Designated Safeguarding Leads:

Mrs Robinson (Headteacher)

Mrs Watson (Deputy Headteacher)

Mrs Burton (Family Learning Mentor)

Mrs Seed ( School Business Manager)

 

Safeguarding & Online Safety

Pupil safety is of paramount importance at this school and safeguarding permeates all aspects of school life. In line with our statutory responsibilities and our mission statement, we do all in our power to ensure that Newton Bluecoat School is a safe place for pupils, staff and parents.

Our Safeguarding, Child Protection, Health and safety, Risk Assessments, and online safety Policies provide clear direction to staff and others on how this is achieved and maintained. The child Protection Policy details expected codes of behaviour in dealing with child protection issues. It makes explicit the school’s commitment to the development of good practice and sound procedures in line with the law.

There are three main elements to our Child Protection Policy:

• Prevention – positive school atmosphere, teaching and pastoral support to pupils.
• Protection – following agreed procedures, ensuring staff are trained and supported to respond appropriately and sensitively to Child Protection concerns.
• Support for pupils, school staff and children who may have been abused.

The School’s Designated Senior Leader (DSL) is Mrs E Robinson (Headteacher), who is responsible under the procedures established by the LA for coordinating action within School and for liaison with other agencies. The backup Deputy Senior Leaders are Mrs S Watson (SENCo), Mrs S Burton (FLM) and Mrs J Seed (Business Manager).

The designated School Governor is Mr T Walker who reports to the Governing Body annually.

Where it is believed that a child is suffering from, or is at risk of significant harm, we will follow the procedures set out in the document produced by Lancashire Safeguarding Children Board ‘Handling Concerns About the Welfare or Safety of A Child in School and “ Keeping children safe in Education (2016)” Where, following an assessment of a situation, it is considered immediat protective action is required; a child protection referral will be made to the Assessment Team at the local social services office.

Pupils have ever-increasing access to communication technology both in and out of school. The same approach needs to be applied with respect to online safety as we would to road safety or teaching children to swim, we need to prepare children in advance of the potential problems. Teaching responsible use of this technology is important, as is alerting pupils to the potential consequences of irresponsible use.

Online-safety is woven into our curriculum and the pupils are taught to keep safe as a part of each of the 6 curriculum themes they study right through the year.

We have an extra focus on online-safety at the time of national online safety week in February.

Parents and staff alike have found our online-safety conferences very helpful for keeping up to date. 

The children have made posters to remind everyone how to be a S.M.A.R.T computer user. These posters and our online safety rules can be found all around school.

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