Safeguarding
Safeguarding our pupils
At Buglawton Primary School, the safety and well being of our pupils is at the heart of our work. This means we take child protection very seriously.
At Buglawton Primary School we believe that it is of the utmost importance to have robust systems for protecting children and safeguarding their welfare, throughout all the activities which the school undertakes. All our pupils have a right to be safe and to be treated with respect and dignity and we work effectively with outside agencies to ensure that this is the case.
Safeguarding in school is a very wide area which covers all aspects of keeping children safe at all times. It includes the physical environment of the school buildings and land, a wide range of practices and procedures, and close liaison with a range of other agencies.
As part of our Safeguarding role, we teach all children how to keep themselves and others safe (at an age-appropriate level) through our PSHE, RSE and Computing Curriculums. Children are also given clear information about how to report things they feel uncomfortable about.
We are committed to monitoring and listening to all our pupils to identify possible problems. Where there are serious concerns about a child’s safety, we will share our concerns with the relevant authorities.
We work closely with other agencies such as the Police, Social Care and the Health Service to ensure that children at risk of harm are identified and kept safe.
From time to time, families may find themselves in difficulties which could prove detrimental to their children. We will also work closely with those families so that they are supported to ensure their children’s safety and well-being and signpost them to other agencies who may be able to offer help and support.
Reporting a Concern
Alison Kennerley is the Safeguarding lead in school with Rachael McAvoy and Sam Murray as Deputy Safeguarding leads. The Safeguarding governor is George Hayes. If you are concerned about a child, you should speak to one of these people who will advise a way forward.
If your concerns are outside of school time you can also report these to CHECS on 0300 123 5012 or NSPCC on 0808 800 5000.
It is important for parents to be aware that:
Staff and volunteers in the school have a duty to report concerns about a child, whether this means the child may be in need of additional support or help of some kind or whether it is thought that a child may have been abused or be at risk of abuse.
There are four categories of abuse: physical, sexual, emotional, neglect.
In some cases, the school is obliged to refer children to children’s social care staff, for children to be assessed for their needs or if an investigation into possible child abuse is required. In many cases, there will already have been discussions between school staff and the parents of the child, and the situation and concerns will not be a surprise to the parents.
However, parents may not be told that the school has referred their child to children’s social care if it is thought that this might put the child at risk.
If school staff need to express concerns about a child or refer a child to children’s social care, it is appreciated that this can cause distress or anger for the child’s parents/carers. It is important however that all parties – parents and school staff – try to discuss these matters as reasonably as possible so that the best interests of the child can be secured.
Children’s social care also tries to carry out its enquiries sensitively. It has to gather information with parents about the steps being taken and it is therefore beneficial that discussions are as open and as constructive as possible.
All staff (teachers, teaching assistants, kitchen staff, midday assistants, admin staff, the caretaker and cleaner) complete Basic Awareness of Safeguarding Training every three years with an annual refresher being delivered by the Local Authority's SCIES team. All adults in school are required to wear a Buglawton Primary School identification badge and must electronically sign in each day in the reception area. Visitors to our school are required to electronically sign in at the office on arrival.
All staff, governors, students and volunteers (who are left alone with pupils), undertake a DBS check in school. DBS information is kept on the Single Cenral Record. Any visitors to the school are also supervised by staff members to safeguard our children.
If you have any concerns or notice anything that you feel needs to be reported to someone then please speak to the headteacher. If the headteacher is not available and you have an immediate concern then please speak to the deputy headteacher.
Our Safeguarding Policy can be downloaded below.
Thank you for your help.
Operation Encompass
At Buglawton Primary School we are working in partnership with the Police and Children’s Services to identify and provide appropriate support to pupils who have experienced domestic violence in their household; this scheme is called Operation Encompass.
The purpose of Operation Encompass is to safeguard and support children and young people who have been involved in or witness to a domestic abuse incident.
Domestic abuse impacts on children in a number of ways. Children are at increased risk of physical injury during an incident, either by accident or because they attempt to intervene. Even when not directly injured, children are greatly distressed by witnessing the physical and emotional suffering of a parent.
Operation Encompass has been created to highlight this situation. It is the implementation of key partnership working between the police and schools. The aim of sharing information with local schools is to allow ‘key adults’, such as the Headteacher, Deputy Headteacher and Class Teacher or named Support Staff, the opportunity of engaging with the child and to provide access to support that allows them to remain in a safe but secure familiar environment.
In order to achieve this, the Multi-Agency Safeguarding Team will share police information of all domestic incidents where one of our pupils has been present, with the Designated Safeguarding Lead(s) (DSL).
On receipt of any information, the DSL will decide on the appropriate support the child requires. We will record this information and store this information in line with our Safeguarding Policy.
Further information can be found by clicking on the following link:.jpg){kind=icon}
https://www.operationencompass.org
Emotional Wellbeing and Mental Health Support
We recognise that there are circumstances in our lives when things get difficult. If you are facing a difficult situation that is affecting you and your family then please get in touch so that we can find you the right level of support that you need.
Please find some ideas and activities in the documents on our SEND page.
Buglawton cares and we want to support our families through this, and any other, difficult time.
If you are suffering domestic abuse, please access support as signposted below:
Where children are experiencing emotional difficulties, support and advice can be found here:
East Cheshire :: Cheshire and Wirral Partnership NHS Foundation Trust (mymind.org.uk)
To support children with positive, safe relationships follow this link:
To support children who may be at risk of radicalisation, please view this website:
Parents' Resources - Educate Against Hate
CEOP Education (thinkuknow.co.uk) Protecting children from online sexual abuse