Safeguarding
At Blackfell Primary School, we regard the safeguarding of children as our main priority. We believe that we all have the right to be happy, to be safe and to learn. We all have the responsibility to make this happen.
We will ensure that
- The welfare of the child is paramount.
- All children, whatever their age, culture, disability, gender, language, racial origin, religious belief and/or sexual identity have the right to be protected from harm.
- All suspicions or allegations of abuse will be taken seriously and responded to.
- All staff and volunteers have a responsibility to report concerns to the Designated Safeguarding Leads.
Designated Safeguarding Leads
The Designated Safeguarding Lead at Blackfell Primary school is:
Mr Danny Patterson, Headteacher.
The Deputy Designated Safeguarding Leads in school are:
Miss Joanne Dodds, Deputy Headteacher and
Mrs Lisa Reynolds, School Business Manager
The Governor responsible for Safeguarding is:
Mrs A Star, Chair of Governors
Definition of safeguarding
The definition used in the Children Act 2004 and in ‘Working together to safeguard children’. This can be summarised as:
- Protecting children from maltreatment
- Preventing impairment of children’s health or development
- Ensuring that children are growing up in circumstances consistent with the provision of safe and effective care
- taking action to enable all children to have the best outcomes
Safeguarding is not just about protecting children from deliberate harm. It relates to aspects of school life including:
- Pupils’ health and safety
- The use of reasonable force
- Meeting the needs of pupils with medical conditions
- Providing first aid
- Educational visits
- Intimate care
- Internet or e-safety
- Appropriate arrangements to ensure school security, taking into account the local context
Safeguarding can involve a range of potential issues such as:
- Bullying, including cyberbullying (by text message, on social networking sites, and so on) and prejudice-based bullying
- Racist, disability, and homophobic or transphobic abuse
- Radicalisation and extremist behaviour
- Child sexual exploitation
- Sexting
- Substance misuse
- Issues that may be specific to a local area or population, for example gang activity and youth violence
- Particular issues affecting children including domestic violence, sexual exploitation, female genital mutilation and forced marriage
Procedure
- If anyone has a concern regarding a child, details are noted down – this is then given to and discussed with one of the safeguarding leads named above. The note of concern is scanned in to CPOMs and a decision of the next step is then made and recorded;
- If a concern is raised regarding a member of staff this must be given to the Headteacher;
- If a concern is raised regarding the Headteacher this must be given to the Chair of Governors;
- All of these concerns are taken very seriously and correct procedures are followed as stated in our Safeguarding Policy which can be found on our Policies page.
Parents should be aware that the school will take any reasonable action to ensure the safety of its pupils. In cases where the school has reason to be concerned that a pupil may be subject to significant harm, ill treatment, neglect or other forms of abuse, staff have no alternative but to follow the Sunderland Safeguarding Children’s Board Protection Procedures and inform the Social Services Department of their concern.
Parental Controls
Parental Controls give you some control over the content that can be viewed on devices connected to your home network. These include PC's, Laptops,
If you are worried about what your child may be accessing on your home network, please contact your Internet Service Provider (ISP) to arrange to have these restrictions enabled on your account or see the below guides from a few different providers.
Sky Broadband Parental Control
TalkTalk Broadband Parental Control
Virgin Media Broadband Parental Control
Plusnet Broadband Parental Control
