Safeguarding
At Broad Town CE Primary School we are committed to safeguarding and have a culture of vigilance in all aspects of safeguarding and child protection.
If you believe a child is in immediate danger you should call 999 and report your concern immediately to the police.
What is safeguarding?
Safeguarding can be defined by promoting the health, safety and welfare of all pupils. Safeguarding is the responsibility of all adults, especially those working or volunteering with children. The school aims to help protect the children in its care by working consistently and appropriately with all relevant agencies to reduce risk and promote the welfare of children. Staff:
• are advised to maintain an attitude of ‘it could happen here’ as far as safeguarding is concerned;
• should always act in the best interest of the child.
What is child protection?
Child protection is a part of safeguarding and promoting welfare. This refers to the activity which is undertaken to protect specific children who are suffering, or at risk of suffering, significant harm.
Safeguarding at Broad Town School
Our Safeguarding Lead member of staff is Miss Long and the Deputy Safeguarding Lead is Miss Dent. The headtreacher has undertaken Advanced Safeguarding and Child Protection training by Wiltshire Council's Safeguarding Children Board and the Deputy safeguarding leader has attended Safegurading training. All other members of school staff are regularly trained and updated in safeguarding and child protection. The Safeguarding Governor is Chris Woodhouse.
All disclosures from children or concerns from adults are taken seriously, recorded and investigated thoroughly in line with Wiltshire Council's Safeguarding Children Board guidelines.
Staff and Adults in the School
The school is committed to safer recruitment practices when recruiting new employees to work for the school or when using volunteers. All adults working in the school will have undergone a DBS (Disclosure Barring Service) check. DBS checks are only one element of a wider framework of safer recruitment practices the school undertakes. Ordinary visitors to the school must be accompanied at all times when on visit.
Safeguarding Procedures at the School
More information about our approach and procedures with regard to Safeguarding and Child Protection can be found on our policies page.
Other support
-
More information and guidance on safeguarding, child protection, child abuse or neglect can be found on the following websites:
- NSPCC (National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children)
- CEOP (Child Exploitation and Online Protection Centre)
- Child Line (Call 0800 1111)
E Safety
E Safety
Children at Brod Town Primary School use the Internet on a regular basis as part of their learning. In school, we have regular ‘e-safety’ activities to remind children of the importance of keeping themselves safe online.
At home, sometimes children can be given unsupervised access to the Internet. This, potentially, allows them to access all kinds of society (both good and bad) and bring them virtually into their homes.
Here are some tips and useful links to help you to keep your children safe online:
•Facebook/Snapchat/Twitter/Instagram and Youtube – These sites have a minimum age limit of 13, so pupils should NOT be using them. This is so that children’s details and credentials can be protected by The Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA) passed in 1998.
• Keep your computer in a shared area – Talk to your child about what they are doing online and, if possible set up your computer in a shared area at home so that you can all share in the wonderful sites that are available online.
The Anti-Bullying Alliance website provides a wealth of advice and support.
Why is it important to respond to bullying?
- Bullying hurts and makes people unhappy.
- No one deserves to be a victim of bullying. Everybody has the right to be treated with respect.
- Pupils who are being bullied are unlikely to concentrate fully on their school work.
- Some pupils avoid being bullied by not going to school.
- Pupils who observe unchallenged bullying behaviour are likely to copy this anti-social behaviour.
- Pupils who are bullying need to learn different ways of behaving.
- Schools have a responsibility to respond promptly and effectively to issues of bullying.
School Procedures
- In cases of bullying, the incidents will be recorded by staff.
- In serious cases, parents should be informed and will be asked to come in to a meeting to discuss the problem.
- The bullying behaviour or threats of bullying must be investigated and the bullying stopped quickly.
- An attempt will be made to help the bully (bullies) change their behaviour.
Outcomes:
- The bully (bullies) may be asked to genuinely apologise. Other consequences may take place in line with our behaviour policy.
- The behaviour policy will be followed.
- After the incident/incidents have been investigated and dealt with, each case will be monitored to ensure repeated bullying does not take place. If bullying continues then the behaviour policy will be followed.
HELP ORGANISATIONS
Advisory Centre for Education (ACE) 0300 0115 142 (Monday-Wednesday, 10am-1pm)
Children’s Legal Centre 020 7520 0300
KIDSCAPE Parents Helpline 020 7823 5430
Parentline Plus 0808 800 2222
Youth Access 020 8772 9900
Bullying Online www.bullying.co.uk
If you think your child has been bullied:
- Calmly talk with your child about his/her experience.
- Make a note of what your child says – particularly who was said to have been involved; how often the bullying has occurred; where it happened and what has happened.
- Reassure your child that he/she has done the right thing to tell you about the bullying.
- Explain to your child that should any further incidents occur he/she should report them to the teacher immediately.
- Make an appointment to see your child’s class teacher.
- Explain to the teacher the problem your child is experiencing.
Talking with teachers about bullying:
- Try and stay calm – bear in mind that the teacher may have no idea that your child is being bullied or may have heard conflicting accounts about an incident.
- Be as specific as possible about what your child says has happened – give dates, places and names of other children involved.
- Make a note of what action the school intends to take.
- Ask if there is anything you can do to help your child or the school.
- Stay in touch with the school; let them know if things improve as well as if problems continue.
If your child is bullying other children
Many children may be involved in bullying other pupils at some time or another. Often parents are not aware that their child is involved in bullying.
Children sometimes bully others because:
- They don’t know it is wrong.
- They are copying older brothers or sisters or other people in the family whom they admire.
- They haven’t learnt other, better ways of mixing with their school friends.
- Their friends encourage them to bully.
- They are going through a difficult time and are acting out aggressive feelings.
Staff Training
Staff Training
All staff receive training in FGM, Prevent, Breast Ironing, Safeguarding and Keeping Children Safe in Education.
![internet_safety_check2[1]](/wilts/primary/broadtown/arenas/websitecontent/web/internet_safety_check2[1].jpg?width=1920&height=1080&scale=LIMIT_MAXSIZE "internet_safety_check2[1]")
Anti-Bullying
Broad Town School aims to ensure that pupils learn in a supportive, caring and safe environment without fear of being bullied. Bullying is anti-social behaviour and affects everyone; it is unacceptable and will not be tolerated. Only when all issues of bullying are addressed will pupils be able to fully benefit from the opportunities available at school
Bullying can be:
- Emotional: being unfriendly, excluding, tormenting (e.g. hiding books, threatening gestures).
- Physical: pushing, kicking, hitting, punching or any use of violence.
- Racist: racial taunts, graffiti, gestures.
- Sexual: unwanted physical contact or sexually abusive comments.
- Homophobic, biphobic and transphobic: because of, or focussing on the issue of sexuality.
- Verbal: name-calling, sarcasm, spreading rumours, teasing.
- Cyber: all areas of internet, such as email and internet chat room misuse. Mobile threats by text messaging and calls. Misuse of associated technology, i.e. camera and video facilities.
A shared understanding.
- All governors, teaching and non-teaching staff, pupils and parents should have an understanding of what bullying is.
- All governors and teaching and non-teaching staff should know what the school policy is on bullying, and follow it when bullying is reported.
- All pupils and parents should know what the school policy is on bullying, and what they should do if bullying arises.
- As a school we take bullying seriously. Pupils and parents should be assured that they will be supported when bullying is reported.
- Bullying will not be tolerated.
Prevention:
We will use a variety of methods for helping children to prevent bullying. As and when appropriate, these may include:
- A variety of school rules that are frequently revisited and reinforced
- e.g. Golden Rules, class Rules, Playground Rules, Lunchtime Rules
- Through assemblies and our whole school ethos.
- Anti-bullying songs
- Anti-bullying Week
- Anti-bullying child friendly leaflet
- Writing stories or poems or drawing pictures about bullying.
- Reading stories about bullying or having them read to a class or assembly.
- Making up role-plays.
- Having discussions about bullying and why it matters.
Through the curriculum, the school will explore issues such as:
- What is bullying and what causes people to bully each other?
- How does it feel to be bullied or to bully?
- What are the effects of bullying behaviour on bullied pupils; on pupils who bully others; on bystanders?
- What would our school (our society) be like if bullying behaviour was acceptable?
- What can we do to stop bullying?
- What moral dilemmas do we face when we are confronted with bullying behaviour?
Information for parents/carers and families
All schools are likely to have some problem with bullying at one time or another. It is important that your child’s school takes steps to reduce and aims to prevent bullying, as many schools have already successfully done.
Bullying behaviour includes:
- Name calling and teasing.
- Physical violence.
- Threats.
- Isolating individuals from group activities.
Increasingly bullying takes place online (cyber-bullying). Advice for parents can be found in this government booklet. The school's Online Safety Policy and Online Safety webpage also deals with this area.
Parents/carers and families have an important part to play in helping schools deal with bullying.
Discourage your child from using bullying behaviour at home or elsewhere. Show them how to resolve the difficult situations without using violence or aggression.
Watch out for signs that your child is being bullied, or is bullying others. Parents/carers and families are often the first to detect that a problem exists. Don’t dismiss it. Contact the school immediately if you are worried.
To stop your child from bullying others
- Talk with your child; explain that what he/she is doing is unacceptable and makes other children unhappy.
- Discourage other members of your family from bullying behaviour or from using aggression or force to get what they want.
- Show your child how he/she can join in with other children without bullying.
- Make an appointment to see your child’s class teacher; explain to the teacher the problems your child is experiencing; discuss with the teacher how you and the school can stop him/her bullying others.
- Regularly check with your child how things are going at school.
- Give your child lots of praise and encouragement when he/she is co-operative or kind to other people.
