Safeguarding at Aldwyn Primary School

Mrs. Clark, Mr. Beaty  and Mr. Bonsall are the staff members responsible for Safeguarding, including Child Protection, in this school.

What Is Safeguarding?

Safeguarding is the action that is taken to promote the welfare of children and protect them from harm.  

Safeguarding means:

• protecting children from abuse and maltreatment
• preventing harm to children’s health or development
• ensuring children grow up with the provision of safe and effective care
• taking action to enable all children and young people to have the best outcomes

Child protection is part of the safeguarding process. It focuses on protecting individual children identified as suffering or likely to suffer significant harm. This includes child protection procedures which detail how to respond to concerns about a child.

Safeguarding children and child protection guidance and legislation applies to all children up to the age of 18.

Safeguarding has been defined by the government as: the process involved in protecting kids from neglect and abuse – stopping their development and health from being impaired. Also insuring that they grow up in a safe environment too which allows them opportunities to progress and develop to enter adulthood effectively.

What Is the difference between Safeguarding and Child Protection?

People sometimes wonder what the difference is between the terms safeguarding and child protection.

In practice, Safeguarding is the policies and practices that schools and Governing Bodies employ to keep children safe and promote their well-being. This means everything from security of the buildings, to the safe recruitment of staff and everything in between.  This diagram sets out what Safeguarding means in schools:

As you can see, Child Protection is one aspect of Safeguarding.  Child Protection is a term used to describe the activity that is undertaken to protect specific children who are suffering or likely to suffer significant harm.

Who is responsible for Safeguarding?

In short, EVERYBODY, any person who has contact with a child has a responsibility to keep that child safe from harm.

Within a school setting there is a designated team of staff who hold the overall responsibilty for safeguarding within school.

Safeguarding Documents and Useful Information

Below you will find links to websites that contain information relating to various aspects of safeguarding along with documents that contain information and contact details that you may find useful

Operation Encompass

On 21st January 2019 Tameside implemented a borough wide project that will run jointly between schools and Greater Manchester Police. This project is called Operation Encompass. It aims to support children who are affected by domestic violence by ensuring that their school is informed. This allows the school to support the children. Aldwyn Primary School are involved in the project. If you have any other questions about this project, please do not hesitate to contact school.

Safeguarding your child

As parents, you want to make sure that your children develop healthily and thrive.  We're here to help you with advice on how you can build strong relationships with your children and keep them safe.  Here are some resources for helping parents to keep their children safe, advice for parents on keeping children safe out of school, at home and online, when using the internet, social networking websites and playing online games, help and advice for creating a safe and nurturing environment for your children.

For guidance, further details can be found from:

General safe guarding support and information

https://www.tamesidesafeguardingchildren.org.uk/parentsandcarers.aspx 

http://www.nspcc.org.uk/preventing-abuse/keeping-children-safe/

Staying Safe Online

www.thinkuknow.co.uk

www.bbc.co.uk/cbbc/topics/stay-safe

https://www.nspcc.org.uk/preventing-abuse/keeping-children-safe/share-aware/

https://www.saferinternet.org.uk/safer-internet-day/2017/tips-and-advice-parents-and-carers

https://www.saferinternet.org.uk/safer-internet-day/2017/tips-children-and-young-people/top-tips-under-11s

https://www.nspcc.org.uk/preventing-abuse/keeping-children-safe/online-safety/

Awareness raising of Child Sexual Exploitation

www.ceop.police.uk

http://www.itsnotokay.co.uk

Bullying

https://www.bullying.co.uk/advice-for-parents/

Emotional Wellbeing and Child and Adolescent Mental Health

www.youngminds.org.uk/for_parents/parent

Healthy Living

http://www.nhs.uk/Change4Life/Pages/why-change-for-life.aspx

Female Genital Mutilation

https://www.nspcc.org.uk/preventing-abuse/child-abuse-and-neglect/female-genital-mutilation-fgm/

Radicalisation

https://www.nspcc.org.uk/what-you-can-do/report-abuse/dedicated-helplines/protecting-children-from-radicalisation/

Ways to contact the NSPCC

(The National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children is a charity campaigning and working in child protection in England, Wales, Northern Ireland and the Channel Islands).

Telephone 0808 800 5000

Calls are free from landlines and most mobiles.

Text 88858

This service is free and we'll try to text you back within three hours.

Email: help@nspcc.org.uk

We will try to read and act on your email within 24 hours.

Mental Health

Mental health problems cause distress to individuals and those who care for them.  Overall, it is estimated that one in ten children and young people have a diagnosable mental disorder – the equivalent of three pupils in every classroom across the country . Therefore schools are a vital part of a wider systems approach to promoting positive mental well-being and preventing mental illness in children and young people.

Here at Aldwyn we take Mental Health very seriously, we firmly believe that no-one should feel ashamed to talk about their mental health and we actively encourage our pupils and staff to speak out if they need to.