Safeguarding in our school
Acle Primary School is fully committed to safeguarding and promoting the safety and welfare of children at all times. We expect all staff, governors and volunteers to share this commitment, and training, monitoring and reporting procedures are in place to ensure this commitment is realised.
We aim to provide a safe environment that is conducive to learning. We also aim to identify children who are suffering or likely to suffer significant harm, and take appropriate steps to keep them safe in school and at home when required.
As part of our duty to provide a safe and secure environment for our children and to promote the welfare of our pupils, all visitors to the school are required to report to the school office first, for security reasons.
We have safer recruitment procedures in place, as well as a range of policies and procedures to ensure that your child is safe while at school (link to current Safeguarding Policy)
Safeguarding and the Curriculum
As part of our overall curriculum, we aim to educate children about safeguarding issues, particularly using the internet and social media safely, drugs, relationships and sex education. Safety issues and subjects are discussed and safe practices are also taught, for example through the safe use of play and PE equipment.
Health and Safety
We have a Health and Safety Policy (which conforms to all Local Authority guidelines) and provide a safe secure environment for pupils and staff. We work in accordance with Norfolk County Council and carry out regular Health and Safety inspections and fire drills.
At all times, we ensure that appropriate pupil/adult ratios are maintained and risk assessments are carried out for all activities and school trips
Safeguarding support
We have two Designated Safeguarding Leads: Mrs Clarke, Headteacher, and Miss Firago, our Wellbeing Co-ordinator. We also have a designated Safeguarding Governor, Mrs Belgrave-Lock, who monitors our safeguarding and child protection processes alongside the governing body.
If you have any questions regarding the safety of a child during term time please contact one of the designated safeguarding leads via the school office.
Click here to see our safeguarding policy.
If you need assistance outside of school hours, at a weekend or during a school holiday you can contact the National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children (NSPCC) 24 hours a day.
You can do this via their website at: www.nspcc.org.uk/what-you-can-do/report-abuse/ by telephone: 0808 800 5000, by text: 88858 or by email: help@nspcc.org.uk
If you think a child is in immediate danger do not delay: CALL 999 straight away.
Further links you may find useful, dealing with a range of issues, including online safety:
Click the picture below to find out more about the different levels of support in Norfolk in place to keep children safe from harm:
Safeguarding and Online Learning:
As we have moved to remote learning, I wanted to remind you of how to keep your child safe whilst working online, this is of paramount importance. We will only be using Teams to communicate with your child, which is a safe space for teachers and children to communicate. The work shared with the children is from trusted websites. Please see our Remote Learning Policy for information on our online offer. If you have any concerns about the content being offered, please report them immediately to the class teacher.
As a word of caution, if you are choosing to supplement the school’s online offer with support from online companies and in some cases individual tutors, please ensure that you use reputable organisation/individual who can provide evidence that they are safe and can be trusted to have access to children.
Here are some websites which offer advice and support with safe online learning:
· Internet matters – for support for parents and carers to keep their children safe online
· London Grid for Learning – for support for parents and carers to keep their children safe online
· Net-aware – for support for parents and carers from the NSPCC
· Parent info – for support for parents and carers to keep their children safe online
· Thinkuknow – for advice from the National Crime Agency to stay safe online
· UK Safer Internet Centre – advice for parents and carers
· London Grid for Learning has support for parents and carers to keep their children safe online, including tips to keep primary aged children safe online.
· Net-aware has support for parents and carers from the NSPCC and O2, including a guide to social networks, apps and games.
· Let’s Talk About It has advice for parents and carers to keep children safe from online radicalisation.
· UK Safer Internet Centre has tips, advice, guides and other resources to help keep children safe online, including parental controls offered by home internet providers and safety tools on social networks and other online services.
- CEOP – for advice on making a report about online abuse
We encourage you to set age-appropriate parental controls on digital devices and use internet filters to block malicious websites. These are usually free, but often need to be turned on. Please read this poster from LGFL which provides some top tips for parents on internet safety.
In the event that you have a safeguarding concern whilst online, please report this to the class teacher in the first instance. We would also like to signpost you to some websites, which offer age appropriate practical support:
· Childline, Thinkuknow and NSPCC – for support
· UK Safer Internet Centre – to report and remove harmful online content
· CEOP – for advice on making a report about online abuse
If you would like to report harmful or upsetting content or bullying and online abuse, you can use the following websites:
Harmful or upsetting content
Get support by:
· reporting harmful online content to the UK Safer Internet Centre
· getting government advice and trusted resources from Educate Against Hate on safeguarding from radicalisation, building resilience to extremism, and promoting shared values.
Bullying or abuse online
You can:
· get advice on reporting online abuse from the National Crime Agency’s Child Exploitation and Online Protection command
· get advice and support from Anti-Bullying Alliance for children who are being bullied