Section 175* of the Education Act 2002 places a duty on local education authorities and governing bodies of maintained schools to ‘make arrangements to ensure that their functions are carried out with a view to safeguarding and promoting welfare of children’
Jane Bruten DSLSarah Green DDSLEmma Davis DDSLKirsty Prentice DDSL
At St. Marychurch the health, safety and wellbeing of all children is of paramount importance. Parents send their children to school each day with the expectation that school provides a secure environment in which their children can flourish. We therefore have to ensure that this expectation becomes reality. In order to do this a wide range of measures are put in place.
A very important aspect of the school’s role is to ensure we keep all children safe. This can take many forms from the obvious and straight forward such as ensuring the building and equipment we use is fit for purpose to putting risk assessments in place. It also covers aspects such as e-safety – making sure your children know how to keep themselves safe online and it also includes safeguarding – keeping children safe from harm.
Regular training for all staff ensures that everyone is fully aware of our policies and procedures with regards to all aspects of safeguarding.
The Department of Education's Keeping Children Safe in Education Policy can be found here:
Keeping Children Safe in Education
Our Safeguarding and Child Protection Policy can be found at the bottom of the page.
The following policies, procedures and risk assessments are reviewed and updated on a regular basis to ensure the ongoing commitment into keeping our children, staff and the wider community safe and secure. This being carried out by the Senior Leadership Team at the school, the school Governors and St Christopher’s MAT (Multi Academy Trust).
Some of the policies mentioned above can be found below; others can be found on our Policy page:
Should you have any concerns about the welfare or safety of a child please speak to Mrs Bruten in the first instance or Miss Green if she is unavailable.
Our Safeguarding Governor is Laurence WalbrughAlternatively you can always call Torbay Safeguarding Hub on 01803 208100
The links below are useful areas of guidance for parents and carers.
The school has been given the opportunity to take part in a project that will run jointly between schools and Devon and Cornwall Police.
Operation Encompass is the reporting to schools, prior to the start of the next school day, when a child or young person has been exposed to, or involved in, any domestic violence.
Operation Encompass will ensure that a specified member of the school staff, known as a Key Adult, is trained to allow them to liaise with the police and to use the information that has been shared, in confidence.
This will enable us, as a school, to make provision for possible difficulties experienced by children, or their families, who have been involved in, or exposed to, a domestic abuse incident. This could be as little as just knowing or letting them bring in a particular comfort without question or giving them time away from others to settle. The response for each child will be individual and confidential.
Our Key Adults are Jane Bruten and Sarah Green.
We are keen to offer the best support possible to all our pupils and we believe this will be extremely beneficial for all those involved.
| Safeguarding and Child Protection Policy |