Safeguarding

Safeguarding Children is Everybody's Responsibility

Safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children is defined as: protecting children from maltreatment; preventing impairment of children’s health or development; ensuring that children grow up in circumstances consistent with the provision of safe and effective care; and taking action to enable all children to have the best outcomes.

Safeguarding is not just about protecting children from deliberate harm.  It relates to aspects of school life including:

• pupils’ health and safety
• the use of reasonable force
• meeting the needs of pupils with medical conditions
• providing first aid
• educational visits
• intimate care
• internet or e-safety
• appropriate arrangements to ensure school security, taking into account the local context

At St Silas Primary School our first priority is the welfare and safety of all the children in our care. We are committed to providing the highest standards in protecting and safeguarding all our children at all times. 

If your child is not in school we will contact you, to make sure the child is with you. If we cannot contact the first identified person on our contact list, we will contact the second person. It is important that we confirm that your child is safe.

All safeguarding documentation is read and understood  by all the teaching staff, non-teaching staff and governors of St Silas Primary School. 

The senior leadership team are responsible for the recording, implementation and tracking of all statutory updates and training requirements. 

The Headteacher and SLT carry out induction meetings with newly appointed staff to ensure key messages, policies and procedures are followed.  

 

Are you concerned that a child is being abused or neglected?

If you are concerned about a child and you feel they are being abused, neglected or at risk of abuse/neglect, then you should consider making a safeguarding child referral.

Contact Blackburn with Darwen Children's Advice and Duty Service (CADS) for confidential advice and consultation. Monday to Friday 08.45-17.00 please call: 

01254 666400

If you are calling outside these hours please contact our Emergency Duty Team on 01254 587547.

You can contact the Blackburn with Darwen Local Safeguarding Children Board by following this link:

http://www.lscb.org.uk

You can also report your concerns online:

NSPCC Website: www.nspcc.org.uk

Or you can also speak to:

NSPCC 0800 800 5000

Childline 0800 1111

 

Useful Information for Parents - Keeping Children Safe

• Underwear Rule Guide for Parents

 

Prevent Strategy

As part of St Silas's commitment to safeguarding and child protection we fully support the government's Prevent Strategy, and take guidance from Teaching Approaches to help build resilience to extremism.

Mrs L. Smith is the Prevent Lead at  St Silas's School.

 

What is the Prevent Strategy?

The Prevent strategy is a government strategy designed to stop people becoming terrorists, supporting terrorism, fundamentalism or extremist behaviours. It:-

• responds to the ideological challenge we face from terrorism and aspects of extremism, and the threat we face from those who promote these views
• provides practical help to prevent people from being drawn into terrorism and ensure they are given appropriate advice and support
• works with a wide range of sectors (including education, criminal justice, faith, charities, online and health).

Internet and E-Safety

E-Safety is an important part of keeping children safe at St Silas Primary School . We have extensive security measures in place in school to help safeguard pupils from potential dangers or unsuitable material. Internet and E-Safety is taught to all pupils explaining and demonstrating how to stay safe and behave appropriately online.

We can only be successful in keeping children safe online if we work with parents to ensure the e-Safety message is consistent. It is important that parents speak to their children about how they can keep safe and behave appropriately online.

It’s essential to be realistic - banning the internet or technology will not work and it often makes a child less likely to report a problem. Education around safe use is essential.

Filtering

Our filtering platform is Netsweeper (https://www.netsweeper.com/education-web-filtering-schools). This is managed by On247 who are our connectivity partners and administrators.

Useful Information about staying safe online can be found at:

https://www.saferinternet.org.uk/

https://parentzone.org.uk/digitalparenting

 

Who do I go to in school if I am worried?

Mrs Laura Smith is the Designated Safeguarding Lead. She is the person you should speak to if you are concerned about anything to do with safeguarding. She can be contacted by ringing school on 01254 698447 or my emailing laura.smith@cidari.co.uk.

                                                                                    

 

The deputy Designated Safeguarding Lead is Mrs Michele Battersby ,the Headteacher.  She can be contacted by ringing school on 01254 698447 or my emailing michele.battersby@cidari.co.uk.

 

                                                                                     

Miss Kathryn Haczycki, the Deputy Headteacher,is also a Deputy Designated Safeguarding Lead.  She can be contacted by ringing school on 01254 698447 or my emailing kathryn.haczycki@cidari.co.uk.

Safeguarding

 

Our filtering platform is Netsweeper (https://www.netsweeper.com/education-web-filtering-schools). This is managed by On247 who are our connectivity partners and administrators.

 

As a school, we take bullying seriously. Our values of belonging and love underpin our work to prevent bullying. We have Friendships Weeks annually and we consider participation in such events essential in ensuring the wellbeing of our children. During Friendship Week we focus on educating the children on how to be good friends and on how we can stop bullying in our school.