YSGOL SANDYCROFT C P SCHOOL We get on in life because we care Nyrie-Paige Rushby (Year 5) 2012 SAFEGUARDING POLICY STATUTORY POLICY Written: February 2014 Agreed with Governors on: Signed by Chair: Dated: Review Date: Academic Year 2016/17 Sources: LEA guidance and Mountain Lane School 1
Contents: Introduction Health & Safety First Aid Site Security Appointment of Staff Induction of Volunteers Visitors Child Protection The Curriculum including ICT, mobile phones and the Internet Equal Opportunities including Race Behaviour Policy Anti Bullying Policy Photography, Recording and Videoing Whistleblowing Educational Visits Introduction At Sandycroft C P School the children s care, health, safety and wellbeing is of paramount importance to us. Parents send their children to school with the expectation that their children will be in a safe and secure environment where they are happy and can flourish. In order to do this we have a broad range of policies, procedures and practices in place which are summarised below. Health & Safety (See policy for further details) The school has adopted the LA Health and Safety Policy. This is monitored annually via the Governors Premises Committee. The LA provides rigorous guidance and support to ensure audits are completed regularly, which result in action plans to address issues raised. Progress is monitored closely via the Premises Committee throughout the year. The LA completes an audit with the Headteacher and School Health and Safety representative - Tracy McCarron (2012) on a regular basis. Health and Safety files, policy and documents are held in the Headteacher s office and contain all relevant paperwork. Health and Safety is seen as a corporate responsibility with all staff. Risk assessments are completed by a broad range of staff covering visits, classrooms, all areas of the building and grounds, curriculum activities and equipment. Risk assessing is our current Health and Safety action plan priority. 2
Fire and evacuation procedures are clearly displayed throughout the school. Fire drill and evacuation is practiced and recorded each term. Fire break glass points are tested monthly by the Caretaker. CCTV, fire and alarm systems are maintained under an annual contract. Portable appliance tests are completed following LA guidance. A Critical Incident booklet provides guidance for a broad range of incidents details action to be taken by staff in case of emergencies. First Aid In school we have a team of 4 day first aid trained staff who are lead by Candi Munnerley (2013). They oversee and deal with all first aid, assisted by all other staff. First aid kits are situated in several key sites around school, i.e. staff room, office, hall, FP1, FP2 and KS2. Kits are also available for all trips off site. These are maintained by Candi Munnerley half termly. All minor accidents and injuries are logged and noted at the first aid stations by staff. We have 2 first aid stations - 1 in the KS2 department and 1 in the FP2 area. The records are read termly to identify any accident patterns or hot spots. Parents of any child who has a minor accident or injury is given a note to explain and inform them of the incident. Red for head injury and blue for all other injuries. The notes match the log kept in school. Anyone sent home through an accident or injury must have an LA accident form completed on the event within 3 days which is sent to County Health and Safety Department. Our accident procedure is outlined below: 1. A child with a minor injury is sent or accompanied to the First Aid Station for treatment. A 4 day First Aider will attend to the child. The incident is logged and a letter to parents completed. 2. If the injury or accident is of a serious nature, the casualty may need assistance at the site. A First Aider will attend the site of the accident and assess action to be taken with assistance of other staff. 3. If in any doubt, we will telephone for an ambulance and inform parents. First Aider will go with the child if a parent cannot get to school before the ambulance leaves. A staff member will follow in a car to assist at hospital and support the First Aider. 4. All serious accidents will be reviewed after the event to risk assess the event, learn from the event and improve our emergency response. An LA form will be completed. Medicines and Medication Any medication that needs to be given in school will only be given after a parent has completed the appropriate form. Consent by parents and details of the medication must be given prior to school giving any medicine. If appropriate, the medicine will be locked in the First Aid cupboard in the office. 3
Asthma see policy for full details. A clear policy, written with our School Nurse and the Specialist Nurse at Wrexham Hospital ensures safe practice is followed throughout school. The Policy covers storage, appropriate use, emergency procedures, annual training and asthma register. Medical Conditions Each year the school updates a medical list outlining any medical information that staff need to be aware of, e.g. allergies etc. These are discussed and noted at the start of each academic year to ensure all staff are aware of each child s need in their class and department. Site Security To ensure both school and children s safety, there are a broad range of procedures and controls that are put into place. They are All doors are closed after the start of the day, end of break, PE and lunchtimes. Access to visitors is only through the front door via door bell and remote access. All visitors and contractors are asked to sign in and are given an appropriate badge. All staff are to challenge any visitor who does not have a badge and take them to the office. Children will only be allowed to go home with a parent or a parent-approved adult and must be signed out. Children should never leave the site without permission. If they do, there is a procedure in our emergency guidance booklet. Do not chase a child. CCTV is in operation and monitored by an approved company. A CCTV Policy exists for full details, which is adopted from a model LA Policy. Only the Headteacher has access to recorded coverage which is overwritten every 5 days. The school currently has 10 cameras giving almost total coverage of the school building outside. Gates are locked at different times of the day to limit access to the car park and playgrounds. The car park is locked from 8.35am 3.30pm daily. Keys can be accessed via the office. Further fencing is planned during 2012/13 to limit access to the car park further. Children are not permitted to be in the car park at any time unless with specific permission from the Headteacher. Attendance (see full policy for full details) Registers are completed at the start of each session by class teachers. WAG codes are used to record any absence. Teachers who become concerned about regular absences or lateness report their concerns to their department leader, ALNCO/Child Protection coordinator or Headteacher. These concerns are recorded in the school s welfare log, kept in the Headteacher s office. The school holds multi agency meetings at school every 2 3 weeks. These meetings are attended by the Headteacher, ALNCO/Child Protection Coordinator - Deborah Chinery (2014), Inclusion Welfare Officer Anne Griffin (2014) and our School Nurse - Chris Maddocks (2014). The meetings are minuted and cover a range of issues such as attendance figures and concerns, lateness, Health and Welfare concerns and Child Protection. The school identifies children and families who may require further intervention and support with attendance. A range of strategies may be used to improve attendance such as rewards for the 4
child, regular attendance meetings to review progress and set targets and first day absence telephone calls when specific pupils are absent. The school has a large traveller population, approximately 10% (2012), that successfully attend school. Many are settled in the area and their attendance is varied. However, the majority do have relatively low attendance at below 80%. The school works closely with Traveller Support, IWO and the families, to keep our traveller children in school and attending well. In addition to this, many of our families do travel for prolonged periods. An agreement with our IWO and the LA has been established to cover their absence when travelling. Under normal circumstances, if a child had not attended school for a 2 week period, with no reason given or contact made, we would remove them from our roll. If we were unsure of where they were and had no contact, we would liaise with Children s Services and our IWO as to the next action to take in relation to a missing child. However, with our travelling community, they often tell us they will be away travelling for a prolonged period but will return. In this case, it has been agreed with LA & IWO to keep them enrolled as travelling for a maximum of 18 months as they have said they will return. If they leave without any warning or indication of return, we will keep on roll for a maximum of 12 months. If another school contacts us confirming the child has enrolled at their school, we have been advised by the IWO/LA to dual register them. We have an excellent relationship with our traveller community and respect their rights to travel. Almost all return to us after a period of travelling. Staffing, Governors, Students and Work Placements (see CRB/DBS policy for further details). Work placements from our local high schools are managed through close liaison with High School Staff, our school coordinator Andrea Baldwin (2012) and department leaders. Student placements on teacher training or NVQ placement must have DBS checks in place. It is the responsibility of the college or university to ensure this is provided. It is the coordinators role to check this is done. NVQ coordinator is Andrea Baldwin (2012) and student teacher is Alison Holmes/Sarah Coy (2012). All staff and Governors, upon appointment, will have a DBS check completed before they start work in school. A CRB/DBS register is kept in school following our school policy adopted from the LA model policy. These will be renewed every 3 years in line with our policy. Parent & Voluntary Helpers All parent and voluntary helpers must have CRB/DBS checks in place before they can help in any capacity in school, e.g. readers, trips, swimming, discos, etc. Details should be kept in line with the CRB/DBS policy. Department leaders support and mentor our parent/voluntary helpers in their role. Parents/voluntary helpers are given a welcome booklet (written by Andrea Baldwin) upon joining the school. 5
Visitors It is expected that professional visitors such as IWO, Police, Social Workers and LA Advisory Staff will have relevant CRB/DBS clearance. However, other visitors such as parents, contractors, artists, etc., who may be visiting a class or group of children for 1 event, will be assumed not to have CRB clearance. Therefore, they should have appropriate badges and not be left alone with children during their visit. Child Protection (See Policy for further details) Sandycroft C P School follows the All Wales Guidance for Child Protection. The Child Protection Coordinators are D Chinery and A Liptrot (2014). The designated Governor is the Chair of the Curriculum Committee Jane Bellis (2014). In addition to a Policy, we have a flow chart to enable staff to follow the procedures easily and quickly. All staff are appropriately training to Level 1 or Level 2 in line with the All Wales Guidance. A register of those trained is held in school. Any new staff are provided with training upon appointment via our IWO. Updated refresher training will be given every 2 years. The Curriculum, Including Educational Visits & Internet Safety Our school has a clear PSE curriculum which is designed to cover a broad range of topics such as drugs, sex and relationships, stranger danger and internet safety. We follow the agreed and recommended LA scheme which has been approved by the Governors Curriculum Committee. This is also supported by our School Nurse where and when it is appropriate. In addition to this, North Wales Police support the PSE curriculum with a series of lessons throughout the school year, covering topics such as Stranger Danger, Keeping Safe, Drug & Alcohol Abuse and Behaviour & Internet/Mobile Phone Safety. Parents are also offered the opportunity to see the resources and videos we use with different year groups. Internet use in school is heavily protected by the LA firewall and filters. Children will always be supervised when working on the internet. All staff have agreed and signed our Acceptable Use Policy which was adopted from the LA model policy. Our school has also introduced an E-Safety Policy and Scheme of Work. This is helping to develop and improve pupils safety. In relation to other areas of the curriculum, such as PE, Art, DT, etc, activities are managed safely by ensuring appropriate equipment is used and supervised. Safe practices are taught within the lessons with regard to using the equipment appropriately. Staff are developing their use of risk assessment forms. Educational visits are planned, risk assessed and follow our school policy adopted from the LA model policy. All trips are carefully planned and follow clear procedure. The EVC Coordinator for the school is Michael Fryer (2014). Equal Opportunities (See Diversity and Equality Policy for full details) 6
The school has updated its policy in line with the Equality Act which will cover all areas of equal opportunities. At Sandycroft C P School we are opposed to all forms of discrimination based upon age, disability, race, religion, gender, identity, sexual orientation, family background or language. Behaviour Policy (See policy for full details) Our School Behaviour Policy is built upon rewarding positive behaviour through a broad range of strategies. However, should a child choose to break our simple set of rules, we have a clear set of sanctions. Our policy was written with the support of LA Officers and with staff, children, parents and Governors. Anti Bullying Policy (See policy for full details) Bullying is the deliberate intention to repeatedly threaten, frighten, intimidate or hurt someone else. This applies to anyone, adult or child, in Sandycroft C P School. The school will take clear and firm action regarding any form of bullying. Both adults and children are encouraged to report any incidents where they think bullying may be taking place. The school will investigate each incident thoroughly and take appropriate action. Photograph, Recording & Videoing (See policy for full details) Upon entry to school, all parents will complete a form to show if they consent to the school taking photographs or recording their child in school. This may be used in a range of school based activities such as assessments, recording progress, pupil profiles, newsletters or the school web site. Parents who choose to photograph or video seasonal performances are asked not to place the media on any social networking sites to protect children s identity. Whistleblowing (See policy for full details) The school has adopted the LA model policy. If any member of staff has any concerns about any adult working in school, paid or not, they should raise their concerns and be prepared to discuss any issues in confidence. This can be done in writing or verbally with senior staff, Chair of Governors or LA Officer. C A LIPTROT February 2014 7
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