Safeguarding 

Keeping children safe in education is our priority 

At Christ Church Academy, the health, safety and welfare of our children are of paramount importance to us.   We respect our pupils and want to provide them with a stimulating and safe environment that encourages them to do their best.

Should any parent, carer or member of the community have any safeguarding concerns please contact Leanne Grimshaw at the school on 01274 410349 or you can make a direct referral to social care on 01274 435600

 

In order to keep our children safe at school, we

• ensure that all our staff – through their induction and on-going training – have a clear understanding of their responsibilities towards our children’s safeguarding
• make sure that we have a range of clear and up to date policies and procedures in place to ensure the safety and protection of our pupils in all aspects of school life
• ensure that we teach our pupils how to keep themselves healthy and safe – in and out of school
• ensure that we audit our safeguarding practices regularly so we remain vigilant

 

Staff with key safeguarding responsibilities

• Our designated safeguarding leader is our Assistant Headteacher, Miss Grimshaw
• Mrs Foster, our Headteacher, oversees safeguarding in our school and is informed of all safeguarding matters within school
• Our other named persons are: Mrs Nightingale, Mrs Gallagher, Mrs Conroy and Mrs Best
• The School Business Manager, Mr Chell, is responsible for all aspects of site health and safety alongside Mrs Foster (Headteacher)
• Mrs Gallagher – Year 1 Class Teacher/Designated Teacher of looked after and previously looked after children

 

Values

The term ‘safeguarding’ encompasses the whole range of issues. It starts with our Christian and British Values that we instil in our children from their first day at Christ Church Academy. Values such as tolerance, trust and compassion – alongside friendship, mutual respect and kindness means that we have an open and honest atmosphere at school, where children are nurtured and taught that they are able to confide in any adult if they are worried about anything.

Behaviour

We have very clear expectations of our children’s behaviour and a set of school rules that are regularly discussed in class and whole school assemblies. In addition at the beginning of each year, children discuss with their Class teachers their own classroom rules and they are expected to follow them. Our Home School Agreement also plays a vital part in connecting parents and families at home with the behaviour expectations we wish to see in school. Our children learn from an early age that bullying in any form is not tolerated and that we expect our staff to act as exemplary role models.

Inclusion And Equality

The school has a commitment to equality and accessibility for all and we believe that everyone should be treated with care and respect. Our children are explicitly taught that any form of discrimination on grounds of race, religion, sexuality or disability is wrong. In our weekly circle time, BASE, PHSCE, our RE lessons and assemblies we explore different ideas, cultures, faiths and beliefs to broaden our pupil’s awareness of the world and we teach tolerance and mutual respect.

Safeguarding in our curriculum

In addition to teaching our children about behaviour and attitudes, we also equip them with a range of practical learning via the curriculum to help keep them safe and healthy throughout their lives. We have designed a ‘safeguarding  curriculum’ which will teach the children that they can be responsible for their own safeguarding and that there are many people who they can trust to help them if they are ever worried or scared about anything. We teach them day-to-day strategies for staying safe, from the importance of washing their hands and being hygenic, to protecting themselves from cyber-bullying or other forms of abuse.

From Key Stage 1 are children are taught about the importance of staying safe on line. At Christ Church Academy – we have very clear E-safety guidelines for both staff and children and everyone signs an Acceptable Use Agreement before they use a computer. As this is a constantly changing world, we try to provide children and parents with as much up-to-date information as we can about practical ways to safe on the internet and E-safety teaching is incorporated regularly into all ICT lessons.

First Aid and Medical Needs

In addition to safeguarding and child protection training, a number of our teachers and teaching assistants have first aid and paediatric first aid qualifications.

First Aid co-coordinator – Miss K Bellwood

Mental Health First Aid co-coordinators

Staff Mental Health First Aider – Mrs Foster

Student Mental Health First Aiders –

Mrs Grimshaw

Miss Bellwood

Mrs Nightingale

Volunteers And Visitors

We also make sure that any volunteer or visitor to school – which includes the staff who run our after school clubs – visits the School office to sign in and read school information on safeguarding. Volunteers and visitors are not be left unsupervised with any children at any time unless they are regular volunteers who have completed a DBS check. All visitors and volunteers are asked to read Keeping Children Safe in Education 2020. Our Volunteer co-coordinator is Miss C Lea.

Site Safety

Ensuring that the school site is safe and risk assessed is the responsibility of our Business Manager. We have a comprehensive Health and Safety policy to ensure that our premises are safe for all. This includes undertaking risk assessments for all school activities (including Friends events) and trips, as well as for aspects of the site.

Operation Encompass 

Our school is part of Operation Encompass which is a national scheme that operates jointly between schools and police forces. Operation Encompass is the reporting to schools, prior to the start of the next school day, when a child or young person has experienced domestic abuse.

Please click the link for more information. OE-School-to-Parent-letter-2021

Further Safeguarding Information From Ofsted

For further information about keeping children safe in school, you can download two documents from Ofsted on our ‘policies’ section of our website (Keeping Children Safe in Education 2020 and Working Together to Safeguard Children 2018).

 

USEFUL INFORMATION FOR PARENTS

NSPCC Learn the underwear rule

Click here to open a great leaflet produced by the NSPCC about how to talk to your child in simple language about keeping safe from abuse.  It’s called Talk Pants And You’ve Got It Covered.

Educate Against Hate

is a website recently launched as a tool for parents and schools to help protect children from the risk of radicalisation. You can access the new site here.

Toilet Training

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