Safeguarding
We are committed to ensuring the welfare and safety of all children in school and all our staff, governors and volunteers have Child Protection training.
It is our highest priority to work in partnership with all to ensure that our children remain safe.
If you are worried about your child, please do not hesitate to contact your child’s class teacher or the Headteacher. We respect parents’ rights to privacy and confidentiality and will not share sensitive information unless we have permission or it is necessary to do so in order to protect a child.
We will share concerns we may have with parents, unless to do so would place a child at risk of harm.
In the event of any concerns regarding the safety/well-being of a child or children, please contact
Designated Safeguarding Lead at Burton Leonard C of E Primary School
Mrs Rebecca Wolfe, Head Teacher
Deputy Designated Safeguarding Lead at Burton Leonard C of E Primary School
Mrs Sally Drake, School Business Manager
Safeguarding Governor
Mrs Jennifer Hewitt
Contact can be made through the office on 01765 677412
Any parents who are worried that a child is at risk can either contact the school or seek information via the NYSCB website.
All North Yorkshire schools follow the North Yorkshire Safeguarding Partnership procedures.
We have trained First Aiders in school and we will deal with minor accidents and injuries.
Please ensure that school is informed of any changes to contact and emergency details.
Safer Recruitment and Selection
The school pays full regard to current safer recruitment DfE guidance and Keeping Children Safe in Education 2024
We ensure that all appropriate measures are applied in relation to everyone who works in the school who is likely to be perceived by the children as a safe and trustworthy adult, including volunteers and staff employed by contractors.
Safer recruitment practice includes scrutinising applicants, verifying identity and academic or vocational qualifications, obtaining professional references, checking previous employment history and ensuring that a candidate has the health and physical capability for the job. It also includes undertaking interviews and where appropriate, Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) checks and providing honest and accurate references when individuals move on.
In line with statutory changes, underpinned by regulations, the following will apply:
• a DBS Enhanced Disclosure will be obtained for all new appointments to our school workplace (including volunteers) and renewed inline with North Yorkshire Policy.
• this school is committed to keep an up to date single central record detailing a range of checks carried out on our staff, volunteers and governors.
• all new appointments to our school workforce from overseas or who have lived outside the UK will be subject to additional checks as appropriate.
• our school ensures that supply staff have undergone the necessary checks and will be made aware of this policy.
• identify checks will be carried out on all appointments to our school workforce before the appointment is made, in partnership with the North Yorkshire Local Authority. The following staff have undertaken Safer Recruitment training and one of these staff members will be in attendance at interview for all staff and volunteer appointments:
Headteacher: Mrs Rebecca Wolfe
School Business Manager: Mrs Sally Drake
School Governors: Paul Robinson & Lucy Mullender
Safer Working Practice
Our school will comply with the DfE guidance and the North Yorkshire Child Protection procedures at all times. Safe working practice ensures that pupils are safe and that all staff, volunteers and governors:
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are responsible for their own actions and behaviour and should avoid any conduct which would lead any reasonable person to question their motivation and intentions.
- work in an open and transparent way.
- work with other colleagues where possible in situations open to question.
- discuss and/or take advice from school management over any incident which may give rise to concern.
- record any incident or decisions made.
- apply the same professional standards regardless of gender, race, disability of sexuality.
- be aware of confidentiality policy.
- are aware that breaches of the law and other professional guidelines could result in criminal or disciplinary action being taken against them.
Safeguarding Information for Pupils
All pupils in our school are aware of who they can talk to if they have a worry or concern. The school is committed to ensuring that pupils are aware of behaviour towards them that is not acceptable and how they can keep themselves safe. All pupils know that we have a senior member of staff with responsibility for child protection and know who this is. We inform pupils of whom they might talk to, both in and out of school, their right to be listened to and heard and what steps can be taken to protect them from harm.
Partnership with Parents
The school shares a purpose with parents to educate, keep children safe from harm and have their welfare promoted.
We are committed to working with parents positively, openly and honestly. We ensure that all parents are treated with respect, dignity and courtesy. We respect parents’ rights to privacy and confidentiality and will not share sensitive information until we have permission or it is necessary to do so to protect a child.
Burton Leonard C of E Primary School will share with parents any concerns we may have about their child unless to do so may place a child at risk of harm.
We encourage parents to discuss any concerns they may have with school staff. We make parents aware of our Safeguarding and Child Protection Policies and parents understand that they can view these policies on request.
School Training and Staff Induction
The school’s Senior Designated Person with responsibility for child protection and any named deputies undertake specific child protection training which includes how to undertake their role. They also undertake inter-agency child protection training provided by the North Yorkshire Safeguarding Children Board. Refresher training is undertaken at two yearly intervals.
All other school staff, including non-teaching staff, volunteers and governors undertake appropriate training to equip them to carry out their responsibilities for child protection effectively.
New staff and volunteers will undertake a safeguarding induction and complete all relevant training.
Health and Welfare
Please inform the school if your child has any specific problems or difficulties e.g. allergies, dietary needs etc.
Teachers can only administer prescribed and named medication which needs to be taken during school hours and parents must complete an authorisation form.
Health and Safety Policy
The school has a health and safety policy, which is monitored each year by the relevant committee of the School Governing Body and also the Health & Safety adviser from North Yorkshire County Council.
The Headteacher, School Business Manager and governor with responsibility for Health and Safety oversee the policy and the maintenance of the school. Any concerns from staff, volunteers, governors or pupils are reported to any of the above and the School Business Manager carries out an initial examination, assessing what remedial action needs to take place.
Each term there is a fire drill that practices efficient evacuation from the buildings. The school conducts an annual fire risk assessment and risk assessments.
There is an Emergency Response Plan that details what to do in the case of emergencies.
Prevent Duty
As part of Burton Leonard Church of England (VC) Primary School's ongoing safeguarding and child protection duties we are fully behind the government's Prevent Strategy.
From 1 July 2015 all schools are subject to a duty under section 26 of the Counter-Terrorism and Security Act 2015, in the exercise of their functions, to have “due regard to the need to prevent people from being drawn into terrorism”. This duty is known as the Prevent Duty for Schools.
At our school we build pupils’ resilience to radicalisation by promoting fundamental British values and enabling our pupils to challenge extremist views.
The statutory guidance refers to the importance of Prevent awareness training to equip staff to identify children at risk of being drawn into terrorism and to challenge extremist ideas. The Home Office has developed a core training product for this purpose – Workshop to Raise Awareness of Prevent (WRAP). All our staff and Governors have completed Prevent training on what Prevent is about and how to deal with any issues they may see inside or outside school.
First Aid
All staff have been trained in Emergency First Aid at Work, relevant staff have also completed the specialised Paediatric First Aid Course.
First aid kits are situated around the school, in every classroom and are also taken out onto the playground at lunchtimes & breaktimes.
When a child is unwell or has suffered an accident in school or on the school grounds, the following steps are followed:
- Step 1: A trained first aider is immediately called to provide assistance and advice.
- Step 2: The incident/accident is logged in the incident/accident register.
- Step 3: The parent is notified of the incident/accident as soon as necessary.
- Step 4: The Local Authority Health and Safety Team and/or the Health and Safety Executive are notified of the incident/accident where there is a statutory duty to do so.
Site Security
Burton Leonard C of E Primary School aims to provide a secure school site but recognises that the site is only as secure as the people who use it. Therefore, all people on the site have to adhere to the rules, which govern it. It is recognised that laxity can cause potential problems to safeguarding. Therefore, the school ensures that:
- gates are locked except at the start and end of each day.
- doors are kept closed to prevent intrusion.
- visitors and volunteers only enter through the main entrance and must sign in at the office.
- children are only allowed home with adults/carers with parental responsibility or confirmed permission has been received in advance.
- empty classrooms have closed windows.
- children are not allowed to leave school alone during school working hours and if collected by an adult, signed out.
- should a child leave the school premises without permission then staff have been informed never to chase after a child, but rather to report immediately to the SLT; parents and Police will then be immediately informed of the circumstances.
Welcoming other Professionals
Visitors with a professional role, such as local authority and Diocese advisers or members of the Police will have undergone safer recruitment to work with children - this will always be checked by school.
The School Business Manager will ensure that written confirmation is received from all employing organisations regarding any person that visits our school.
When an individual makes an unplanned visits to the school, they will be accompanied by a staff member at all times and not allowed to have any unsupervised access to the children until confirmation of their vetting status has been confirmed. No examination/medical treatment of any child will be allowed unless the professional has suitable clearance prior to their visit.
It is recognised that in emergency situations when the Police are called, perhaps to support a pupil/adult, it may not be possible to confirm their identity before access to the school site is allowed. The Headteacher will use their professional judgement to effectively manage these situations.
Internet/E-Safety
Children are encouraged to use the internet as much as is possible but at all times in a safe way. Parents are asked to give permission for their children to use the internet on entry to the school. Parents, pupils and staff must sign an appropriate usage form to ensure that they understand the risks and sanctions relating to misuse of the system in and beyond the school. If staff know of misuse, either by a teacher, staff member, volunteer or child, the issue must be reported to the Headteacher without delay.
The Headteacher has overall responsibility for internet safety and will have access to all email addresses and passwords provided. The school follows guidelines for Internet use/E-safety from the Local Authority and the North Yorkshire Safeguarding Children's Partnership.
The school will ensure that:
- software is in place to minimise access and to highlight any person accessing inappropriate sites or information.
- pupils will be encouraged to discuss openly their use of technology and anything which makes them feel uncomfortable. (If this results in child protection concerns, the DSL should be informed immediately).
- every effort is made to encourage pupils not to give out their personal details, phone numbers, school, home addresses, computer passwords etc.
- pupils adhere to the school policy on mobile phones.
- training is provided to pupils, staff and volunteers on e-safety matters where necessary.
Every month school provide a useful online safety newsletter for parents, which can be found on our online safety page HERE
We also share weekly online safety links on Mrs Wolfe's Weekly Newsletters that can be found HERE
Anti-Bullying Policy
Adults must be informed immediately regarding any allegation of bullying, this will be investigated and appropriate action will take place.
There is a more detailed Anti-bullying Policy available on the school website.
Whistleblowing
If members of staff, volunteers or governors have any concerns about people working in a paid or unpaid capacity with children, they have a duty of care (and in some cases a professional duty) to inform management accordingly. This can be done in writing or verbally and such issues will be managed with sensitivity and the necessary degree of confidence.
The school follows the Local Authority’s policy on whistleblowing and a copy of the “School Whistleblowing Policy” is available on the school website or from the school office.
Keeping Children Safe in Education 2024