Safeguarding
Maypole Primary School is a community and all those directly connected (staff, governors, parents, families and pupils) have an essential role to play in making it safe and secure. Maypole Primary School recognises our moral and statutory responsibility to safeguard and promote the welfare of all children.
Maypole Primary School recognises the importance of providing an ethos and environment within school that will help children to feel safe, secure and respected; encourage them to talk openly; and enable them to feel confident that they will be listened to. We are alert to the signs of abuse and neglect and follow our procedures to ensure that children receive effective support, protection and justice.
Our school core safeguarding principles are:
- It is a whole school responsibility to safeguard and promote the welfare of children as its paramount concern
- All children regardless of age, gender, ability, culture, race, language, religion or sexual identity, have equal rights to protection
- All children have a right to be heard and to have their wishes and feelings taken into account
- All staff understand safe professional practice and adhere to our code of conduct and other associated policies
All staff have a responsibility to recognise vulnerability in children and act on any concern in accordance with the school’s Child Protection Policy.
We listen to our pupils and take seriously what they tell us. All school staff are trained annually in Child Protection, and children are made aware of the adults they can talk to if they have any concerns. Staff are trained to look out for signs of physical/emotional harm or neglect and are required to report these to the trained Designated Safeguarding Leads, all of whom are members of our Senior Leadership Team.
The procedures, which we follow at Maypole Primary School are consistent with those of Kent Safeguarding Children Board (KSCB) and the school has adopted a Child Protection Policy adapted from Kent’s exemplar Safeguarding Policy for Schools – August 2016, based on DfE guidance for implementation from September 2016.
On rare occasions, our concern about a child requires us to consult other agencies. We will ensure that all concerns are discussed with parent/carers first, before any referrals are made, unless we believe that such a move may be contrary to a child’s welfare.
To promote a safe environment for pupils, our selection and recruitment policy includes all checks on staff, governors and regular volunteers’ suitability, including Disclosure and Barring Service checks, as recommended by Kent County Council in accordance with current legislation.
Designated Safeguarding Leads:
Mrs L. Mitchell (Executive Headteacher)
Miss K. McCann (Head of School)
Miss M. Kainth (Assistant Headteacher)
If you want to know more about our procedures, please speak to one of the safeguarding leads above or your child’s class teacher.
Useful Web Links for Parents / Carers
Print this guide: What are parental tools?
Parent e-safety Information Articles - feed.parentinfo.org/articles/all/
Kent Safeguarding Children Board (KSCB) – provides information and advice if you are worried about a child and details how to report serious child protection concerns where a child is considered to be at risk. http://www.kscb.org.uk/
See also Kent and Medway Safeguarding Children Procedure: http://www.proceduresonline.com/kentandmedway/
RADICALISATION
Maypole Primary School recognises that exposure of children (and adults) to extremist ideology can hinder their social development and educational attainment alongside posing a very real risk that they could support or partake in an act of violence. Radicalisation of young people can be compared to grooming for sexual exploitation.
PREVENT STATEGY
Prevent is part of CONTEST, the government’s strategy to address terrorism. The main aim of Prevent is to stop young people from becoming terrorists or supporting terrorism. Prevent focuses on all forms of terrorist threats e.g. international terrorism, and far right terrorism.
The government’s advice for schools can be found in the following Prevent Duty document:
https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/439598/prevent-duty-departmental-advice-v6.pdf
All staff and our designated safeguarding governor(s) at Maypole Primary School complete annually an e-learning training package developed by The National Counter Terrorism Policing Headquarters (NCTPHQ), in conjunction with the College of Policing which includes guidance on how to identify people who may be vulnerable to being drawn into terrorism, and how to refer them into the Channel process.
DfE guidance Keeping Children Safe in Education 2019
Online-Safety-Policy-September 2017
Procedures for Managing Allegations Against Staff
Working Together to Safeguard Children 2015