What is safeguarding?

Schools have a statutory responsibility to keep children safe from harm. The National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children (NSPCC) defines safeguarding as:

• Protecting children from abuse and maltreatment
• Preventing harm to children’s health or development
• Ensuring children grow up with the provision of safe and effective care
• Taking action to enable all children and young people to have the best outcomes

What are schools expected to do?

Schools are required to comply with the current safeguarding guidance from the Department for Education, called Keeping Children Safe in Education. This means, for example:

• Having a designated safeguarding lead (DSL), who is trained to support staff, contribute to assessing children and liaise with other agencies
• Having a child protection policy, and procedures covering specific safeguarding issues
• Ensuring that adults working in the school are safe to work with children, by carrying out background checks (through the Disclosure and Barring Service) and having someone on interview panels who is trained in ‘safer recruitment’
• Ensuring that all staff receive safeguarding and child protection training, and that this is regularly updated

What does safeguarding look like in our school?

• We protect information about your child and only share it appropriately
• We respond appropriately to an unplanned absence, or to a pattern of poor attendance
• We track concerns about children confidentially
• We teach pupils about safeguarding issues, including how to respond to concerns, in lessons on personal, social, health and economic (PSHE) education
• We work closely with a variety of agencies to support young people
• We work in partnership with the Police through Operation Encompass to support children and young people exposed to domestic abuse.
• At St Hild’s Church of Endland School School all staff have been trained to follow procedures and understand policies which have been outlined through the Keeping Children Safe in Education (2022) publication and local guidance issued from Hartlepool and Stockton-on-Tees Safeguarding Children’s Partnership. This includes when to make recommendations for children who will benefit from Early Help. 

St Hild’s Safeguarding and Child Protection Policy

Below you can find a link to access our up to date Safeguarding and Child Protection Policy. 

Designated Safeguarding Lead

David Richardson 

Lead Governor for Safeguarding and Child Protection

David Akers 

Deputy Designated Safeguarding Leads

• Suzanne Sotheran
• Lee Morgan
• Jonathan Gibbon-Hayes
• Liam Stephenson
• Kirstin Phelps

Where we have any concerns about a child’s welfare we will take all appropriate action to address those concerns by working in full partnership with other agencies as outlined by the local authority and Keeping Children Safe in Education (2023) publication.

FAQs

• Who should I speak to for more information, or if I have a safeguarding concern?

You can speak to any member of staff, but we recommend that your first point of contact is your child’s Year Leader (DDSL) or our DSL. 

Email: sth-safeguarding@neatat.org.uk

Telephone: 01429 273041 

• Who should my child speak to if he/she has a concern?

Your child can speak to any trusted adult in school. The adult will refer to the DSL if there is a concern about the safety of the child.

• How can I access more relevant information or policies?

For our full range of policies, including our Child Protection Policy, Discipline and Pupil Behaviour Policy, Code of Conduct, Confidential Reporting of Concerns Policy, Anti-Bullying Policy, Attendance Policy, and Online Safety Policy please see our Policies page. 

St Hild’s Church of England School has policies and procedures in place to deal effectively with child protection and safeguarding issues, which include tackling radicalisation and extremism, together with recording and monitoring processes (via CPOMS). There are a number of related policies and procedures linked to safeguarding, some of which are a statutory requirement and some are considered to be best practice in order to support us with our collective responsibility of Keeping Children Safe in Education (2022). 

Our policy sets out a clear and consistent framework for safeguarding and promotes the welfare, both physically and emotionally, of every pupil in line with relevant safeguarding legislation and the DfE’s ‘Keeping Children Safe in Education’ (January 2024). It meets the statutory requirement for schools to have in place a Child Protection Policy and Procedures and defines the process and procedures that St Hild’s Church of England  School has in place to ensure all children are kept safe and protected from harm and that all the adults in our school are clear of their role and responsibilities.

Safeguarding determines the actions we at St Hild’s take to keep children safe and protect them from harm in all aspects of their life. As a school we recognise that  ‘it could happen here’ and therefore  we are continually being proactive to ensure that every member of the St Hilds community is proactive in their responsibility to Safeguard each member of the St Hilds community. The most important thing that we ask is people talk to us. if your child is concerned about safety, well-being, either of themselves or a friend, they should talk to someone such as a parent, a member of staff at the school, including our dedicated Safeguarding and Pastoral Team and Year Leaders.

Clennell Education Solutions Safeguarding Review (March 2023)

St Hild’s has highly effective safeguarding systems which are clearly embedded and regularly quality assured. The school is a calm and orderly environment where clear systems enable pupils to behave well and make the most of their time at school.  Pupils, on the whole, are well motivated and staff ensure strong consistency in their communications with pupils. All staff recognise the centrality of safeguarding to the school’s work and their own roles within this. Staff morale is high; they feel well-supported by the school’s leadership.

Types of Harm 

We all have a responsibility to keep children (under the age of 18) safe, both at home and in school. Harm is identified in four ways: 

Physical – when a child is deliberately hurt or injured. 

Sexual – when a child is influenced or forced to take part in a sexual activity. This can be a physical activity of no-physical, e.g. being made to look at an inappropriate image. 

Emotional – when a child is made to feel frightened, worthless or unloved. It can be by shouting, using threats or making fun of someone. It can also be when children see their parents, or visitors to the home, fighting or using violence. 

Neglect – when a child is not being taken care of by their parents/ guardians. It can be poor hygiene, poor diet, not keeping appointments for additional support, not coming to school are being left home alone.

Bullying 

St Hild’s School takes bullying extremely seriously and does not tolerate bullying behaviour of any kind.  We know that for all our pupils to achieve they need to learn and work in a safe, supportive and caring environment.

We want all pupils to feel safe at school and be able to report instances of bullying behaviour. Whether they feel they are the victim or have witnessed it happening. Reporting bullying is important to us, and we want to support your child at school should this happen.  

Bullying includes repetitive behaviour of intimidation, emotional, verbal, or sexual harassment, being teased about race, religion, culture, gender, sexuality, social class, disability, academic performance, or any other matter that causes distress to the victim.

Pupils in first instance are encouraged to speak to their Form Tutor, one of our trained Anti-bullying ambassadors or Head of year.  

Sexual Harassment

Sexual harassment is unwanted behaviour of a sexual nature which: violates your dignity, makes you feel intimidated, degraded or humiliated or creates a hostile or offensive environment. 

As a team of staff, we are all trained to safeguard your child. We work hard to ensure that St Hilds School is a safe, tolerant and inclusive place for all. Sexual harassment, including any misogynistic language or behaviour, will not be tolerated at St Hilds School. As part of our PSHE curriculum we work hard to educate all our pupils about acceptable behaviours and challenge those we feel are not correct. 

Sexual Harassment includes:

• Sexualised comments / ‘jokes’
• Misogynistic language or behaviour i.e., Sexist language or behaviour that reflects or shows hatred, dislike, or mistrust of women
• Staring
• Inappropriate physical contact
• Receiving / being pressured into sending unwanted sexualised images through social media

The Prevent Duty and Preventing Radicalisation

The Counter-Terrorism and Security Act 2015 places a duty on specified authorities, including local authorities and childcare, education and other children’s services providers, in the exercise of their functions, to have due regard to the need to prevent people from being drawn into terrorism (“the Prevent duty”). Young people can be exposed to extremist influences or prejudiced views, in particular those via the internet and other social media. Schools can help to protect children from extremist and violent views in the same ways that they help to safeguard children.

The Prevent strategy aims to protect vulnerable people from being drawn into terrorism. While it remains rare for children and young people to become involved in terrorist activity, young people from an early age can be exposed to terrorist & extremist influences or prejudiced views. We recognise that as with other forms of safeguarding strategies, early intervention is always preferable. Our school is committed to working with other local partners, families and communities, and we will play a key role in ensuring young people and their communities are safe from the threat of terrorism.

We also recognise that our School has a duty of care to our pupils and staff which includes safeguarding them from the risk of being drawn into terrorism. Being drawn into terrorism includes not just violent extremism but also non-violent extremism, which can create an atmosphere conducive to terrorism and can popularise views which terrorists exploit. Prevent can work within both violent and non-violent extremism arenas and can include topics such as hate crime, racism, bullying, online safety and extreme political views.

St Hild’s Church of England school is committed to:

• Assessing the risk of students being drawn into terrorism.
• Training staff to recognise radicalisation and extremism.
• Referring vulnerable people to Channel.
• Prohibiting extremist speakers and events.
• Managing access to extremist material- appropriate filters
• Being confident about British Values

Operation Encompass

The purpose of Operation Encompass (Cleveland Police) is to safeguard and support children and young people who have been involved in or witness to a domestic abuse, vulnerable child or missing incident.

Operation Encompass has been created to address such situations that create a safeguarding risk to young people. It is the implementation of key partnership working between the police and schools/ colleges. The aim of sharing information with local schools/ colleges is to allow ‘Key Adults’ the opportunity of engaging with the child and to provide access to support that allows them to remain in a safe but secure familiar environment.

Following the report of a domestic abuse, vulnerable child or missing incident, by 9.00am on the next school/ college day the school’s Key Adult will be informed of the child or young person’s involvement. This knowledge, given to educational establishments through Operation Encompass, allows the provision of immediate early intervention through silent or overt support dependent upon the needs and wishes of the child/ young person.

At St Hild’s Church of England school, our key adult is Mr David Richardson (DSL). 

Information for Parents

Below you can find some relevant information regarding keeping children safe online and staying safe relating to e-scooters.