Safeguarding and Child Protection

Safeguarding and Child Protection

Southborough C of E Primary School is committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children and expects all staff and volunteers to share this commitment.  We are fully committed to ensuring that consistent, effective safeguarding procedures are in place to support families, children and staff at school.  We understand we have an essential role to play in making our school community safe and secure and recognise our statutory responsibility to safeguard and promote the welfare of all children.

Our school core safeguarding principles are:

• We are an important part of the wider safeguarding system for children.
• It is our whole school responsibility to safeguard and promote the welfare of children.
• All children (defined as those up to the age of 18) 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 our staff understand safe professional practice and adhere to our safeguarding policies.

Our safeguarding policy is based on ‘Keeping Children Safe in Education DfE guidance’ and is reviewed at least annually by the Governing Body which has responsibility for oversight of school safeguarding and child protection systems. The Designated Safeguarding Lead / Head Teacher will ensure regular reporting on safeguarding activity and systems in school to the Governing Body.

Our School Safeguarding Team

If you have any concerns about a child’s safety, please do not hesitate to contact Mrs Brewin or another member of the Safeguarding Team.

If you have a safeguarding concern over the holidays:

If you are worried about a child (when school is closed) and think they may be in immediate danger then contact Kent Safeguarding directly. https://www.kscmp.org.uk/guidance/worried-about-a-child

If you need to make contact out of working hours please call the Out of Hours Kent Services on 03000 419191 

If the child is in immediate danger, call the emergency services using 999.

For non-urgent support, please email school at safeguarding@southborough.kent.sch.uk This mailbox will be periodically monitored during school holidays.

Designated Safeguarding Lead (DSL)

Mrs Carol Brewin  -  Tel: 01892 529682 or pwm@southborough.kent.sch.uk

Deputy DSL and Headteacher

Mrs Emma Savage  -  Tel: 01892 529682 or headteacher@southborough.kent.sch.uk

Deputy DSLs

Mrs Emma Bootle and Mrs Amanda Robertson

Safeguarding Governor and Chair of Governors

Mr Patrick Carey

Online Safety Leads

Mrs Emma Bootle and Mrs Amanda Robertson

Our Safeguarding policy is one of a series in our integrated safeguarding portfolio and should be read in conjunction with the policies as listed below:

• Behaviour Policy
• Online Safety
• Anti-Bullying
• GDPR & Data Protection
• RHSE
• Health and Safety
• Use of photographs
• Attendance
• Risk Assessments (e.g. school trips, use of technology)
• First Aid
• Managing Allegations Against Staff
• Staff Behaviour Policy (including Acceptable Use of Technology)
• Safer Recruitment
• Whistleblowing

Online Safety

At Southborough, we aim to equip children in becoming active participants in the world. We recognise that this world is becoming increasing technology led. Although this provides incredible opportunities for children to play, learn, create and connect, we also recognise the need to teach children, from a young age, how to stay safe.

Online safety is a large part of the computing curriculum at Southborough. At the beginning of each year, children sign an acceptable use document showing they understand how to use the computing equipment safely and appropriately. These are also displayed in all classrooms.

Click on the link below to read more about Online Safety, Online Safety newsletters and our Computing curriculum:

Anti-bullying

At Southborough Church of England School we aim to provide a supportive, caring and safe environment for pupils to learn without the fear of being bullied.  Bullying is defined as deiberately hurtful behaviour repeated over a period of time, where it is difficult for those being bullied to defend themselves. Bullying is unacceptable and will not be tolerated in our school. 

It is very important that we work in partnership with parents to support children's learning and their emotional, social, and physical development.  From time to time, during your child's 7 years at school, you may have a concern about your child that impacts on their learning or wellbeing.  It is important for us to know about this as quickly as possible, in order to resolve the issue promptly and satisfactorily. We take these concerns very seriously and any teacher and parent concerns are logged and followed up by the Senior Management Team.

Please follow the procedure below if you wish to raise a concern:

1. Please talk to your child's class teacher in the first instance, as they will usually be able to address and solve any concern you have.
2. If after speaking to the class teacher the situation is still on-going, please ask to speak to the appropriate Phase Leader or: Mrs Miller, Assistant Head and Head of Lower School (Years 1, 2 and 3) or Mr Grimes, Assistant Head and Head of Upper School (Years 4, 5 and 6).

3. If you still have a concern, please speak to Mrs Brewin (Pupil Well-being Manager and Designated Safeguarding Lead), Mrs Robertson (SENCo), Mrs Bootle (Deputy Headteacher) or Mrs Savage (Headteacher).

4. If the concern is about the Headteacher, this should be taken directly to the Governing Body.

5. Mrs Savage and Mrs Bootle can often be found at the beginning of each day welcoming the children at the school gates.  They are happy to chat to parents informally and will pass on information to the class teacher.  The best time to see class teachers is at the end of the school day.   However, if you have an urgent concern, especially relating to the health and safety of your child, please speak to our office team, Mrs Bootle or Mrs Savage as soon as possible.

Below are links to websites which parents may find informative and helpful: