Safeguarding

Leavening Community Primary School: our aim is that every child feels safe, happy and cared for at all times.

Our school is committed to ensuring the safeguarding and promoting the welfare and safety of all children and expects all staff, governors, visitors and volunteers to share this commitment.

We recognise that:

• the welfare of the child is paramount
• all children regardless of age, disability, gender, racial heritage, religious belief, sexual orientation or identity, have the right to equal protection from all types of harm and abuse.
• working in partnership with children, young people and their parents, carers and other agencies, is essential in promoting young people’s welfare.

Child protection is part of safeguarding and refers to the protection given to specific children who are suffering, or at risk of suffering or harm. Occasionally, we may need to share information and work in partnership with other agencies when there are concerns about a child’s welfare. We will ensure that our concerns about our pupils are discussed with parents and carers first unless we have reason to believe that such a move would be contrary to the child’s welfare.

All North Yorkshire schools, including Leavening Community Primary School, follow the North Yorkshire Safeguarding Children Board procedures. The school will, in most circumstances, endeavour to discuss all concerns with parents about their child/ren. However, there may be exceptional circumstances when the school will discuss concerns with Social Care and/or the Police without parental knowledge (in accordance with Child Protection procedures). The school will, of course, always aim to maintain a positive relationship with all parents.

School Child Protection Policy 2024-2025

School Child Protection Manual

What to do if you are worried a child is being abused

Keeping Children Safe In Education

Designated Safeguarding Leads

The designated safeguarding person for Child Protection is Mrs Sian Mitchell
The deputy designated safeguarding person is Mrs Sarah Bennett
The Governor responsible for Safeguarding is Mrs Emma Isaacs

Click here to view our DSL Key Contacts

The role of DSL is to:

• work with school leaders to ensure safeguarding is at the heart of the school ethos and that all staff are supported in knowing how to recognise and respond to potential concern.
• liaise with the Senior Leadership Team & Safeguarding Link Governors to keep them informed of any safeguarding issues, especially in relation to ongoing enquiries and police investigations.
• as required, liaise with the Local Authority Designated Officers if a concern has arisen regarding a member of staff.
• liaise with staff on matters of safety and safeguarding and when deciding whether to make a referral by liaising with relevant agencies.
• act as a source of support, advice and expertise for staff and the wider school community.

This safeguarding guide is issued to visitors on arrival at school  

Safeguarding & Child Protection Training

Safeguarding is the responsibility of all staff at Leavening Community Primary School. All teachers, teaching assistants and support staff undergo regular training in Safeguarding, including (but not limited to): Child Protection, Safer Recruitment, First Aid, Prevent (the name given to the training which aims to prevent young children becoming radicalised) and Identifying Children at Risk of FGM and other safeguarding risks.

All staff and governors have completed training in Safeguarding and Channel Awareness (Prevent Duty). This training also included attendees reading and agreeing to the DFE’s Keeping Children Safe in Education, the school’s Code of Conduct and the relevant Safeguarding & Child Protection policy documents. All staff also regularly complete annual Health & Safety training and read and agree to the relevant school policy documentation.

How to report safety concerns

https://www.thinkuknow.co.uk/professionals/click-ceop-button/

https://www.nspcc.org.uk/keeping-children-safe/online-safety/online-reporting/

Preventing Radicalisation

Leavening Community Primary School actively supports the Government’s Prevent Agenda to counter radicalism and extremism. The Prevent Strategy Information for Parents explains our responsibilities in protecting children from extremist and violent views. It also supports us in promoting and teaching important values such as tolerance, respect and the celebration of diversity.

Information_for_Parents_on_Prevent_Strategy

Bullying

The aim of our anti-bullying statement is to ensure that pupils learn in a supportive, caring and safe environment without fear of being bullied. This supports our purpose of promoting ‘mutual respect and care as well as belonging’.
Bullying is anti-social behaviour and affects everyone; it is unacceptable and will not be tolerated. Only when all issues of bullying are addressed will pupils be able to benefit fully from the opportunities available at this school. Within the curriculum the school will raise the awareness of the nature of bullying through inclusion in PSHCE, class tutorial time, assemblies and subject areas, as appropriate, in an attempt to eradicate such behaviour.
We are working with staff, pupils and parents to create a school community where bullying is not tolerated.

Our school community:

• Discusses, monitors and reviews our anti-bullying statement on a regular basis.
• Supports staff to identify and tackle bullying appropriately.
• Ensures that parents are aware that all bullying concerns will be dealt with sensitively and effectively.
• Reports back quickly to parents/carers regarding their concerns on bullying.
• Seeks to learn from anti-bullying good practice elsewhere and utilises the support of the LEA and relevant statutory/voluntary organisations when appropriate.
  From ‘Bullying – A Charter for Action’.

We work hard to ensure that any instances of bullying are dealt with quickly and followed up over time. We care deeply about all the children at our school and work closely with children and families to give every child the best experience.

Please see our main policies page to view our latest behaviour policy and anti-bullying statement

Mental Health and Wellbeing

Leavening Community Primary School is a Mentally Healthy School. 

What is this? 

“It is a school that helps children flourish, learn and succeed by providing opportunities for them, and the adults around them, to develop the strengths and coping skills that underpin resilience”.  

Find out more by clicking on this link: Primary : Mentally Healthy Schools

Mental health and emotional wellbeing are important to our lives in just the same way as physical health. At Leavening Community Primary School, we aim to promote positive mental health and wellbeing for our whole school community.

The Department for Education (DfE) recognises that:
“In order to help their children succeed; schools have a role to play in supporting them to be resilient and mentally healthy.”

Children’s mental health is a crucial factor in their overall wellbeing and impacts on their learning and achievement.

Intent

At Leavening we aim to help develop the protective factors which build resilience to mental health problems and to be a school where:

• All children are valued and feel part of the Leavening family.
• Children have a sense of belonging and feel safe.
• Children feel able to talk openly with trusted adults about their problems without feeling any stigma.
• Positive mental health is promoted and valued.
• Bullying is not tolerated.

Implementation

Leavening is a place where children experience a nurturing and supportive environment that can develop self-esteem and give positive experiences to help overcome adversity and build resilience. For some, school will be a place of respite from difficult home lives and so we offer the positive role models and relationships, so critical in promoting children’s wellbeing. This helps create a sense of belonging and community.

We will provide opportunities through our PSHE curriculum; mindfulness opportunities and whole class and individual Relax Kids sessions, visiting speakers and agencies, for all children learn to strategies to stay mentally healthy; how worries and stress can affect their mental health; develop understanding and empathy of those with mental health issues, and knowledge of where or who they can go to if they need help and support;

Impact

Our role in school is to make sure that our children are able to manage times of change and stress. The impact of the learning and support provided in school will ensure that children know:

• What they can do to maintain positive mental health;
• What affects their mental health;
• How they can help reduce the stigma surrounding mental health issues;
• Where or who they can go to if they need help and support.

Please see our main policies page to view the latest Mental Health & Emotional Wellbeing policy

E-Safety

Similar to other pupils across the country, children here at Leavening Community Primary School spend a great deal of time using the internet within school and at home.

We value computing within our school and encourage our children to experience different ways of accessing modern technology. From laptops to tablets, our children are able to access and research a wealth of resources and explore different technologies to suit their learning styles.

The E-Safety of our children is of paramount importance to the school and something that we monitor and revisit regularly with both staff and children.

Our children are continuously reminded about how to stay safe on the internet and how to seek help and advice if they require it. The following links will help both parents and children with e-safety advice and guidance.

The online world is rapidly developing and many of our children now have access to devices which enable them to connect to the internet, take images or video and communicate with others. While it is important not to obstruct them from developing skills from using these devices, it is essential that parents support their children in navigating the online world.

Please see our main policies page to to view our latest E-Safety & Social Media Policy (including Acceptable Use Agreement)

Please click here to view our online safety coverage across the computing and PHSE curriculum

We have a regular visit PC who visits the school to speak to all children about keeping safe on the internet; reinforcing the schools E-safety policies.

Please see attached PowerPoint regarding internet safety.

Below are some links to help you keep your children safe online at home. Please get in touch if you would like any more support. 

Whistleblowing

Should anybody have any concerns regarding the conduct of any adult within our school community, in addition to our Safeguarding & Child Protection Policy, please refer to the following school policies:

Please see our main school policies page for our complaints policy/procedure and whistle-blowing policy 

Operation Encompass

Leavening Primary School participates in Operation Encompass, which is run in partnership with North Yorkshire Police Force.

The project, aims to support children who are affected by Domestic Abuse.  Being exposed to domestic abuse is distressing for a young person, who can often see the abuse, hear it from another room, see a parent’s injuries or distress afterwards or be physically hurt trying to stop the abuse.

As a result, following any domestic abuse incident being reported into the Police, specialist Police Officers will make contact with the school and communicate relevant and necessary information to nominated and trained school staff.  This will ensure that the school is made aware before that start of the next school day and can subsequently provide support in a way that means the child feels safe.

Each school has a member of staff (key adult) who has been fully trained to liaise with the Police, when required, and will ensure that necessary support is made available to the child following the disclosure of a domestic abuse incident. Mrs Mitchell, our headteacher is the key member of staff.

This project demonstrates the schools commitment to working in partnership, to safeguard and protect children, and to providing the best possible care and support for our pupils.

In the meantime, if you would like to speak to someone further about the project or require further information, please do not hesitate to contact Mrs Mitchell at the school.

Other Safeguarding & Child Protection Policies

We have a number of other policies and procedures in place that contribute to keeping children safe which can be viewed on the Key Policies page of our website.

CPOMS (Child Protection Online Management System)

At Leavening, we use CPOMS. This is a software application for monitoring child protection, safeguarding and a whole range of pastoral and welfare issues. The software helps with the management and recording of child protection, behavioural issues, bullying, special educational needs, domestic issues and much much more. By using CPOMS, we can ensure that pupils are safe and fully supported, whilst school staff can focus on teaching and providing support, instead of administration. Every member of staff across school has an obligation to report any concerns which they may have. CPOMS allows them to record information in a central repository and have relevant people alerted immediately.

Pupil Voice