Safeguarding
At Flanshaw Junior, Infant and Nursery School, we safeguard children by:
- Ensuring that all staff take responsibility for keeping children safe.
- Creating safe environments for children and young people through robust safeguarding practices.
- Ensuring that all adults who work in the school, including volunteers, are safe to work with children.
- Operating a child centred approach so that staff have a clear understanding of the different needs, views and voices of the child.
- Providing a high level of training for all staff to ensure that all staff know how to respond to concerns and spot potential signs of abuse and neglect.
- Providing a high-quality curriculum that teaches pupils how to stay safe.
- Maintaining an environment where children feel confident to approach any member of staff if they have a worry/problem.
- Ensuring that we have a robust system in place for keeping children safe online; strict filtering systems will ensure that only age-appropriate content is viewed, and monitoring programs will raise any concerns promptly.
At Flanshaw school, we believe that it is of the utmost importance to have robust systems in place for protecting children and safeguarding their welfare whilst they are in our care. All of our pupils have the right to feel safe and be treated with respect and dignity.
As part of our Safeguarding role, we teach all children how to keep themselves and others safe (at an age-appropriate level). Our PSHE curriculum plays a crucial role in helping children to understand how to safeguard themselves; it incorporates important teaching of drug and alcohol abuse, bullying, inappropriate touching, consent and healthy relationships. The PSHE curriculum is further consolidated by the computing curriculum, ensuring that our pupils are prepared for the modern world, particularly areas such as cyber bullying and stranger danger online.
We have robust systems in place in terms of addressing any safeguarding concerns raised by any members of the school community. Our three Designated Safeguarding Leads work closely with social care professionals, as well as different agencies that offer direct support to children and families.
We have developed an experienced pastoral team, including a full time Parent Support Advisor to ensure that children and their families receive a high level of support both during and after any safeguarding incidents.
If you have concerns about the safety or wellbeing of any member of our school community, then please contact our school Designated Safeguarding Team.
Flanshaw School Safeguarding Policy
Child Friendly Safeguarding Policy
Designated Safeguarding Leads
If we have a problem or need your help, we expect that, as adults, you will:
- Do your best to help us be safe
- When there are choices about what can be done consider our opinions and respect our wishes
- Always be ready to listen to us and speak with us
- Value us and always involve us
- Treat us with care and respect
- Be clear about how things work and what we should expect to happen
- Take what we say seriously
- Involve the right people, at the right time, when we need it
- Look after our information and take care how you use it
- Get to know us and understand our lives
This has been taken from the Wakefield Young People Charter, you can view the document here.
More information on safeguarding can be found on these links:
The education programme from CEOP (Child Exploitation and Online Protection), a UK organisation which protects children both online and offline. The site has information for parents and carers and games for children of different ages to help them to learn about online safety.
Childline is there to give young people a voice when no one else is listening. Whatever problems or dangers they're facing, it is a place for them to turn to for support – any time of day or night. Childline is a free, private and confidential service where children and you people can talk about anything.
They can be contacted on 0800 1111, or have a range of information, support and tools online.
Talk PANTS helps children understand that their body belongs to them, and they should tell someone they trust if anything makes them feel upset or worried. A really useful website to help you start the conversation with your child,
Information and guides for parents and carers about the social media platforms, apps and games that young people use. You can also sign up to the Online Safety Newsletter to help you stay up to date with the latest trends, or download the free Net Aware app.
A series of 3 animations ‘I saw your willy’, ‘Lucy and the boy’, and ‘Mia’s story’, designed to prompt conversations between adults and children to keep them safe from online abuse. We use these videos in school but they are also ideal to share at home. The section also includes tips on how to start these kinds of conversations.
Childnet parents and carers page – information, advice and resources for parents and carers on a wide range of topics affecting children and young people online. They also have excellent resources about how to have a conversation about the online world with your child, how to set up parental controls, create a family agreement and what to do if you are worried about a child.
Use the search box at the top to search for a game or app. There will be a Common Sense Media review which includes the information you need to help you make decisions about the suitability of the game for your child. It also has useful parent and child reviews for each game.
A range of guides, videos and toolkits to help you to keep your child safe online. These include information about key issues that may be affecting children and young people on the internet, and what to do if you’re worried about anything you or your child has seen online.
PREVENT
What is Prevent?
'The Prevent duty requires all education providers ‘to help prevent the risk of people becoming terrorists or supporting terrorism’. This includes safeguarding learners from extremist ideologies and radicalisation. Most importantly, providers should consider the needs of children, young people and adult learners at each stage of the safeguarding process. Providers should consider radicalisation concerns in line with their existing safeguarding processes, skills and experience.' (DFE Prevent Duty guidance)
The purpose of Prevent is at its heart to safeguard and support vulnerable people to stop them from becoming terrorists or supporting terrorism.
Prevent has three specific objectives:
- Tackle the causes of radicalisation and respond to the ideological challenge of terrorism
- Safeguard and support those most at risk from radicalisation through early intervention, identifying them and offering support
- Enable those who have already engaged in terrorism to disengage and rehabilitate
What does this mean in practice?
Many of the things we already do in our school to help children become positive, happy members of society also contribute to the Prevent strategy.
These include:
- Exploring other cultures and religions and promoting diversity and tolerance
- Challenging prejudices and racist comments
- Developing critical thinking skills and a strong, positive self-identity
- Promoting the spiritual, moral, social and cultural development of pupils, as well as British values such as democracy.
We will also protect children from the risk of radicalisation, for example by using filters on the internet to make sure they can’t access extremist and terrorist material, or by vetting visitors who come into school to work with pupils. We will carry out our Prevent duty in different ways, depending on the age of the children and the needs of our community.
Frequently Asked Questions
How does Prevent relate to British values?
Schools have been required to promote British values since 2014, and this will continue to be part of our response to the Prevent strategy. British values include:
- Democracy
- The rule of law
- Individual liberty and mutual respect
- Tolerance of different faiths and beliefs
Isn’t my child too young to learn about extremism?
The Prevent strategy is not just about discussing extremism itself, which may not be appropriate for younger children. It is also about teaching children values such as tolerance and mutual respect. Our School will make sure any discussions are suitable for the age and maturity of the children involved.
KEY TERMS
Extremism – vocal or active opposition to fundamental British values such as democracy, the rule of law and tolerance of different faiths and beliefs
Ideology – a set of beliefs
Terrorism – a violent action against people or property, designed to create fear and advance a political, religious or ideological cause
Radicalisation – the process by which a person comes to support extremism and terrorism
Concerned about a pupils safety in school or at home please contact one of the Safeguarding Team at school:
- Head Teacher (01924 290 360)
- Deputy Head (01924 290 360)
- Parent Support Advisor (01924 202 044)
Other contacts and further information:
- Social Care Direct Wakefield (0345 8503 503).
- For more information on Safeguarding in out of school Sports Clubs/Activities click here
- Information website for Wakefield schools;
Useful links
Child Net
https://www.childnet.com/resources/reellife/
Social Media Apps for kids
https://www.internetmatters.org/resources/social-media-networks-made-for-kids/
ICON
https://iconcope.org/
Gingerbread: Support for Single-Parent Families
https://www.gingerbread.org.uk/
Mental Health Support
https://giveusashout.org/
Parent Zone - Keeping safe online
https://parentzone.org.uk/article/digital-family-basics-setting-new-tech?utm_source=Parent%20Zone%20Newsletter&utm_campaign=69346bfb78-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_allat17sept_uk_COPY_01&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_1ee27d9000-69346bfb78-179203273
NSPCC
https://learning.nspcc.org.uk/research-resources/schools/resources-sexual-abuse-education-healthy-relationships
Wakefield Safeguarding Board
https://www.wakefieldscp.org.uk/parents-carers/
Keeping Children Safe in Education
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/keeping-children-safe-in-education--2