Safeguarding

Keeping Children Safe

Rudgwick Primary School is committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children and young people and expects all staff and volunteers to share this commitment.

We are fully committed to ensuring that consistent effective safeguarding procedures are in place to support families, children and staff at school.

WHAT IS SAFEGUARDING?

Safeguarding involves the actions we take and the procedures and processes we have in place to promote the welfare of our children and protect them from harm. There is NO ISSUE of greater importance to staff, governors, parents, carers and children, than the safety of our children.

Safeguarding children is everyone’s responsibility. Everyone who comes into contact with children and families has a role to play.

We recognise that all adults, including temporary staff, volunteers and governors have a full and active part to play in protecting children from harm and that the child’s welfare is our paramount concern.

This school takes its responsibility to safeguard children extremely seriously and this school will train and empower all staff to recognise and respond effectively to protect a child who may be at risk of significant harm.

We will ensure all staff members in our school maintain an attitude of “it could happen here” and feel able to raise concerns either about a child at risk of a member of staff or other adults whose behaviour may present a risk to a child.

who can i talk to?

If you have a concern about a child, or situation, you can speak to any adult within the school.

All concerns are passed through the members of staff who are trained as "Designated Safeguarding Leads" in school in compliance with the "sharing of information" guidance. You can contact any of our DSLs through the school office on 01403822151 or office@rudgwick.w-sussex.sch.uk.

Mr Terry Ryan

Headteacher

Designated Safeguarding Lead

Mrs Hayley Edwards

Deputy Headteacher

Second Designated Safeguarding Lead

Mr Fairley Allan

Named Governor for Child Safeguarding

OUR DESIGNATED CHILD PROTECTION TEAM

If you have any serious concerns about your child or any other pupil at Rudgwick Primary, please do not hesitate to contact the Child Protection Designated Teacher who knows who to contact for the best advice and help and is experienced in using the appropriate degree of confidentiality.

Conerned voice

safeguarding

For the best interests of all our children we use the following safeguarding measures:

Teachers are asked to report any cause for concern to the School Safeguarding Team often verbally first, but followed up in writing – following school policy and protocol.
All staff receive child protection training when they begin at Rudgwick.
Refresher training is carried out every year, or sooner if required.
Any concerns will be shared with parents as early as possible. Concerns may range from children being visibly upset, to persistent lateness, to children ‘disclosing’ concerns.

attendance

Attendance at school every day is vital to a child's success. All lateness and absences are recorded. Reasons will be sought for all absence or lateness.

If your child is sick and cannot be at school, please inform the school by telephone or email first thing in the morning and each day thereafter as necessary.

Please try and arrange medical appointments during holidays or after school, but where this is unavoidable, a 'withdrawal from learning' form will need to be completed and permission sought.

Attendance is monitored through these systems and referrals to the Safeguarding Team can be made. Parents will always be informed of concerns around attendance at the earliest point.

If attendance concerns continue the school will refer to the Education Welfare Officer. There will be no authorised ‘Leave From School’, only in exceptional circumstances.

PREVENT Duty

All staff receive annual update training on the PREVENT DUTY which aims to eradicate radicalisation.

OUR CHILD PROTECTION
POLICY
2023-2024

helping to keep

children safe ONLINE

We support our pupils’ use of the internet and seek to underpin their knowledge of safe use and protection:

We provide our pupils with an awareness of how to stay safe online both in the school environment and beyond.
We believe that children should adhere to the certification given to games, DVDs etc. All of the games and DVDs used at school will be rated as U.
Parental permission is sought for the use of any other material (such as appropriate clips from PG films in KS2).
Facebook/Social media sites
Children of primary school age are not entitled to use social media sites such as Facebook. Children will not be using social media sites during school hours.
We also ask parent/carers not to name school, staff or other children on any form of social media, or share photographs of any school events.
Further advice for parents about keeping pupils safe online can be downloaded below.

advice for parents

Here are some useful links that parents can use to help keep children safe in the real world and online........

Parents voice

From talking PANTS to approaching difficult issues, the NSPCC have a range of tips and advice to help you keep children safe whether they’re at home, out and about or online.

NSPCC

SHARE AWARE

PARENT'S CHECKLIST FOR ONLINE SAFETY

NSPCC

UNDERWEAR

RULE

BULLYING

ADVICE

FLOWCHART

Bullying

Click HERE to find even more useful information about keeping children safe online

advice on bullying

At Rudgwick Primary School we are committed to providing a warm, caring and safe environment for all our children, so that they can learn and play in a relaxed and secure environment.

Children are taught what behaviour is acceptable, and what behaviour is not acceptable in school to ensure that our environment is positive and safe for learning.
Children are taught the difference between ‘rude’, and ‘mean’ behaviour and the repetitious nature of bullying.
We are a TELLING school:
This means that anyone who knows that bullying is happening is expected to tell the staff.

Bullying of any kind is unacceptable and will not be tolerated in our school. We take all incidents of bullying seriously. If bullying does occur, everyone should be able to report it, and know that incidents will be dealt with promptly and effectively in accordance with our anti-bullying policy.

If, as a parent, you are worried about your child bullying or being bullied then we would want you to speak to their class teacher to enable the incidents to be dealt with promptly and appropriately. For more information please refer to the flowchart above.

Anti-Bullying Week 2023

Once again, this year we have taken part in Anti-Bullying Week. The theme for this year was

'Make a Noise about Bullying' and included a focus on the idea of ‘banter’ or the ‘it was a joke’ excuse and the role it plays in school. We thought about how playful and friendly exchanges can be taken too far.

The children created their own 'bantometers' and wrote poems and raps in order to MAKE A NOISE! They also agreed our annual Anti-Bullying Code for 2023.

Anti-Bullying Week 2022

The theme for Anti-Bullying Week this year was 'Reach Out'. Our children have worked on various Anti-Bullying Week activities and really demonstrated their understanding of what bullying can look like and feel like and their role in ensuring that Rudgwick Primary School is a safe place for everyone. We also all re-visited and agreed again to our Anti-Bullying Code which we continue to follow at Rudgwick Primary School.

Just one example of how the children explored issues of bullying comes from Year 2, who explored how a small change can make a big difference. They applied this concept to an area of PE and after working in a pair to pass and keep possession of a small ball; they introduced working in 2v2 formation. This small changed made a big difference in terms of making it harder to keep possession, keep up with faster teams and leaving some players feeling left out. They talked about how this is similar in friendships and how the more friends that come into a game to play, the more differences there might be; but that we can get through them by learning to reach out, support, tolerate and learn from these challenges.

Anti-Bullying Week 2021

The theme for Anti-Bullying Week this year was 'One Kind Word'. The children took part in lots of activities to explore what bullying is, what it looks like, what it feels like and how we can make sure our school is a safe and happy place for everyone. We thought about how important it is to be kind to eachother and explored words of kindness which we can share with and about each other. We also all agreed to our Anti-Bullying Code which we will follow at Rudgwick Primary School.

We all worked together to make a short film to share our words of kindness and to show how we have committed to making sure we are an anti-bullying school.

i am a child and i don't feel safe...

If you are scared, or worried, or don’t feel safe; whether at home, or at school, you can do one of these things:

child voice

2. In particular you can speak to:

Mr Ryan

Mrs Edwards

or Mr Fairley Allan

SUPPORTING LEARNING FROM HOME

Safeguarding

Keeping Children Safe