Safeguarding
Keeping children safe is one of the most important parts of our work at St Anne’s. We expect all staff and visitors to share our commitment to protecting the welfare and safety of every child in our care.
Some of the ways in which we help to keep children safe include:
- teaching children how to stay safe as part of our Life Skills curriculum;
- helping children to stay safe online as part of our Computing curriculum;
- encouraging good behaviour, based on Gospel values;
- completing risk assessments for all potentially hazardous activities (in and out of school);
- being vigilant for signs that a child may be at risk of harm and following up any concerns rigorously;
- following safer recruitment practices when appointing new staff and providing regular safeguarding training and updates for all staff;
- annually auditing our safeguarding provision against local authority requirements, ensuring that we meet all statutory and best practice guidelines.
If you are worried about the safety or wellbeing of any child in the school, please speak to a member of staff as a matter of urgency. Our designated safeguarding leads (DSLs) are:
- Mrs Smith (acting SENCo & acting assistant headteacher);
- Miss Renaut (acting headteacher);
- Mrs Harvey (lower phase teaching assistant);
- Mrs Spencer (Year 2 class teacher).
Their role is to take lead responsibility for child protection issues in the school, including liaison with outside agencies when necessary. Safeguarding issues are always discussed at weekly leadership meetings (attended by all our DSLs). Our governing body takes a particularly close interest in all matters relating to safeguarding. There is a nominated safeguarding governor (Kathryn Donohue) and an e-safety governor (Tosin Adegun).
You can contact the NSPCC if you are worried that any child is being abused, either via their website (click here) or by telephone (0800 028 0285). NSPCC also has excellent advice for parents about keeping their children safe, including when online: you can find this by clicking here.
Several of our policies are particularly relevant to safeguarding. These include: