Safeguarding

Safeguarding and Child Protection

At Herne View Church of England Primary School, the welfare and health and safety of all children is of paramount importance. Parents/Carers send their children to school each day with the expectation that school provides a secure environment in which their children can flourish. Herne View therefore has to ensure that this expectation becomes reality. In order to do this a wide range of measures are put in place.

At Herne View Church of England Primary School, we take our responsibility to keep your child safe, healthy and happy very seriously. We have a duty to ‘Safeguard’ all the children in our care and we expect this commitment to be shared by all staff and volunteers. We are fully committed to ensuring consistent, effective safeguarding procedures are in place to support families, children and staff at school

All our staff have had appropriate child protection training, which is updated annually, and our Child Protection Policy is available on our policies page. It is the Governing Body’s duty to ensure the policy is reviewed annually. All staff are required to read the safeguarding policy carefully and to be aware of their role in these processes. All new staff will have the opportunity to discuss safeguarding requirements and this policy during their induction process.

All adults are also expected to read the DfE guidance: Keeping children safe in education.

It should be read alongside statutory guidance Working Together to Safeguard Children,

To further protect all children, all adults who work or volunteer within the school are subject to a Disclosure Barring Service (DBS) check. The school has a very comprehensive record of all adults and their DBS status and is continually monitoring this. If you wish to discuss any aspect of this, please see the Headteacher.

Effective working together depends on an open approach and honest relationships between agencies and as a school, Herne View will ensure it works with a range of agencies including Children’s Social Care, Early Help and NHS to support the safeguarding of children and their families.

The designated safeguarding lead is Claire Oaten

The nominated governor for safeguarding is Dr Tim Cockerill

The designated lead for looked after children is Claire Oaten

Operation Encompass 

Herne View Church of England Primary School has joined Operation Encompass, a project that will run jointly between schools and Avon and Somerset Police.

Operation Encompass is the reporting to schools by the police, prior to the start of the next school day, when a child has been exposed to, or involved in, any domestic incident, and the police have been called.

Operation Encompass will ensure that a member of the school staff, known as the Key Adult, is trained to allow them to liaise with the police and to use the information that has been shared, in confidence, while ensuring that the school is able to make provision for possible difficulties experienced by children, or their families, who have been involved in, or exposed to, a domestic abuse incident.

We are keen to offer the best support possible to all our pupils and we believe this will be extremely beneficial for all those involved.

https://www.operationencompass.org/

Schools have a duty to safeguard children from radicalisation and extremism. This is referred to as Prevent. More information is available here The Prevent duty: an introduction for those with safeguarding responsibilities - GOV.UK

In regards to other aspects of safeguarding, please look at the following areas of our website:-

Herne View Church of England Primary School: Policies

Health & Safety Policy

First Aid Policy

Site Security Policy

Attendance Policy Herne View Church of England Primary School: Attendance

Online Safety Policy

Child Protection Policy

Off Site Visits Policy

Whistleblowing Policy

All adults at Herne View Church of England Primary School are made aware of the NSPCC Whistleblowing Advice Line on 0800 028 0285. This anonymous, free of charge service provides support to employees wishing to raise concerns about how their organisation has handled a child protection concern.

To achieve our commitment, we will ensure continuous development and improvement of robust safeguarding processes and procedures that promote a culture of safeguarding amongst our staff and volunteers.

Children Looked After

Children and young people become “Looked After” either if they have been taken into care by the local authority, or have been accommodated by the local authority (a voluntary care arrangement). Most Children in Care will be living with foster parents but a smaller number may be in children’s residential units, living with a relative or even be placed at home with their birth parents.

The governing body of Herne View Church of England Primary School is committed to providing quality education for all its pupils, based on equality of access, opportunity and outcomes.

There is a policy on Children Looked After available in our Key Policies and Document Section or from the school on request.

The Designated Teacher for Children Looked After is Miss Claire Oaten