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Keeping Children Safe in Education.
Hellingly Primary School is passionate about and committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children and young people. We expect all staff and visitors to share this commitment. We are fully committed to ensuring that consistent effective safeguarding procedures are in place to support families, children and staff at school.
We believe that it is in the best interests for our children to have opportunities to learn how to stay safe both in and outside of school.
Therefore, safeguarding themes are weaved into lessons, across the wider curriculum, into assemblies and displayed as part of everyday life within our school.
What to do if you have concerns
If there is a concern about the welfare of a child, school staff will report this to one of the Designated Safeguarding Leads.
The Designated Safeguarding Lead is Mrs Carolyn Andrews
Deputy Designated Safeguarding Leads are Mrs Michelle McKay, Mr Jon Goulding and Mrs Sue Ribbons
It may be helpful to parents to know that the Local Authority requires schools to report any obvious or suspected case of child abuse – which includes non- accidental injury, severe physical neglect, emotional abuse and/or sexual abuse. When possible and if appropriate, the school will discuss any concerns with you before taking the concern further.
This procedure is intended to protect children at risk and schools are encouraged to take the attitude that when there are grounds for suspicion it is better to be safe than sorry.
This does mean that schools risk upsetting some parents by reporting a case which, on investigation, proves unfounded. In such circumstances, it is hoped that parents, appreciating how difficult it is for schools to carry out this delicate responsibility, would accept that the school was acting in what were believed to be the child’s best interests.
IF YOU ARE WORRIED ABOUT THE SAFETY OR WELFARE OF A CHILD YOU SHOULD CALL;
NSPCC Childline:0800 1111
NSPCC helpline:
If you’re worried about a child, even if you’re unsure, contact our professional counsellors for help, advice and support.
Call us or email help@nspcc.org.uk.
Contacting the Single Point of Advice
01323 464222 (Monday to Thursday 8.30am to 5pm, Friday 8.30am to 4.30pm)
Out of hours, with serious concerns that can’t wait till the next working day, contact our Emergency Duty Service. 01273 335906 or 01273 335905 – (Monday to Thursday 5pm to 8.30am, after 4.30pm on Fridays, weekends and bank holidays).
Or email 0–19.SPOA@eastsussex.gov.uk
School Policies and Procedures
For full details regarding our child protection and safeguarding policies and procedures please refer to the respective policies on our school policies page.
These policies should be read alongside:
Online Safety
Working with East Sussex County Council to help children, parents/carers and teachers understand online dangers and how to combat them. The school also utilise global technology partners Microsoft and Juniper to assist with security, Anti-Virus protection and URL/Web-browsing filtering services. The school recommends the nationally acclaimed ‘ThinkUKnow’ Internet safety scheme. The ThinkUKnow scheme from the Child Exploitation and Online Protection Centre (CEOP) highlights the importance of online safety to children and parents and also encourages them to use the “Report Abuse” button which can be used to get help and advice and report illegal online behaviour.
THE CEOP SAFETY CENTRE
CEOP helps any child or young person under the age of 18 who is being pressured, forced or tricked into taking part in sexual activity of any kind. This can be something that has taken place either online or in ‘the real world’, or both. The CEOP Safety Centre has clear information and advice on what can be reported to CEOP, the reporting process and what will happen if you do decide to make a report. You can visit the CEOP Safety Centre and make a report directly to CEOP by clicking the Click CEOP button.
If you are experiencing online bullying or something else online has worried you please speak to an adult you trust, or you can talk to Childline at any time on 0800 1111 or at www.childline.org.uk.
USEFUL WEBSITES FOR ONLINE SAFETY
https://www.internetmatters.org
https://nationalonlinesafety.com/resources/wake-up-wednesday
Net Aware has partnered with Ambitious about Autism to bring online safety tips, advice and activities specifically for parents and carers of children with SEND. Click the link below for more information as well as activities that can be used with SEND children to talk about online safety.
https://www.net-aware.org.uk/send-online-safety-hub/
Making sure children are accessing age appropriate content is important as part of our role to educate pupils to become responsible internet users. Below is a chart showing the age restrictions placed on different social media app and services.
Safeguarding our Children from Extremism and Radicalisation
The Counter-Terrorism and Security Act 2015 obliges schools and other authorities to prevent people from being drawn into terrorism or extremism.
It important that these risks and dangers are considered for every child, right across the country. This includes those places that have not traditionally seen themselves as being at risk, such as in a primary school like ours. We recognise this fact and ensure that children are safe from online terrorist and extremist material in school, via appropriate levels of filtering, we check the suitability of visiting speakers and make sure that our staff are equipped to identify children at risk of being drawn into terrorism, as well as to challenge extremist ideas. They know how to refer children for further help.
Please remember that everyone has a responsibility to take action to report any concerning content online including our parents, staff, governors and children:
- Report extremist content to social media providers. Find out more at www.seeitreportit.org and in the UK Safer Internet Centre’s guide to safety tools on social networks here at www.saferinternet.org.uk
- Report terrorism-related content to the police’s Counter Terrorism Internet Referral Unit (CTIRU) here @ gov.uk
Operation Encompass
We are part of Operation Encompass. Operation Encompass is an initiative in partnership with Sussex Police to report incidents where police have attended the family home after reports of domestic abuse. By receiving this information it enables the school to offer support to the child who may have been witness to events.
NSPCC Pants Campaign
Follow this link to find out about more about the PANTS rule https://www.nspcc.org.uk/preventing-abuse
We use this rule at school to discuss what is and isn’t ok.
Other Help and Advice Resources
Some E-Safety and Safeguarding resources can be found in our Resources library. These may include links to external websites and instructional videos, as well as any latest news that we think may be useful to you. These resources will appear in your news feeds as we publish them.