Safeguarding Information for Parents
Safeguarding is everybody’s responsibility
Children have a right to be cared for and protected, protecting them is everyone’s responsibility. Here at Frizinghall Primary School we have a duty of care to ensure that all users of the school are kept safe from harm. We are committed to provide a secure and supportive environment in which children can develop and grow into mature and responsible people. Safeguarding children is an essential part of our holistic approach to ensure that children are protected from abuse and neglect and that every child reaches their full potential.
The best interests of the children will always be our priority. As such, there are times we will need to record, monitor and share information with other agencies. We will share concerns about our pupils with the child’s parents/carers unless we have reason to believe that such a move would not be in the child’s best interest.
What you can do
Parents and carers play a role in safeguarding children in their community. If you have any concerns, no matter how small, you should report them to someone who you trust will listen. The school is required to have a designated child protection officer for this purpose. Parents and children should speak to the Designated Safeguarding Lead if they have any concerns about a child or staff member.
If you think a child or young person may be in immediate danger, call 999. Otherwise contact Children's Social Care freephone on 0800 9530966.
Frizinghall Safeguarding Team
The Designated Safeguarding Lead is Miss Lisa Wetherall (Deputy Head Teacher).
The Deputy Safeguarding Leads are Mrs Victoria Merriman (Head Teacher), Mr Tom Ruddock (Assistant Head) and Mrs Mary Coulton (Administrator).
The Named Safeguarding Governor is Mr Peter Sayers.
The Designated Person for Looked After Children (LAC) is Mr Tom Ruddock. The Pupil Premium Champion and Designated Attendance Lead is Miss Lisa Wetherall. The Mental Health Champion is Mr Tom Ruddock.
As parents, you send your children to school each day with the expectation that school provides a secure environment in which they can flourish. In order to ensure that this expectation becomes reality, we put a wide range of measures in place:
Operation Encompass Safeguarding Statement
Our school is part of Operation Encompass.
Operation Encompass is a national police and education early intervention safeguarding partnership which supports children and young people who experience Domestic Violence and Abuse and which is in place in every police force in England and Wales. Children were recognised as victims of domestic abuse in their own right in the 2021 Domestic Abuse Act.
Operation Encompass means that the police will share information with our school about all police attended Domestic Abuse incidents which involve any of our children PRIOR to the start of the next school day.
A Key Adult (DSL) and their deputy/ies (DDSLs) have attended either an Operation Encompass briefing or completed the online Operation Encompass Key Adult training and have cascaded the principles of Operation Encompass to all other school staff and Governors. All schools staff and Governors can undertake the online training.
The Operation Encompass information is stored in line with all other confidential safeguarding and child protection information.
As a staff, we have discussed how we can support our children who are experiencing Domestic Violence and Abuse on a day-to-day basis and particularly following the Operation Encompass notification. We use the Operation Encompass Handbooks to inform our thinking. We are aware that we must do nothing that puts the child/ren or the non-abusing adult at risk.
The Safeguarding Governor will report on Operation Encompass in the termly report to Governors. All information is anonymised for these reports.
We use the Operation Encompass Key Adult Responsibilities checklist to ensure that all appropriate actions have been taken by the school.
The Health and Safety Policy
The school has a health and safety policy, which is monitored by the relevant committee of the school governors. Each term there are fire drills that practice efficient evacuation from the buildings and invacuation drills that practice safety measures in case of an incident outside the school building. The school conducts an annual Fire Risk Assessment. There is also a critical incident plan that details what staff and parents should do in the case of emergencies.
First Aid
In school, there are trained members of staff who oversee first aid. There are a number of first aid areas and kits situated around school. When a child has suffered an accident in school or on the playground, there are 4 steps staff follow:
- A trained first aider is consulted.
- The incident is logged in the accident book.
- For head injuries a Bumped Head Note is issued.
- If there is any doubt at all that the injury is serious, a parent is contacted with advice to take the child to hospital.
Site security
Frizinghall provides a secure site, but the site is only as secure as the people who use it. So we ask everyone to follow a few simple steps:
- Make sure all gates are closed, except at the start and end of each school day.
- Make sure doors are kept closed; this is to protect children and staff from unknown visitors entering school.
- If you are a visitor, volunteer or student we ask you only enter through the main entrance and sign in at the office.
- If you need to collect a child during the school day, we ask you to contact the school office who will talk you through the procedure. Children will only be allowed home with adults with parental responsibility or confirmed permission.
Attendance
Excellent attendance and punctuality are expected of all children. In order to support good attendance, the school has adopted the Bradford Staged Intervention approach.
Miss Wetherall is the Designated Attendance Lead and Mrs Begum is our Attendance Officer. You can contact the Attendance Team via Studybugs or calling the school. The school will regularly update parents about attendance issues.
Full details of our Attendance Policy and the Staged Intervention approach can be found on the school website (Our School/policies).
Visitors and Volunteers
A risk assessment will be carried out on any visitors/volunteers that come into school. Those who have extended contact with children, when children may be left alone with an adult, or when an adult visitor may be in and around the school building will need a DBS check. The administration team can help with DBS checks. Visitors/volunteers who do not have clearance will not be left alone with a child or group of children. Information about safeguarding in school will be provided.
Safeguarding and Child Protection Policy
Miss Wetherall, Mrs Merriman, Mr Ruddock and Mrs Coulton are the designated safeguarding leads in school, and deal with any incidents concerning the safeguarding of children. All allegations of abuse by or complaints about a teacher will be dealt with following the relevant procedures. A guide to child protection for parents is available in the parents’ section of the website.
We do allow parents to take photos of their children when involved in a school production or assembly. Parents are asked that these are not shared online or on any social media platform, they are for family memorabilia only. Parental consent to school taking photographs and photos for the local press, etc. is obtained annually and for specific events.
In school, we deal with safeguarding in different ways. In Personal, Social and Health Education, we use our SCARF programme and resources to teach children about safeguarding issues. Children are encouraged to explore and discuss these issues. (See the Safeguarding Curriculum) During other lessons, safety issues within the subject are discussed and safe practices taught, such as using equipment properly in PE and Design and Technology. At all times there has to be appropriate staffing levels and when the curriculum is taking out of school appropriate pupil/adult ratios are maintained. The lead adult always carries out a risk assessment prior to visits and these are authorised by the Head teacher.
Online/Internet Safety
Children are encouraged to use the internet, but in a safe way. Pupils and parents are asked each year to sign the school acceptable use agreement. Pupils are not left unattended whilst online and all adults ensure that this does not happen. School equipment is secured through fire walls and a monitoring system is in place to ensure that children do not behave inappropriately when using the computers and the internet. This filtering and monitoring service is provided by Smoothwall via the local authority.
Children use Purple Mash and Google Classroom (KS2) and these systems allow children to communicate with relevant adults (e.g. class teacher, computing teacher). Children are not expected to use any other system to communicate with adults in school or each other.
We would also like to remind parents to monitor their child’s internet use at home and ensure that they are only playing age-appropriate games. Frizinghall Primary School have shown our commitment to protecting our pupils online by working with National Online Safety - providing resources for all parents and carers. Details of this are available from the Parent Partnership Team.
Equal opportunities
At Frizinghall, we try to ensure that everyone is treated fairly and we respect the 9 protected characteristics of the Equality Act. All children are given equal access to the school and its curriculum and are all considered equal in the learning partnership. When children have special needs, we will inform parents and design specific programmes to meet these needs.
Children with disabilities must be able to take a full and active part in every lesson and every measure is taken to ensure this.
Behaviour policy
Good behaviour is expected at Frizinghall Primary School and we have high expectations of the children. Although the emphasis is always on the positive, there are times when children have to be disciplined in order to maintain the safety and security of all children.
We think that rewards are very important so our children have the opportunity to receive merits, class rewards and SCARF certificates and we celebrate good work and behaviour.
If a child chooses to break the rules, we use a warning system.
Serious cases or repeated cases of unacceptable behaviour will be dealt with by Mr Ruddock and Mrs Merriman.
A team of staff have undergone Team Teach training, including restraining a child so that they do not harm either themselves or others.
Anti-Bullying
Bullying may be distinguished from other unacceptable forms of aggression in that it involves the dominance of one pupil over another, or a group of others, is pre-meditated and usually forms a pattern of behaviour rather than being an isolated incident. Bullying can include several types of anti-social behaviour including physical; verbal; intimidation; exclusion; damage to property and cyber-bullying through texts or images using digital devices or the internet. It might be motivated by actual differences between children, or perceived differences.
Prevention of bullying - Through positive behaviour management our school seeks to encourage self-discipline where respect and tolerance are fundamental qualities. Pupils are encouraged through the curriculum to develop a positive caring attitude towards others. They are encouraged to understand and recognise what bullying is, and to know how to manage their concerns in order that a difficult situation can be resolved. Peer mediation, restorative practice sessions and school council meetings provide opportunities for school discussion.
Dealing with bullying - In order to show clearly that their behaviour is wrong, school will apply disciplinary measures to pupils who bully. School will always inform parents (of both the perpetrator and of the victim) regarding the incident and following thorough investigations, which are logged, we will inform parents of the outcome. All pupils concerned will be part of the investigation and their accounts will be taken seriously. Disciplinary measures will be applied fairly, consistently, and reasonably taking account the seriousness of the incident and any special educational needs or disabilities that the pupils may have and taking into account the needs of vulnerable pupils. It is also important to consider the motivations behind bullying behaviour and respond to any concerns for the safety of the perpetrator.
Restorative Approach – The school uses restorative practice. This approach is based on four key areas:
RESPECT - for everyone by listening to other opinions and learning to value them.
RESPONSIBILITY - taking responsibility for your own actions.
REPAIR - developing the skills within our school community so that its individual members have the necessary skills to identify solutions that repair harm and ensure behaviours are not repeated.
RE-INTEGRATION- working through a structured, supportive process that aims to solve the problem and allows young people to remain in mainstream school.
If you have any concerns or questions about safeguarding, please ask to speak to a Designated Safeguarding Lead.
