St Peter's Infant School

ST. PETER’S INFANT SCHOOL

SAFEGUARDING STATEMENT

St. Peter’s Infant School is committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children and expects all staff and volunteers to share this commitment. We recognise that all adults, including temporary staff, volunteers and governors, have a full and active part to play in protecting our pupils from harm, and that the child or young person’s welfare is our paramount concern.

We have a number of policies and procedures in place that contribute to our safeguarding commitment, including our Child Protection Policy and School Prospectus, both of which can be viewed on our school’s website.

Sometimes we may need to share information, work in partnership with, and/or make referrals to, other agencies when there are concerns about a child's welfare. We will ensure that our concerns about our pupils are discussed with his/her parents/carers first unless we have reason to believe that such a move would be contrary to the child's welfare. Any cases of suspected abuse will be carefully monitored and acted upon accordingly.

We actively support the Government's Prevent Agenda to counter radicalism and extremism.  

Other policies which affect the wellbeing of children are:

Attendance, Positive Behaviour, Anti-Bullying, Online Safety, Medical and Educational Visits.

We follow the Safer Recruitment Policy and the Department of Education guidance: ‘Keeping Children Safe in Education’ as well as data protection and confidentiality policies. We have a Health & Safety Policy for the practical protection of children and staff.

All staff receive Child Protection (CP) training and Disclosure & Barring Service (DBS) clearance appropriate to their position in school.

Designated Safeguarding Leads

Our Designated Safeguarding Lead (DSL) is Mrs. Joanna Worrall (Acting Headteacher). Our Deputy Designated Safeguarding Lead (DDSL) is Mrs Helen Collins (SENDCO/Acting Deputy Headteacher). Additional nurture support is provided by Miss Keely Mason (HLTA/ELSA). The Governor responsible for Safeguarding is Nicholas McMillan.

Emergency contact details:

• Medway Social Care Duty Team: 01634 334466
• Out of Hours concerns relating to a young person, call Medway Children Services 03000 419 191
• Alternatively, use the following link to their online referral form here
• If it is an emergency, call the Police on 999

Other useful links:

• Police: 101 (non-emergency) 
• NSPCC https://www.nspcc.org.uk/
• Childline call 0800 1111 or go to https://www.childline.org.uk/
• LADO (Local Authority Designated Officer): Stephanie Ponter 01634 331307 (for any concerns about an adult working or volunteering with our children who may have behaved inappropriately - see leaflet below)
• Prevent Referral: channel@kent.pnn.police.uk (Prevent is a government strategy with the aim of reducing the likelihood of young people becoming radicalised and then engaging in any form of violent extremism. You can find out more by reading the leaflet below)

For online safety resources and web pages, see 'Online Safety' in the 'Computing' heading.

The Brook Traffic Light Tool below is a really helpful document that helps to identify and establish if sexual behaviours are typical or developmentally appropriate, problematic or harmful. It enables the reader to understand what that behaviour is communicating and why the child or young person may be exhibiting the behaviour.

We have to have clear procedures for Filtering and Monitoring - see document below for further information regarding this. 

Medway Safeguarding Children's Partnership website is a collective resource providing information, advice and guidance for children and young people, parents and carers, practitioners and volunteers to promote and ensure the safety and wellbeing of children in Medway.

You can visit their website

We are an Operation Encompass school. Operation Encompass is a jointly run operation between Kent Police and schools whereby the Police report to schools, prior to the start of the next school day, when a child or young person has experienced any domestic abuse so that appropriate support can be put in place. Please see letter below to explain this further.