Safeguarding Statement
The term safeguarding refers to the obligations some organisations (including schools) have to protect people’s health, wellbeing and human rights, and to ensure a person does not suffer from harm, abuse or neglect. People in particular need of safeguarding include children, young people, and adults with learning difficulties, disabilities or who are receiving care.
The government defines safeguarding in the context of education as:
- protecting children from maltreatment
- preventing the impairment of children’s mental and physical health or development
- ensuring that children grow up in circumstances consistent with the provision of safe and effective care
- taking action to enable all children to have the best outcomes
Ofsted, the schools inspectorate for England, describes what good safeguarding in an education setting should look like:
“It is about the culture a school creates to keep its pupils safe so that they can benefit fully from all that schooling offers. A positive and open safeguarding culture puts pupils’ interests first. Everyone who works with children is vigilant in identifying risks and reporting concerns. It is also about working openly and transparently with parents, local authorities and other stakeholders to protect pupils from serious harm, both online and offline, and about taking prompt and proportionate action.”
House of Lords Library, Safeguarding in Schools, November 2023
At Galton Valley:
We are committed to ensuring the welfare and safety of all children at Galton Valley Primary School. It is paramount that we provide a safe and secure environment for children, staff and visitors, and promote a climate where children feel confident sharing concerns about their own safety or for the well-being of others. It is important that our school is transparent and open, and that staff remain vigilant when it comes to managing the welfare and interests of our pupils.
We will seek to keep children safe by:
- valuing, listening to and respecting them
- Establish and maintain an ethos where pupils feel safe and secure (happy and safe)
- appointing a Designated Safeguarding Lead (DSL), Sarah Hudson, for children and young people, and a Deputy Designated Safeguarding Lead (DDSL), Sorrell Hughes.
- involving all stakeholders: staff, governors, parents and pupils.
- adopting child protection and safeguarding best practice through our policies, procedures and code of conduct for staff and volunteers
- developing and implementing an effective online safety policy and related procedures
- providing effective management for staff and volunteers through supervision, support, training and quality assurance measures so that all staff and volunteers know about and follow our policies, procedures and behaviour codes confidently and competently recruiting and selecting staff and volunteers safely, ensuring all necessary checks are made
- recording and storing and using information professionally and securely, in line with data protection legislation and guidance [more information about this is available from the Information Commissioner’s Office: ico.org.uk/for organisations]
- sharing information about safeguarding and good practice with children and their families via leaflets, posters, group work and one-to-one discussions
- making sure that children, young people and their families know where to go for help if they have a concern
- using our safeguarding and child protection procedures to share concerns and relevant information with agencies who need to know, and involving children, young people, parents, families and carers appropriately
- using our procedures to manage any allegations against staff and volunteers appropriately
- creating and maintaining an anti-bullying environment and ensuring that we have a policy and procedure to help us deal effectively with any bullying that does arise
- ensuring that we have effective complaints and whistleblowing measures in place
- ensuring that we provide a safe physical environment for our children, young people, staff and volunteers, by applying health and safety measures in accordance with the law and regulatory guidance
- building a safeguarding culture where staff and volunteers, children, young people and their families, treat each other with respect and are comfortable about sharing concerns.
- Pupils are taught safeguarding context through PSHE lessons and also though assemblies and workshops delivered by our own staff outside agencies