Safeguarding - Hindley Junior and Infant School

There is no issue of greater importance to us at Hindley J&I than the safety of our children. We are committed to safeguarding and safer recruitment, for all our pupils.

Scope

Hindley J&I School is fully committed to the safeguarding of our children – ensuring the well being of children is paramount. For pupils to feel that they are able to do their best and achieve their true potential, it is important that they feel safe and supported in our school environment.
Everyone working within our school, whatever their role, is acutely aware that issues to do with the protection of children are of the highest possible importance. Trust underpins everything that we do in school. The parents of our children entrust the care of their children to us, and together we are all responsible for their well being.

In relation to safeguarding, Hindley J&I aims to ‘prevent’, ‘protect’ and ‘support’ all of our children by addressing child protection in the curriculum, pastoral activities, the management of the school, and by empowering and enabling staff to be vigilant for vulnerable students through regular, ongoing training and the dissemination of information. We also involve our children in regular assemblies with visiting agencies and workshops which will enable them to stay safe online, in school and at home.

What do we do?

These of some of the procedures we put into place to support safeguarding:

high-quality leadership and management that makes safeguarding a priority across all aspects of our school’s work
stringent vetting procedures in place for all staff and other adults
rigorous safeguarding policies and procedures in place, compliant with statutory requirements and updated regularly
child protection arrangements that are accessible to everyone, so that pupils and families, as well as adults in our school, know who they can talk to if they are worried
excellent communication systems with up-to-date information that can be accessed and shared by those who need it
a high priority given to training in safeguarding, generally going beyond basic requirements, extending expertise widely and building internal capacity
robust arrangements for site security, understood and applied by all staff and pupils
a curriculum that is flexible, relevant and engages our children’s interest; that is used to promote safeguarding, not least through teaching pupils how to stay safe, how to protect themselves from harm and how to take responsibility for their own and others’ safety
workshops to support parents, including an ‘online safety’ workshop where we discuss potential dangers that children face online
courteous and responsible behaviour by our children, enabling everyone to feel secure and well-protected
well thought out and workable day-to-day arrangements to protect and promote pupils’ health and safety
rigorous monitoring of absence, with timely and appropriate follow-up, to ensure our children attend regularly
risk assessment taken seriously and used to good effect in promoting safety

Sometimes 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/carers first, unless we have a reason to believe that such a move would be contrary to the child’s welfare.

We actively support the Government’s Prevent Agenda to counter radicalism and extremism.

Hindley J&I Safeguarding Team

If you want to know more about our procedures, please speak to one of the following:
Designated safeguarding lead: Mrs Kathryn Radcliffe (Assistant Headteacher)
Deputy safeguarding lead: Miss Adele Mckeever (Headteacher)
Deputy safeguarding lead : Miss Daisy Egan (Assistant Headteacher)

The Difference Between Safeguarding and Child Protection

People sometimes wonder what the difference is between the terms safeguarding and child protection.
In practice, safeguarding is the policies and practices that schools and Governing Bodies employ to keep children safe and promote their well-being. This means everything from security of the buildings, to the safe recruitment of staff and everything in between. This diagram sets out what Safeguarding means in schools:

As you can see, child protection is one aspect of safeguarding. Child protection is a term used to describe the activity that is undertaken to protect specific children who are suffering or likely to suffer significant harm.

Help and advice for parents

As parents, you want to make sure that your children develop healthily and thrive. We are here should we need to help you with advice on how you can build strong relationships with your children and keep them safe. Here is some advice and resources for helping parents to keep their children safe, advice for parents on keeping children safe out of school, at home and online, when using the internet, social networking websites and playing online games, as well as help and advice for creating a safe and nurturing environment for your children.

Useful Safeguarding Links and Contacts

If you require further assitance, or wish to self refer to the Early Help team at Wigan council, the contact details are provided below:
Wigan Early Help Hub/Referral Team – 01942 486262