Barford Primary School

Safeguarding at Barford Primary School

Safeguarding children is of paramount importance to us at Barford Primary School and is the responsibility of every adult within our school community.  If you have any concerns about the welfare of any child in our school, please do not hesitate to speak to one of our Designated Safeguarding Leads.

Safeguarding is an umbrella term and covers many more aspects than just child protection.

Child Protection is protecting children from identified risks – originally focused on abuse at home now a wider concept to include bullying, abuse through new technologies etc.

Safeguarding extends child protection to include preventing harm and promoting the well-being of children.

Safeguarding is:

• Protecting children from maltreatment
• Preventing impairment of a child’s health or development
• Ensuring that children are growing up in circumstances consistent with the provisions of safe and effective care
• Create opportunities to enable children to have optimum life chances in adulthood.
• (2004 Children’s Act)

School Policy

Barford Primary School recognises the responsibility it has under Section 175 of the Education Act 2002 and the requirements of the 'Safeguarding Children in Education' to have arrangements in place to safeguard and promote the welfare of children.

Through their day-to-day contact with pupils and direct work with families, staff at the school have a crucial role to play in noticing indicators of possible abuse or neglect and referring them to the appropriate agency, normally the appropriate Children’s Team (Social Care).

‘Under the Education Act 2002 (Section 175 for maintained schools), schools must make arrangements to safeguard and promote the welfare of children.  Parents/carers should know that the law (Children Act 1989) requires all school staff to pass on information which gives rise to a concern about a child’s welfare, including risk from neglect, physical, emotional or sexual abuse.  Staff will seek, in general, to discuss any concerns with the parent/carer and discuss the need to make a referral to Children’s Social Care if that is considered necessary.  This will only be done where such discussion will not place the child at increased risk of significant harm or cause undue delay.  The school will seek advice from Children’s Social Care when they have reasonable cause to suspect a child may be suffering or likely to suffer significant harm.  Occasionally, concerns are passed on which are later found to be unfounded.  Parents/carers will appreciate that the school’s Designated Safeguarding Lead carries out their responsibilities in accordance with the law and acts in the best interests of all children.’

This policy sets out how the school’s Governing Body discharges its statutory responsibilities relating to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children who are pupils at the school.

Four of the main elements to our Policy:

• Prevention through the teaching and pastoral support offered to pupils and the creation and maintenance of a whole school protective ethos.
• Procedures for identifying and reporting cases, or suspected cases, of abuse.
• Support to pupils who may have been abused.
• Preventing unsuitable people working with children through safer recruitment practices

Our Policy applies to all staff and volunteers working in the school (education support services).  Teaching assistants, mid-day supervisors, site staff, office staff as well as teachers can be the first point of disclosure for a child.  Concerned parents may also contact school Governors.

View our Safeguarding and Child Protection Policy 2023 here

Online Safety

We teach our children and families about ways to stay safe online. Our ICT lead holds online safety safeguarding assemblies and we run parent workshops to ensure our parents are fully equipped so that they can safeguard their children online.

At Barford we have our own online safety Hub, where parents can access lots of information to help them feel confident in supporting their children. Click on the picture below to visit the site.

Barford Primary School works hard to ensure that new technologies are used well to enhance learning opportunities. However, we recognise that children, parents, staff and governors need training on how to deal with online safety issues. We believe that children need to be aware of these issues in order to protect themselves and also to enable them to take advantage of the wealth of information that the Internet offers.

Online Safety at Barford is comprehensive and is embedded through:

• a progressive ‘Digital Literacy’ curriculum that is taught in every year group staff training, delivered annually (or more often if appropriate), as possible risks from new technologies arise;

• an Acceptable Use Policy;
• forensic software (Securus) to monitor acceptable use;
• parent updates and support via newsletters and the website;
• our Safer Internet Policy which is updated annually.