Safeguarding
Shirley School is passionate about and highly committed to the safeguarding and wellbeing of all of its pupils. We expect all staff and visitors to share this commitment.
We are fully committed to ensuring that consistent and effective safeguarding procedures are in place to support families, children and staff at school.
All concerns are listened to and passed onto trained Designated Safeguarding Personnel in compliance with the sharing of information guidance.
Our Designated Lead for Safeguarding is: John Cattermole, Headteacher
Designated Persons for Safeguarding are: Shelly Thomas, Pastoral and Welfare Officer and Suzanne Wernham, Deputy Headteacher.
Our Designated Safeguarding Lead for Early Years is Liz Pickering, Pre-School Manager.
Governor with responsibility for Safeguarding is: Sally Birse.
The Safeguarding Team meets on a regular basis to discuss ongoing concerns and ensure appropriate actions are carried out and followed up. We also work very closely with a number of social workers and other key safeguarding employees to ensure the correct help and support is directed to children and families – everyone shares a responsibility for keeping children safe.
The law requires that all school staff pass on any concerns around a child’s welfare, including risk from neglect, physical, emotional or sexual abuse. School staff will seek to discuss any concerns raised with parents or carers, including referrals to other agencies. However in situations where the child is suspected to be at risk of harm, the law states that schools can refer to other agencies without informing parents or carers. The Data Protection Act 2018 also contains ‘safeguarding of children and individuals at risk’, as a processing condition that allows professionals to share information. In all cases, the safety of the child will be of paramount concern.
If you have a concern about a child please contact the school on our main number: 01223-712252 or email: safeguarding@shirley.cambs.sch.uk
You can also seek advice at any time from the NSPCC helpline: 0808 800 5000 or email: help@nspcc.org.uk
All visitors receive this safeguarding booklet when arriving at our school.
Our Safeguarding Policies, Action Plan and further information regarding online safety are all below.
Prevent
HM Government has published guidance for Local Authorities, including schools, about their responsibilities under the ‘Counter-Terrorism and Security Act’, July 2015. Under the Act, schools and other authorities have a duty to ‘have due regard to the need to prevent people from being drawn into terrorism’. https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/prevent-duty-guidance
Our school’s Prevent Leads are John Cattermole and Suzanne Wernham. Our Prevent Action Plan is below
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Online Safety
Keeping children safe online is also a key priority at our school. Children learn about many aspects of online safety through the Computing Curriculum and we also ensure they access age-appropriate materials and learn about safe online content, which are set out in our online safety policy. Our online safety lead is Olivia Bridges, Computing Lead. Below are further links to useful information for parents regarding keeping safe online:
UK Safer Internet Centre: https://www.saferinternet.org.uk/advice-centre/parents-and-carers
National Online Safety Guides for Parents: https://nationalonlinesafety.com/guides
NSPCC Keeping Children Safe Online: https://www.nspcc.org.uk/keeping-children-safe/online-safety/
NSPCC Report Remove - a tool that allows young people to report an image shared online and see if it's possible to get it taken down https://www.nspcc.org.uk/keeping-children-safe/online-safety/online-reporting/report-remove/
ThinkUKnow for parents: https://www.thinkuknow.co.uk/parents/
Child Exploitation and Online Protection (CEOP) https://www.ceop.police.uk/safety-centre/
BBC Own It - videos and advice aimed at children for staying safe online https://www.bbc.com/ownit
NSPCC free online safety workshops: https://healthyschoolscp.org.uk/keeping-safe/nspcc-kids-safety-net-campaign-2023/
We recommend that you monitor and restrict your children's access when going online by:
- Turning off wifi at certain times on certain devices such as bedtime, or you also have the option to pause wifi for these devices completely.
- Setting up parental controls on your broadband hub so you can restrict access to certain websites or content for either your whole network, or just for your child's devices.
- Set up parental controls on individual devices.
Acceptable Use Policies