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Safeguarding

Our prime responsibility as a school is to ensure that all children in it are safe. Using the 'Working Together to Safeguard Children in 2023' guidance, safeguarding can be defined as ‘The process of protecting children from maltreatment, preventing impairment of children's health and development, ensuring that children are growing up in circumstances consistent with the provision of safe and effective care and taking actions to enable all children to have the best outcomes'. School obviously plays a crucial role in this.  Staff training is regular to ensure that children's needs are always put first and that the appropriate care and support is provided. Our training (for staff and governors) is based on this document.

Safeguarding is not just about protecting children from deliberate harm, neglect and failure to act. It relates to broader aspects of care and education including health, safety and well-being, meeting the needs of children with medical conditions, providing first aid, educational visits, intimate care, and emotional well-being, the use of reasonable force, online safety and associated issues and ensuring appropriate arrangements to ensure security taking into account the local context. The school has full-time Learning Mentors (Mrs Lynn Mildren and Mrs. Nicky Tapp) to support all children (and their families) in school at times of challenge. 

Deanshanger Primary School is fully committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of all children in our care. Our school's safeguarding policy (based on Keeping Children Safe in Education 2023) is attached below.

 

In our latest Ofsted visit (June 2019), the inspectors stated.

  • The arrangements for safeguarding are effective.
  • Leaders ensure that staff receive relevant training and updates, including on radicalisation and extremism. All staff understand their responsibilities and are clear on how to report any concerns.
  • Governors are diligent in checking school procedures.
  • The culture of safeguarding in the school is evident. Pupils spoken to by inspectors said that they feel very safe, because they trust all adults to help them sort out any issues. Teaching children about how to keep themselves safe is given a high priority by leaders. Pupils are knowledgeable about how to keep themselves safe online. 
  • Case studies and records seen by inspectors show that vulnerable children and their families are effectively supported. Leaders work tenaciously to secure support from external agencies where required.

Our procedures and policies supporting safeguarding include – 

Safeguarding, Behaviour, E-Safety, Allegation, Data Protection, Child-Friendly Peer on Peer Abuse Policy and Children with Medical Conditions. These can all be found on the 'Policies and other important documents' of our website. Copies of these policies can also be obtained from the school office. Safeguarding posters are also displayed prominently around the school.

 If we have any concerns about a child's safety we will speak to parents and carers in the first instance. Often through us talking things through, the concerns that have been raised are explained or further support is arranged and we move forward from there. Very occasionally we have concerns are raised that we may feel, that by talking directly with you, may put the child more at risk.  In some instances these cases are then referred to Social Services.  This procedure enables us to protect children at risk and we make no apology for taking the attitude that where there are grounds for suspicion it is better to be safe than sorry.  Unfortunately, this means that we risk upsetting some parents by reporting a case, which upon investigation proves unfounded.

In these instances we might call MASH - Multi-Agency Safeguarding Hub. The Multi-Agency Safeguarding Hub (MASH) deals with referrals from professionals and members of the public who may have concerns about a child’s welfare following contact with the helpline that is now also based in the Multi-Agency Safeguarding Hub. It makes the process of dealing with referrals quicker and more effective by improving the way county council: Children’s social care, Northamptonshire Fire and Rescue Service (NFRS), Youth Offending Service (YOS) and education, work alongside other partner agency colleagues including Northamptonshire police, Northamptonshire health partners, National Probation Service, and the East Midlands Ambulance Service (EMAS) to share information. Click here for more information about their role. 

To contact by telephone - Multi-Agency Safeguarding Hub: 0300 126 1000 and by email: MASH@northamptonshire.gcsx.gov.uk

If you have concerns about the safety or well-being of any child, you can contact the members of staff with designated responsibility, or alternatively, our lead governor for safeguarding, Mrs Emma Satchwell-Graham.

 

Mrs. Rachel Rice – Head teacher   Designated Safeguarding Lead                                                                              head@deanshanger.northants-ecl.gov.uk 

Mr Mike Pennington – Deputy Headteacher / Year 6 teacher   Deputy Designated Safeguarding Lead   deputy@deanshanger.northants.sch.uk

Mrs Natalie Parsonson – SENCo      Deputy Designated Safeguarding Lead       

SENCo@deanshanger.northants.sch.uk                                                           

Mrs. Lynn Mildren - Learning Mentor     Deputy Designated Safeguarding Lead                                                       lmildren@deanshanger.northants.sch.uk

Miss Steph Forward  Phase 1 Leader / Year 1 teacher

sforward@deanshanger.northants.sch.uk

Alternatively, you can contact Northants County Council Call – 0300 126 1000 (extended opening hours) and/or visit the Northamptonshire County Council's Safeguarding Children Board.

E-Safety

We are committed to ensuring that all children in the school are aware of how to keep themselves safe online and that our curriculum ensures this and teaches the skills required. We regularly share updates in our newsletters and also send out reminders as and when issues arise. Our E-Safety Policy outlines full details of our role in keeping children safe online.  Click here for advice from Northamptonshire County Council. 

One area of safeguarding support that is often touched on is regarding gaming and access to youtube etc. We recognise how easy access is and how it can be challenging to know the different ratings for materials and how appropriate they are.  Children do tend to replicate games in their play and games with a higher rating than their age, really do cause concerning language and aggressive games choices.  With older siblings we recognise how challenging it can be to limit choices, but we do urge you to carefully monitor your children's choices.  National Online Safety have some very supportive advice and guidance; the following leaflets may also be useful - Grand Theft Auto Guide for Parents and a very interesting guide - Do video games actually cause violent behaviour.

For further fact sheets regarding E-safety topics, please see below -

Fortnite      Snapchat     Instagram      Squid Games     Twitch    Tik-tok      Loot boxes and skins betting

WhatsApp       Child Safety on YouTube Kids        Keep your child safe on YouTube        Your child's screen time

Fake news and disinformation online 

 

The NSPCC have a programme - Share Aware to support parents in keeping their children safe when using social networking sites. Click here for full information about the scheme. 

For the latest newsletter from Northamptonshire Safeguarding Children Board, click here

Purple Mash, the digital site that we use across the school to support teaching and learning and computing, have created a very comprehensive parent guide - Parenting in a Digital World

Here are some other useful links for you to share with your children at home.

For pupils and parents in KS1 and KS2 regarding keeping safe online from CEOP - Thinkuknow

Online support for exploitation and abuse - CEOP

Further information from UK Safer Internet Centre

 

Preventing Radicalisation

Protecting children from the risk of radicalisation is  part of our schools’ wider safeguarding duties, and is similar in nature to protecting children from other forms of harm and abuse. During the process of radicalisation it is possible to intervene to prevent vulnerable people being radicalised.

Radicalisation refers to the process by which a person comes to support terrorism and forms of extremism. There is no single way of identifying an individual who is likely to be susceptible to an extremist ideology. It can happen in many different ways and settings. Specific background factors may contribute to vulnerability which are often combined with specific influences such as family, friends or online, and with specific needs for which an extremist or terrorist group may appear to provide an answer. The internet and the use of social media in particular has become a major factor in the radicalisation of young people.

Extremism is vocal or active opposition to fundamental British values, including democracy, the rule of law, individual liberty and mutual respect and tolerance of different faiths and beliefs. We also include in our definition of extremism calls for the death of members of our armed forces, whether in this country or overseas.

As with other safeguarding risks, staff should be alert to changes in children’s behaviour which could indicate that they may be in need of help or protection. Staff should use their judgement in identifying children who might be at risk of radicalisation and act proportionately which may include making a referral to the Channel programme.

Prevent

Schools are expected to assess the risk of children being drawn into terrorism, including support for extremist ideas that are part of a terrorist ideology. This means being able to demonstrate both a general understanding of the risks affecting children and young people in the area and a specific understanding of how to identify individual children who may be at risk of radicalisation and what to do to support them. 

The Prevent duty builds on existing local partnership arrangements. For example, governing bodies and proprietors of all schools should ensure that their safeguarding arrangements take into account the policies and procedures of the Local Safeguarding Children Board. Effective engagement with parents / the family should also be considered as they are in a key position to spot signs of radicalisation. It is important to assist and advise families who raise concerns and be able to point them to the right support mechanisms. Here at Deanshanger, we would discuss any concerns in relation to possible radicalisation with a child’s parents in line with our safeguarding policies and procedures unless we have specific reasons to believe that to do so would put the child at risk. Parents/Carers can find numerous supporting resources from Educate Against Hate. 

At Deanshanger Primary School staff completed Prevent training in January 2024. This will further enable us to protect children from the risk of radicalisation.