SMAT Safeguarding and Child Protection Policy 2024

Safeguarding Team

 

At Elsecar Holy Trinity Primary Academy all staff and leaders are committed to safeguard and promote our students’ welfare, safety, mental and physical health and guidance.  The students’ welfare is of paramount importance.  Our school fully recognises the contribution it can make to protect and support students by fostering an honest, open, caring and supportive climate.

Elsecar Holy Trinity Primary Academy adopts the definition used Keeping Children Safe in Education 2020. This can be summarised as:

  • Protecting students from maltreatment.
  • Preventing impairment of students’ mental and physical health or development.
  • Ensuring that students are growing up in circumstances consistent with the provision of safe and effective care.
  • Taking action to enable all students to have the best outcomes.

Safeguarding is more than protecting students from deliberate harm.  It relates to a number of aspects of school life that include health and safety, the use of reasonable force, meeting the needs of students and staff with medical or additional needs, first aid, educational visits, intimate care, internet and online safety and school security.

There are 3 main elements to our Safeguarding and Child Protection culture:

Prevention: Creating a positive ethos and culture where teaching and pastoral support systems are in place and Safeguarding is seen as the responsibility of everyone.

Protection: Following agreed procedures, ensuring staff are properly recruited, trained and supported to respond appropriately and sensitively to Child Protection concerns.

Support: Support for students and school staff and students who may have difficulties and are unsafe.

At Elsecar we recognise that high self-esteem, confidence, supportive friends and clear lines of communication with a trusted adult help all students, and especially those at risk of, or suffering from any child protection concern.

We take the safeguarding of our students very seriously.  Our students are continually taught and encouraged to live healthy lifestyles and adopt safe practices and we have a number of safeguarding policies and practices in place to help ensure that they are safe, happy and healthy as well as help to ensure that there is a consistent approach to practices throughout the school and that they are followed by staff, governors and volunteers.

Adults have an enormous impact on young people and with this in mind, adults at Elsecar School:

  • Establish and maintain an ethos where students feel secure, are encouraged to talk and are listened to.
  • Ensure that students know that there are adults in the school who they can approach if they are worried or are in difficulty.
  • Ensure staff are child-centred in their approach to supporting students
  • Include activities and opportunities for Personal Development PSHE/Citizenship/RSE in the curriculum which equip students with the skills they need to stay safe from abuse and which will help students develop realistic attitudes to the responsibilities of adult life, particularly with regard to childcare and parenting skills.
  • Ensure that wherever possible every effort will be made to establish effective working relationships with parents and colleagues from other agencies.
  • Ensure effective challenge is used, when working with external agencies, to ensure all students receive the timely support they require.
  • Establish and maintain a safeguarding culture amongst all staff and students.
  • Ensure all staff and governors have up-to-date and regular safeguarding and child protection training.

At Elsecar we are committed to:

Providing a safe learning environment that builds confidence and self-esteem:

  • Where student’s physical safety is protected
  • Where student’s mental health is protected and supported
  • Where students can talk and are listened to
  • Where students do not experience bullying, harassment, racism or any other form of discrimination
  • Where students’ medical and health needs are met.

Providing a positive and preventative curriculum that teaches and supports students:

  • To understand contextual issues relevant to our school, local community, city and nationally
  • To make good choices about health, safe lifestyles, positive relationships, sex education and consent
  • To recognise when they are at risk and how to get help when they need it
  • To ask for help if their health or wellbeing is threatened, including their emotional wellbeing

Promoting the fundamental British values of democracy, rule of law, individual liberty, mutual respect and tolerance by:

  • Encouraging students to know that their views count, to value each other’s views and values and to talk about their feelings
  • Providing activities that involve turn-taking, sharing and collaboration
  • Supporting students to understand their own and others’ behaviour and its consequences and to learn to distinguish right from wrong
  • Providing activities that involve students in creating rules and codes of behaviour and developing understanding that the rules apply to everyone
  • Actively promoting a culture of inclusivity and tolerance where views, faiths, cultures and races are valued and students are engaged with the wider community
  • Promoting diverse attitudes and challenging stereotypes by providing resources and activities that reflect and value the diversity of students’ experiences and challenge gender, cultural and racial stereotyping.

As part of our curriculum we ensure that the issues of healthy eating, physical exercise and safety are taught.  This aspect is enhanced by the many visitors to school, such as police officers who talk to the students about issues such as road safety, safe people and drugs awareness. In addition, there are many policies in place to safeguard our students, including:

Safeguarding and Child Protection

We will ensure that all staff, students and volunteers and those who undertake work on our behalf, maintain a proper focus on safeguarding students and that this is reflected in both sound individual practice and our internal policies and guidance.

 

The key principles of child protection are:

  • Students have the right to be safe and should be protected from all forms of abuse and neglect.
  • Safeguarding students is everyone’s responsibility.
  • It is better to help students as early as possible, before issues escalate and become more damaging.
  • Students and families are best supported and protected when there is a coordinated response from all relevant agencies.

This is sensitive area in which all staff receive regular training. Elsecar School and other services for children and families all work together to support the needs of young people. Safeguarding in school is led by our Headteacher and Designated Safeguarding Lead (Mr Silverwood). There are also number of designated deputy safeguarding leads for child protection in school:

Attendance

Student attendance at school is monitored on a daily basis and notable absences or patterns of absences are followed up by the Attendance Support Officer and in more serious cases this is referred to the Multi Agency Support Team

Behaviour

High standards of behaviour are expected in our school.  Our Consistent Discipline Model sets out how we promote good behaviour and deal with any problems. Our students are often reminded about our school expectations and they know that we have them in order for everyone to be happy and keep safe.

Online Safety and social media

The aim of this guidance is to inform all staff of best practice around e-safety and draw attention to existing local and national guidance on this subject so that we can maintain the safest possible learning and working environments for children and staff alike.

 

Acceptable Use of ICT

This policy states what is acceptable in terms of use of hardware, use of the internet and publishing content.  We have an acceptable use policy for both staff and students.  Acceptable use of ICT is defined as activities that provide adults with appropriate learning experiences or that allow adults to enhance their own professional development.

Safer recruitment and selection

This aspect is taken very seriously.  Governors and the school ensure that all staff new to the school, as well as volunteers who work in school on a regular basis, undertake a DBS check and full references are acquired before the person takes up post.

Complaints

If parents have any complaints, we will listen to your concerns and will follow up any issues. The school is committed to working closely with parents and carers for the benefit of the students.  There is a clear procedure in place which can be found in our Policy and Guidance section.