Safeguarding at Bournmoor School including Covid-19 Information
At Bournmoor Primary School we regard the safeguarding of children to be a priority. The following leaflet provides a guide for parents and carers to summarise key information about safeguarding.
Safeguarding Leaflet for Parents and Carers
What is Safeguarding?
At Bournmoor Primary School we consider the safeguarding of children to be our most important priority. Children need to feel safe, cared for and valued in order to learn and thrive. During the current Covid-19 pandemic we are following guidance and advice from the Department for Education and Public Health England. In our school we also follow the guidance set out in ‘Keeping Children Safe in Education’ 2019 which states that schools must ensure they:
- Protect children from maltreatment
- Prevent the impairment of children’s health or development
- Ensure children grow up in safe and effective care
- Take action to ensure children achieve the best outcomes
To ensure the above guidelines are followed we take action to enable all children to have the best outcomes through our safeguarding measures regardless of their age, culture, physical needs, gender, language, racial origin, religious beliefs and sexual identity. In order to do this we have clear procedures in place to ensure that disclosures or allegations are taken seriously, recorded correctly and investigated.
Who is Responsible for Safeguarding?
Everyone who comes into contact with children and their families has a role to play in safeguarding children. Staff are made aware that any safeguarding issues need to be reported through the correct routes to the designated leads. When staff are recruited we follow the procedures set out in our ‘School Recruitment and Selection Policy’. Also on-going safeguarding measures are in place for staff currently employed i.e. through training and DBS re-checks.
The following staff have received Level 2 Safeguarding and Child Protection Training for Safeguarding Leads in School:
- Mr Oliver Seaton (Deputy Headteacher) Designated Safeguarding Lead Training in September 2018
- Mrs Laura Snowdon (Headteacher) Designated Safeguarding Lead Refresher Training in June 2020
Our Safeguarding Governor is Mrs Tracy Bell (Chair of Governors)
In addition to this staff received refresher Level 1 Safeguarding Training to ensure they could recognise signs and symptoms of abuse and report using our agreed procedures.
Laura Snowdon attended Encompass training and our school has been part of this safeguarding initiative from January 2017. Mrs Snowdon continues to attend refresher training to be updated.
What are the Areas of Safeguarding?
- Child protection – ensuring that staff respond appropriately to any significant change in a child’s behaviour, report to the Designated Lead any unexplained bruising, marks or signs of possible abuse, report any deterioration in a child’s well being, are trained to know signs of neglect and respond appropriately to comments children make that cause concern
- Training – ensuring that staff have access to quality training in aspects of safeguarding so they can recognise signs and symptoms of abuse and record/respond using the correct procedures
- Buildings and grounds – ensuring we offer a safe learning environment for children to thrive
- Outside learning – completing risk assessments prior to trips and visits for the establishment along with safe transport
- Visitors – checking DBS forms and qualifications and logging them on our Single Central Register
- Behaviour– promoting positive behaviours towards each other to create a warm, caring environment
- Parents/carers/families – offering a welcoming school and develop home/school links
- Curriculum – ensuring that our curriculum offers a wide range of opportunities for children to learn about safety and they have chances to talk and ask questions
Attendance
We know how important it is for children to attend school every day. Children who attend regularly have been shown to make better progress than those with poorer attendance. Please note that 90% attendance equates to half a day off every week. If your child is too poorly to attend school, please inform us by ringing the school office on the first and subsequent days of the absence before 9am. This is so we can ensure that we know where all our pupils are and that they are safe. Where absence becomes a concern we can offer support to the family through a range of services, for example our Family Worker at One Point, Chester-le-Street. Holidays in term time cannot be authorised unless in exceptional circumstances for which you must provide supporting evidence. Parents/carers making a request need to contact the school office to ask for a ‘Leave of Absence Form’. Retrospective authorisation cannot be granted and where unauthorised holidays are taken, parents/carers may be fined by the Local Authority. A fine will be instigated after a leave of 7 days or more.
How does our Curriculum Support Safeguarding of Pupils?
To support pupils with confidence and knowledge of safeguarding issues we ensure our personal, social, health education (PSHE) programme allows lots of opportunities to develop their understanding.
For example:
- We cover whole school national and global themes across the whole year such as Anti-
Bullying week, Safer Internet Day, Money Week, Safety Week, Celebrating Diversity and Different Families - We learn about our ‘Value of the Month’ in lessons and assemblies to help children develop their sense of worth and confidence
- Our PSHE curriculum focuses on ‘Healthy Living’, ‘Relationships’ and ‘Living in the Wider World’ across the year. Each class accesses topics within these as well as through our sex/relationships, drugs and alcohol education curriculum to help support their understanding of safety issues. For example learning about people who help us, how to stay safe on-line, healthy relationships, predicting and assessing risk
Links with External Agencies
In order to provide the best possible safeguarding for all pupils in our school we work with outside agencies to ensure we get expert advice and support. We follow procedures set out by the Local Education Authority and ‘Keeping Children Safe in Education’ 2019 in accordance with child protection procedures.
Below are some of the links we have with external agencies:
- School Nurse Service
- Encompass
- Educational Psychology Team
- CAMHS (Child and Adult Mental Health Service)
- Behaviour Support Service
- Social Services
- Health practitioners
- Special Educational Needs and Disability Team
- Local Offer for Durham which outlines the services families can access
Please see the following website for information on services that can support:
http://www.countydurhamfamilies.info
We also take advice from Public Health England and the Department for Education regarding national issues.
COVID-19 letters to parents:
Please see the letter below from Durham County Council regarding the Coronavirus (dated March 2020):
Coronavirus Letter to Parents March 2020
Please see the letter about school closures (dated March 2020):
Letter to Parents re School Closure March 2020
Please see the letter from Durham County Council regarding updated Dfe advice for 24 March 2020
Update letter to parents 26 March 2020
Food Bank Support for Local Families
Letter to parents regarding school opening from Dfe
Letter to parents with further 1 June update:
Wider opening of schools letter
Letter regarding Bournmoor Primary School opening on 1 June:
Letter regarding Bournmoor Primary School opening on 15 June:
Public Health England Letter 8 June 2020
Summer Holiday Health Letter 15 July 2020
Sharing of Information
We are required to have information from parents/carers prior to a child joining our school.
This includes:
- Information about who has legal contact with the child and who has parental responsibility
- Any special health requirements for the child
- Information relating to food i.e. dietary requirements and food allergies
- Emergency contact numbers (updated as required throughout the child’s time at school)
- ‘Child Collected By’ form which specifies agreed adults who can collect a child
In our school we follow GDPR. Information regarding children is stored safely and securely and it is only shared with professionals permitted to have it.
Which Policies Support our Safeguarding?
- ‘Keeping Children Safe in Education’ Department for Education Guidance
- Business Continuity Plan (emergency school procedures)
- Child Protection Policy (dealing with issues of child safety and reporting)
- Preventing and Tackling Bullying (guidance from the Department for Education on bullying)
- Prevent Policy (school procedures on dealing with Counter Terrorism issues)
- Annual Safeguarding Audit (completed by the Headteacher to collate safeguarding measures in place)
- Special Educational Needs Policy (guidance on identification and support for pupils with additional needs)
- Anti-Bullying Policy (to provide guidance and response to bullying in school)
- Attendance Policy (to support pupils and families with attendance guidance and support)
- Whistle Blowing Policy (procedures to be used in case of serious staff concerns)
- Code of Conduct for Governors (to ensure our Governing Body follow procedures and protocol)
- Complaints Policy (procedures for parents to support complaints)
- Drugs Policy (guidance on how we deliver our drugs curriculum)
- Sex and Relationships Policy (outlining our age appropriate delivery of SRE across the curriculum)
- E-Safety Policy (outlining our procedures for safely connecting through technology/internet)
- Lost Child Policy (procedures in case of a missing child)
- Medicines in Schools Policy (guidelines on administration of medicines in school)
- Mobile Phone Policy (guidance on personal use of mobiles in school for adults)
- No Smoking Policy (outlines school and Durham County Policy for no smoking in school grounds)
- School Recruitment and Selection Policy (guidance and protocols for safer recruitment
The above list is not exhaustive as many policies, procedures and protocols are in place to safeguard pupils. Policies are reviewed at determined intervals to ensure that the most up to date information is included in our guidelines in school.
Reporting Concerns and Complaints
At Bournmoor Primary we endeavour to provide the very best service for our pupils and families. To help us provide this we require feedback. This can be achieved through mechanisms we offer e.g. questionnaires we send to parents, through emails and telephone conversations.
However we feel that most importantly face to face discussions are effective at resolving concerns/complaints. In line with our policy, discussion of a concern would be with the class teacher in the first instance followed by the headteacher if that does not provide a resolution. After that the matter can be referred to the Chair of Governors where hopefully the matter can be resolved, it not the Local Education Authority.
Our Complaints Policy sets out the procedures and this can be requested via the school office or downloaded from our website. Our aim is to always listen and try to resolve issues before they reach this stage.
If you would like more information on safeguarding, please contact the school for all our policies or view our policies section on our website.
