Safeguarding
Safeguarding Statement PDF
Brockley Primary School Safeguarding Statement 2023 - 2024
Brockley Primary School is committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children and expects all staff and volunteers to share this commitment.
We have a number of policies and procedures in place that contribute to our safeguarding commitment, including our Child Protection Policy which can be viewed in the policies section on our website.
Sometimes we may need to share information and work in partnership with other agencies, when there are concerns about a child’s welfare. We will ensure that our concerns about our pupils are discussed with parents/carers first, unless we have reason to believe that such a move would be contrary to the child’s welfare.
We actively support the Government’s Prevent Agenda to counter radicalism and extremism.
Our Designated Safeguarding Lead is Mrs Caroline Rodgers (Head teacher). Our Deputy Designated Safeguarding Lead is Ms Sarah Wheeldon (Assistant Headteacher). The Governor with responsibility for safeguarding in our school is Mr Elton Sperring.
Contact details for the safeguarding team:
caroline.rodgers@brockley.derbyshire.sch.uk
sarah.wall@brockley.derbyshire.sch.uk
elton.sperring@brockley.derbyshire.sch.uk
Partner agencies from both the Derby & Derbyshire Safeguarding Children and Safeguarding Adults Boards have come together to form a Multi-Agency Safeguarding Hub (MASH).
The MASH aims to:
- Provide a co-ordinated partnership response to safeguarding issues for both adults and children within Derby City
- Ensure a “Think Family” approach to Safeguarding
- Improve consistency, co-ordination and responsiveness for safeguarding
Derby and Derbyshire LMC Ltd Heritage Gate, Norman House, Ground Floor Friar Gate, Derby DE1 1NU
Telephone: 01332 210 008
Email: ddlmc.office@nhs.net
Photographs and Videos
Whilst lots of parents and carers really enjoy seeing photos and videos of their children’s school life we are very mindful of our duty of care towards all our pupils. We take the issue of safeguarding very seriously and this includes the use of photographic and video images.
Any photographs or videos taken by parents, carers and relatives at school productions, sports days or other events are for the enjoyment of individual families. They must not be used in any way that could potentially place a child at risk. This would include publishing images in any form of print or on the internet including social networking sites. This is emphasised before concerts and shows etc. and where practical a record of parents and relatives taking photographs or videos is made.
We understand that in exceptional circumstances a parent or carer may not wish their child to be photographed or videoed in this way. If this is the case then please contact the Headteacher to discuss how this can be best achieved.
Occasionally, the local press will be invited to take photographs of school events and special achievements. We like to use photographs of our children on our website, in school documents, for parent information meetings, newsletters and on our display screens around the school. If you do not wish photographs of your child to be used for these purposes, then please contact the Head teacher.
Caroline Rodgers
Headteacher
September 2023
Anyone who has concerns about the health, welfare or safety of a child can call Derbyshire County Council via Starting Point on 01629 533190.
Class Dojo
You need to make sure you have downloaded the app using the details sent home at the beginning of term in your ‘Starter Pack’.
Please see the office if you have forgotten or lost these details.
Remember to check your child’s ‘Class Dojo’ regularly and please do message the classteacher with any queries or comments. The messages should relate only to ‘ClassDojo’, anything else should be asked through our normal channels of communication.
Please visit our Policies Section to find out more about behaviour and the Dojo Scheme.
How does the ClassDojo scheme work?
How are rewards given?
What happens when the scheme doesn’t work?
Please visit the Policies Page in the Key Information Section for 2023-2024 for an update
Domestic Abuse Notice
Brockley Primary School will receive from Derbyshire Police a notification of every incident that has been reported to them or known to them of domestic abuse where a child is known to be living in the household.
This is a Derbyshire Police initiative working with Derbyshire County Council Childrens Services. Safeguarding is everyone’s responsibility, and this is to help schools with responses to domestic abuse by helping them support children and their families exposed to or involved in domestic abuse.
This may mean talking to pupils about their experiences, raising awareness through classroom discussion and school's activities, helping victims and families by providing to them signposting information.
This school is committed to protecting children and young people and working with partners to stop domestic abuse.
Online safety is in the news more than ever and with the endless choice of apps and websites to visit as parents you can never have enough advice. Please follow the links below as to how to keep your child safe.
Online Safety Links
YouTube Safety Reminder
There is no denying it children love YouTube. They can spend hours searching and watching their favourite videos, researching a school topic or creating their own videos and uploading them to share with family and friends. Unfortunately, not everything on YouTube is child friendly, and young people can come across some very inappropriate content including violence, sexual videos, bad language and even bullying and trolls. So, we’ve put together some top tips for parents to help make YouTube that bit safer.
- Create an account in Google that is used by the whole family. When you make a shared Google account you can see exactly what videos your children are watching, uploading and sharing.
- Once you have signed in to Youtube via the Family Google Account, the next thing to do is switch on restricted mode. If you scroll all the way to the bottom of the YouTube page you will see an option to turn on restricted mode. This will help keep out some, but not all, of the inappropriate stuff you don’t want your kids to see. Remember that you have to save this option and you have to set it up for every browser that you use. So if you have multiple computers then you will have to do this on each one.
- Sit down with you kids and go through the things that they like to watch. Most content they like will be attached to a channel. If you are happy with the content of the channel then ask your children to subscribe to it, this will then promote content to their feed when they log in. It also lets them know when new videos are available and hopefully this will stop some of the searching which may lead them into content they don’t want to see.
- If your children are into creating videos then make sure they are signed into the Family Account when they upload, and make sure they upload privately. When they click the upload button they can choose to upload as Public, Private or Unlisted. Private means that only people you choose can view the video. If you choose Unlisted then the video can only be viewed by a link generated within the video and this means that only people that you send the link to can view the video.
- The last thing to do is disable the comments. By disabling this it stops people from making inappropriate comments on any video uploaded by them.
YouTube is an amazing resource for knowledge and entertainment, as well as a great way for children to explore their creativity when making videos. By following these 5 tips you will make it a safer place, but remember you can’t make it 100% safe, so keep having regular chats with your kids about what they are doing and take time to sit down with them and use YouTube together and have some fun as a family. Lastly don’t forget that YouTube’s own terms and conditions mean that it should not be used by anyone under 13 years of age.
If your children are under 13 years of age then YouTube has created an App available on Google Play and Apple’s App store especially for them called ‘YouTube for Kids’. Created especially by Youtube using stronger filtering algorithms to keep kids safe. Remember though nothing is 100% safe so maintain an interest in what they are doing and keep having those important safety chats.
Online Safety – Keeping your child safe
Cyber-bullying and Cyber-threats
Young people have fully embraced the Internet as both an environment and a tool for socialising. Via the Internet and other technologies, they send e-mail, create their own websites, post intimate personal news in blogs (online interactive diaries), send text messages and images via mobile phones, contact each other through IMs (instant messages), chat in chat rooms, post to discussion boards, and seek out new friends in teen sites.
Unfortunately, there are increasing reports of teenagers (and sometimes younger children) using these technologies to post damaging text or images to bully their peers or engage in other aggressive behaviour. There are also increasing reports of teens posting material that raises concerns that they are considering an act of violence toward others or themselves.
This information letter aims to provide parents with insight into these concerns and guidelines to prevent your child from being victimised by or engaging in online harmful behaviour. It also provides guidance on things you can do in either case to keep your child safe or from your child breaking the law. Follow the link below for help and advice.
Photography at School Events
We recognise that parents attending school events like to capture the memories and often take photographs and videos. We are very careful, as part of our online safety policy in school, that we gain parents’ permission for use of images in publications and on our website. Some parents do not give their permission for a variety of reasons.
We ask that parents do not put any images that may contain other people’s children onto social networking websites. Failure to follow this request may result in photography being banned at future events.
- School gates are locked during the school day from 8:40am until 3:10pm daily to protect our children.
- All visitors/contractors must report to the main reception.
- All visitors are required to sign in, present identification and read our school safeguarding procedures; these are clearly displayed in the entrance.
- All supply staff and student teachers must provide a current DBS certificate and photographic ID to enable staff to verify their identify.
Age Appropriate
Age-appropriate computer games can be fun for your child and can provide learning in the home. Please remember that not all games are suitable for junior school children and note games have age ratings for a reason. Ignoring ratings can subject your child to images that emotionally they are not ready for. We are increasingly aware that some children either play on or watch adults playing on games with age 18 ratings.
As parents you can take control if what games as a family is the best way to understand and enjoy them together.
The stories, worlds and characters in video games offer playful ways to engage with a wide range of subjects and fuels creativity, interests and imagination.
The askaboutgames.com website provides further information about video games ratings and offers real family stories and suggestions on how video games can be a creative and collaborative experience for all the family.
We also recommend that all parents visit the CEOP Think U Know website for more information on keeping your child safe online www.thinkuknow.co.uk
A link is available on the school website under the Safeguarding ‘tab’ to all the sites shared in this newsletter.
The Government have produced the following document to offer advice to parents about cyberbullying and keeping children safe. Follow the link below if you need more advice:
This is a website dedicated to supporting parents keep their children safe online. It offers guidance
about sexting, child sex exploitation, using social media responsibly as well as online gaming safety. Follow the link: http://www.parentsprotect.co.uk/
This is the NSPCC website that offers help and advice about online safety. Follow the link for advice and tips on how to keep your child safe online: https://www.nspcc.org.uk/preventing-abuse/keeping-children-safe/online-safety/
THINKUKNOW
This website is really helpful as it gives advice and tips by age group to help you keep your child safe online.
Need immediate help?
Do you need immediate help or have a real emergency? If so call 999 or contact your local police here:
When should I report to CEOP?
We help children stay safe online. Has someone acted inappropriately towards you online, or to a child or young person you know? It may be sexual chat, being asked to do something that makes you feel uncomfortable or someone being insistent on meeting up. You can report it to us below.
Remember if you need immediate help call 999
If you are a child and you are worried, scared or in danger and need confidential help then ChildLine is the number for you. Specially trained people will help and advise you.
This link provides you with all the legal information regarding sexting, online grooming and the Police. It also provides details as to the powers Headteachers have to search and confiscate items from pupils.