaflet which has been given to each child.
Road Safety
Our School Council are taking part in a Strand Partnership project which is focusing on safety within our communities.
We have decided that road safety is a priority, especially for parking outside our school. We have made posters and we have patrolled outside school to raise awareness of how to park safely.
ONLINE SAFETY and Digital Images
In order to safeguard all our children and staff it is school policy that any photographs or images taken during school events such as Assemblies, events, celebrations etc. are acceptable for parents/carers to do so. In this instance these images are permitted for personal use only and MUST NOT be shared on any form of social media.