Safeguarding - information for parents and children

THINK THE UNTHINKABLE, BELIEVE THE UNBELIEVABLE

'See or hear it, believe it- do something!' This has to be the mantra for all adults who work with children in regards to safeguarding. 

 Perhaps the single most important job we have as adults is to try and ensure that children in our care are safe and appropriately cared for. If children do not have these basic needs met, then they are unlikely to learn to their full potential. All adults who work in a school have a responsibility to safeguard young people in this respect. Any concerns that we have about the welfare and safety of a child is logged on our 'My Concern' system which allows the Designated Safeguard Leads, Miss Harris, Mrs Llewellyn and Mrs Ingram-Richards to view and act on these where appropriate. If you, as a parent, also have any concerns regarding the welfare of a young child then please do call in and ask to see one of these members of staff.  In addition, our child protection policy is under the 'policy' heading for you to view. Lis Gray is our Governor with responsibility for overseeing the effectiveness of this area. [as of February 2022].

Also, you can also call the Dorset Safeguarding Service, the MASH team, on 01202 228866 -  and any concerns can be treated confidentially. 

Our e-safety training took place on 9th December 2015, our 'Prevent' training on October 4th , 2021, and the full safeguarding update on the  30th November 2022. We also have our yearly short update session each September INSET days- the most recent being September 4th, led by the Deputy DSL, Mrs Llewellyn. We 'top up' our safeguarding knowledge with both the National College webinars and half termly 'case study' sessions too.

Operation Encompass Spring 2021:

As a school, we want to be able to support families as much as possible, and to that end we have signed up to be part of 'Operation Encompass'- which will allow us access to information from the police about domestic abuse within our immediate community. Knowing about this will allow us to provide the best possible, timely help for any child caught up in this situation.

Below are two very useful links for support for families experiencing this:

https://www.refuge.org.uk/get-help-now/children/

https://www.mankind.org.uk/

A message for our children:

Is something worrying you? Is someone hurting you? Do you need to talk to someone?

Sometimes you may have problems outside of school but think that we won’t be interested in them or that we can’t do anything about it. Well, we ARE interested and we CAN help. We are always here for you, so please find one of us to talk to. That can be your teacher, a teaching assistant, a dinner-lady, or one of the lovely people in our school office. Don’t be afraid to ask. If you really feel too scared or worried about talking to someone, you can use our new system, 'MyVoice', to send us your worries via an email...

Even if you think your worries are too big or that you may get into trouble if you tell anyone, come to us for help. Sometimes the people or person hurting you might be an adult (or adults) who you know well, but we’ll still support you no matter what.

If you really don’t feel that you can talk to anyone at school about it, it might be easier for you to speak to someone you don’t know. If so, you should call ChildLine. It’s a free helpline for children in the UK. You can phone them on 0800 1111 to talk about any problem – their counsellors are always here to help you sort it out. To find out more about the services offered by Childline, just click here.