Safeguarding

Keeping children safe in education is our priority and the resposibility of everyone at our school including staff, Governors, parents, volunteers and families.

The health, safety and welfare of our children and staff are of paramount importance to us. We respect our pupils and want to provide them with a stimulating and safe environment that encourages them to do their best. 

We believe that the best interests of children always come first. All our children are encouraged to voice a concern and opportunities are regulaly provided for them to understand how the staff at school can help them best. 

In order to keep our children safe at school, we

• ensure that all our staff – through their induction and on going training - have a clear understanding of their responsibilities towards our children’s safeguarding
• make sure that we have a range of clear and up to date policies and procedures in place to ensure the safety and protection of our pupils in all aspects of school life
• ensure that we teach our pupils how to keep themselves healthy and safe – in and out of school
• ensure that we audit our safeguarding practices regularly so we remain vigilant

Our School Values

The term ‘safeguarding’ encompasses the whole range of issues. It starts with our values that we instil in our children from their first day at St James Primary. Values such as kindness, respect, perseverance and wisdom teach children to be safe and be respectful.  We have an open and honest atmosphere at school, where children are nurtured and taught that they are able to confide in any adult if they are worried about anything.

Behaviour

We have very clear expectations of our children’s behaviour and these are regularly discussed in class and whole school assemblies. In addition at the beginning of each year, children discuss with their class teachers their own classroom rules and they are expected to follow them.  Our children learn from an early age that bullying in any form is not tolerated here and that we expect our staff to act as exemplary role models.  You can find out more about the Restorative Justice approach we use in school.

Inclusion And Equality

The school has a commitment to inclusion, equality and accessibility for all and we believe that everyone at St James Primary School should be treated with care and respect. Our children are explicitly taught that any form of discrimination on grounds of race, religion, sexuality or disability is wrong. In PSHE, our RE lessons and assemblies we explore different ideas, cultures, faiths and beliefs to broaden our pupil’s awareness of the world and we teach tolerance and mutual respect.

Teaching And Learning

In addition to teaching our children about behaviour and attitudes, we also equip them with a range of practical learning via the curriculum to help keep them safe and healthy throughout their lives. Our PE and PHSE lessons include education on healthy diet, the importance of exercise, road and pedestrian safety, stranger danger and how to deal with bullying. Our older children learn about sex, healthy relationships and drugs as well as more practical lessons such as cycle training and road safety.

From Key Stage 1 our children are taught about the importance of staying safe online. We have very clear E-safety guidelines for both staff and children and everyone signs an Acceptable Use Agreement before they use a computer. As this is a constantly changing world, we try to provide children and parents with as much up to date information as we can about practical ways to stay safe on the internet and E safety teaching is incorporated regularly into all ICT lessons.

You can find out more about E Safety here.

Our Staff

As already mentioned, our staff are expected to act as role models at all times. All members of staff – teaching and non teaching alike – have been recruited following safer recruitment procedures. Their application forms are carefully scrutinised and any education or employment gaps are queried. References and all necessary DBS and online checks are undertaken as a matter of course and we keep an up to date single central record on our employees.

When a new member of staff (or Governor) joins our school they receive an induction and staff handbook which includes up to date information on safeguarding,  child protection and our health and safety induction booklet. We also ensure that they have read part one of the Government's guidelines on Keeping Children Safe in Education 2023. Our safeguarding and child protection policy clearly sets out the school and our staff’s responsibilities towards ensuring that all children at St James are kept safe and protected from harm. All our staff and governors undertake regular safeguarding and child protection training.

First Aid and Medical Needs

In addition to safeguarding and child protection training, a number of our teachers and teaching assistants have first aid and paediatric first aid qualifications.

Volunteers And Visitors

We also make sure that any volunteer or visitor to school – which includes the staff who run our after school clubs, sign our safeguarding register and code of conduct.  Volunteers and visitors are not left unsupervised with children at any time unless they have completed a DBS check. As a parent, if you would like to know more about volunteering, please come into the School Office.  You can also find more information on our volunteer privacy policy.

Site Safety

Ensuring that the school site is safe and risk assessed is the responsibility of our School Business Manager. We have a comprehensive Health and Safety policy to ensure that our premises are safe for all. This includes undertaking risk assessments for all school activities (including Friends events) and trips, as well as for aspects of the site.

Staff with key safeguarding responsibilities

Our designated Child Protection and Safeguarding Lead is Head of School,  Annie Moore

Her deputy is Emily Boston

Our SENCO is Annie Moore

Our School Business Manager, Penny Kirkley is also a Deputy DSL and is responsible for all aspects of site health and safety along side the Head of School and our Site Manager, Colin Saunders.

Our School Safeguarding Policies

You can find out more about our Safeguarding policies here