Safeguarding

Mrs Colley: St Peter's Designated Safeguarding Lead

Our school is committed to safeguarding children and promoting children’s welfare and expects all staff, governors, volunteers and visitors to share this commitment and maintain a vigilant and safe environment. Everyone has a responsibility to act, without delay, to protect children by reporting anything that might suggest a child is being abused or neglected. It is our willingness to work safely and challenge inappropriate behaviours that underpins this commitment. The school seeks to work in partnership with families and other agencies to improve the outcomes for children who are vulnerable or in need.’

If any parent, member of staff, governor has a child protection safeguarding query, the designated person to speak to is Mrs Colley and in her absence, Mrs Harrison or Mr Robinson. All are qualified Level 3 Designated Safeguarding Leads.

Keeping children safe in education is our priority.

At St Peter's CE Primary School, the health, safety and welfare of our children are of paramount importance to us.   We respect our pupils and want to provide them with a stimulating and safe environment that encourages them to flourish. 

In order to keep our children safe at school, we

• ensure that all our staff – through their induction and on going training - have a clear understanding of their responsibilities towards our children’s safeguarding

• make sure that we have a range of clear and up to date policies and procedures in place to ensure the safety and protection of our pupils in all aspects of school life

• ensure that we teach our pupils how to keep themselves healthy and safe – in and out of school

• ensure that we audit our safeguarding practices regularly so we remain vigilant

• We work with Merseyside Police to ensure the safety and wellbeing of children experiencing domestic abuse. This is called Operation Encompass and you can find more information in the letter below. We also provide a range of support within school and from other services such as health and community support. This sometimes takes the form of an EHAT and you can find out more about our Early Help offer below.

• Please do speak to a member of the Safeguarding Team if you or your child have been affected by any type of abuse; we are here to listen and can give you lots of information to support and help.

Values

At St Peter's, our safeguarding offer starts with our Christian values which we instil in our children from their first day at St Peter's CE Primary. Christian Values such as Respect, Courage, Truthfulness and Justice teach children to be ready, respectful and responsible.  We have an open, honest and relationship centred approach at school, wherein children are nurtured and taught that they are able to confide in any adult if they are worried about anything.

Behaviour

We have very clear expectations of our children’s behaviour and these are regularly discussed in class and whole school  worship.  Our children learn from an early age that bullying in any form is not tolerated at St Peter's CE Primary and we expect our staff to act as exemplary role models.

Mental Health and Wellbeing

We take promoting and supporting Mental Health and Wellbeing as a vital part of our safeguarding offer. We have a Rainbow Team who work together to ensure all children's mental health needs are met.

Inclusion and Equality

The school has a commitment to equality and accessibility for all and we believe that everyone at St Peter's CE Primary should be treated with care, dignity and respect. Our children are explicitly taught that any form of discrimination on grounds of race, religion, sexuality or disability is wrong.  RE lessons and worship, we explore different ideas, cultures, faiths and beliefs to broaden our pupil’s awareness of the world and we teach tolerance and mutual respect.

Teaching and Learning

Our COURAGE Curriculum is centred around 7 aspects. Each aspect intrinsically link to our Christian Vision of hope; hope that each and every pupil can find happiness and reach their full potential, With this in mind, we deliver a range of learning opportunities within our curriculum to help keep children safe and healthy throughout their lives.

 Our PE and Jigsaw lessons include education on financial awareness, healthy diet, the importance of exercise, road and pedestrian safety, stranger danger, how to deal with bullying and much more. Our Curriculum (which meets all of the statutory elements within the RHE curriculum) includes a progressive, whole school approach for Relationship, Health and Sex education.

From EYFS, our children are taught about the importance of staying safe online. At St Peter's CE Primary we have very clear online safety guidelines for both staff and children and everyone signs an Acceptable Use Agreement before they use a computer. As this is a constantly changing world, we try to provide children and parents with as much up to date information as we can about practical ways to stay safe on the internet and online safety teaching is incorporated regularly into both our Computing, Jigsaw lessons and worships.

Our Staff

As already mentioned, our staff are expected to act as role models at all times. All members of staff – teaching and non teaching alike – have been recruited following safer recruitment procedures. Their application forms are carefully scrutinised and any education or employment gaps are queried. References and all necessary DBS checks are undertaken as a matter of course and we keep an up to date single central record on our employees.

When a new member of staff (or Governor) joins our school they receive an induction and staff handbook which includes up to date information on safeguarding, child protection and our health and safety induction booklet. We also ensure that they have read part one of the Government's guidelines on Keeping Children Safe in Education 2023. Our safeguarding and child protection policy clearly sets out the school and our staff’s responsibilities towards ensuring that all children at St Peter's are kept safe and protected from harm. All our staff and governors undertake regular safeguarding and child protection training.

First Aid and Medical Needs

In addition to safeguarding and child protection training, a number of our teachers and teaching assistants have first aid and paediatric first aid qualifications.

Volunteers and Visitors

We also make sure that any volunteer or visitor to school – which includes staff who may be running after school clubs – visits the School Office to sign in and read the school information sheets on Safeguarding and Health and Safety. Volunteers and visitors are not left unsool.upervised with children at any time unless they are regular volunteers who have completed a DBS check.

Link -  What to do if you are worried a child is being abused - advice for practitioners

Link - Keeping Children Safe in Education link

Link - St Helens Safeguarding Partnership

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