Safeguarding

We are committed to safeguarding and meeting the needs of all our pupils. This provides some useful advice and information when working with our pupils.

What are your responsibilities as a visitor to our school?

All those who come into contact with the pupils have a duty to safeguard and promote the welfare of the children.

Supply teachers/students will be briefed on arrival to site before they begin work. They will be aware of possible signs and indicators of abuse and will bring their concerns immediately to a DSL or DSP

School age students and other volunteers will not have received child protection training and MUST NEVER be left alone with a child/children at any point; a CP trained member of staff should always be in sight/hearing of a student/volunteer.

DBS Checks

Huntingdon Academy requires all adults who work in a regulated activity to be checked through the Disclosure and Barring Service.

If you are volunteering we will ask you to complete various forms and provide photo I.D. not only to verify your identity, but to provide contact details.

You are required to inform the head immediately if you become subject to any criminal investigation.

You must also declare if you are living with someone who has committed an offence against children. Debarring by Association. Everyone in our school is asked to make this declaration as they come into contact with under 8’s.

What you should do if you are worried about a child?

Whilst working with a child, if you become worried about:

• Comments made by a child
• Marks or bruising on a child
• Changes in a child’s behaviour or de-meaner
• Disclosures of any nature that may indicate risk of harm to a child
• You must report these concerns to a Designated Safeguarding Lead and log the concern on My Concern.

If a child makes a disclosure to you

• Listen, allow the child to talk freely.
• Reassure but DON’T promise anything.
• DO NOT promise confidentiality.
• DO NOT interrogate, do not ask them to write it down.
• Reassure them that it was right to talk.

What if a child expresses concern about a staff member?

If a child is to do this it must be reported to the head, if it is about the head it must be reported to the Chair of Governors.

Appropriate Behaviour

• As a visitor or volunteer you may well work closely with pupils. We need to have mutual trust and respect.
• You should not engage in physical contact with the children if they instigate this it should be reported to class teacher.
• Do not photograph/record the pupils and do not have you mobile phone or camera out whilst on site. Do not exchange numbers or engage on social media with any pupils.

Confidentiality

It is expected of everybody in school not to discuss anything they hear or see on site with anybody else.

Do you have a safeguarding concern?

As a parent or member of the public we all have a duty of care to ensure that we support the safeguarding of all young people and those who are deemed vulnerable. If you have a safeguarding concern during the hours of Monday to Friday between 8 am and 5 pm, if you believe someone’s life is in immediate danger then you should call 999, otherwise you can call MASH ( multi agency safeguarding hub). They can be reached on you will be able to discuss and share you concern with them, you can remain anonymous, however, it is helpful if you are able to share who you are, which will remain confidential. This allows them to be able to filter out malicious calls. Out of these hours if you have a concern that someone’s life is in immediate danger then you must call 999, However, if you feel that you are concerned and it doesn’t quite meet the threshold of a 999 call you can contact Nottingham City Social Care Out of hours emergency duty team on 0300 456 4546.

Keeping children safe a key priority in school. Safeguarding takes many forms including: protecting children from harm; preventing impairment of children’s health and development; enabling safe and effective parenting and giving children equal opportunities in life. We do many things every day in school to ensure pupils are safe including: ensuring all staff are trained in safeguarding; having clear policies and procedures in place to keep children safe; monitoring pupil attendance; ensuring a safe and healthy site; ensuring the behaviour of pupils is in line with the Academy behaviour policy and using our curriculum to teach children about risk taking, diversity, healthy lifestyles, managing relationships, online safety and much more.

A culture of safeguarding is embedded at Huntingdon Academy. We pride ourselves in knowing our children and the needs of both the individuals within our community and the needs of the wider community itself. As a result of our knowledge and experience of the challenges some our students face we recognise that they are at greater risk of:

• Online Safety – This is addressed by our online safety curriculum delivered through the PSHE curriculum and computing lessons using Purple Mash as a basis. We also use SENSO to monitor student’s computer use whilst using academy owned devices.

• Mental health and Well-being – This is addressed by our PSHE curriculum using Jigsaw as a basis. This connects the pieces of Personal, Social, Health and Well-Being Education with a block of lessons specifically focusing on Mental Health for each year group. The programme teaches children emotional literacy, social- and lifelong skills, RSE/RSHE and resilience in an age-appropriate manner. Huntingdon is a Mental Health Support Team School (MHST) This have been developed to increase earlier access to support with mental health and wellbeing, they are based in school one day a week to help children access support and help to increase a whole school approach to mental health wellbeing.  An Educational Mental Health Practitioner is based in the school one day a week and work closely with Louise Yarnell the mental health lead to ensure that the mental health needs within the school are identified and bespoke interventions offered.  MHST offer interventions that have been shown to help support children and young people overcome difficulties with their mental health and wellbeing.  These may be offered on a 1-1 basis or with parents/caregivers. The majority of our interventions use Cognitive Behavioural Therapy approaches. Where students require CAMHS support a referral will be completed.

• Domestic Abuse – School receive Project Encompass calls. Encompass is a process that inform schools of reported domestic abuse incidents, where a child has been in the same household or is affected by the incident, during the next school day. The school Safeguarding lead Louise Yarnell is the school nominated Encompass contact who is contacted after the referral to discuss the incident. Encompass is managed and run in the MASH (Multi-Agency Safeguarding Hub) which is able to link  Police, Social Care and Health information about children. Starting in the summer term 2023 school will have a work from Imara in school one day a week. This is a Domestic Abuse Therapeutic Service for Children & Young People from 3-18 years. They provide a range of creative arts therapies, designed to allow children to communicate in ways that come most naturally to them, to process what they have experienced and overcome trauma.  This is to help empower our children and families to move forward from the impact of domestic abuse. Year 5 and 6 children also benefit from the Great project run by Equation which is designed to promote healthy relationships and domestic abuse awareness.

• Community issues including anti-social behaviour and drug misuse – Our Year 6 children benefit from D.A.R.E. (Drug Abuse Resistance Education), the highly acclaimed program that gives kids the skills they need to avoid involvement in drugs, gangs, and violence. D.A.R.E. is led by a police officer-led series of classroom lessons that teaches children from how to resist peer pressure and live productive drug and violence-free lives. We must acknowledge that it can and does happen and ensure we offer intervention at the earliest opportunity.

• Risk of FGM – We educate children on their rights, through PSHE/RSE and Oracy and this our way of starting the conversation and laying the foundations of introducing FGM, as we know that girls are most risk between the ages of 5 – 12 years old, and as a primary school we play an important part in safeguarding girls from FGM. FGM is a safeguarding issue and is treated like any child protection concern. It is a mandatory part of safeguarding training and is untaken yearly by all staff. Absences are requested in advance, all travel during school term time requires a meeting with the head teacher and/or attendance leave and any holidays to countries of prevalence are explored further.

In addition to ensuring our safeguarding procedures, displays around the academy and training are of the highest standard and ensuring staff remain vigilant, we also recognise the need to safeguard our children through education and the curriculum within school.

Parenting can be rewarding, but it can also be challenging. The NSPCC have parenting tips for all stages of your child’s life, as well as advice on how to deal with difficult situations.

There are lots of different people who can help you if you are being hurt at home or if you are worried about someone in your family being hurt at home. It can happen to anyone, but we don’t always know who the right person is to talk to, especially if it feels like someone in your home is being bullied.

The NSPCC are there to talk to you if you are worried about being hurt or bullied by one of your family or someone you live with or if you are worried about someone you care about being hurt. They are able to offer support and to take some details from about what is happening. They can also talk to you through their counselling service.

You can visit their website at https://www.nspcc.org.uk/

You can email them on [email protected] or you can call them on 0808 800 5000

If you are worried about how much you are drinking or how much a loved one is drinking there is lots of helpful advice and support on the drinkaware website. They also have a helpful drink tracker and tools for managing what your alcohol intake is. On their website you will find a list of alcohol support services with helplines available.

Visit their website at: https://www.drinkaware.co.uk/alcohol-support-services/

The FMU is a government initiative set up to support anyone who is worried about or is at risk of being forced into a marriage, or anyone who has already been forced to marry another person. A trained professional will give you free advice on what you can do next, and help you with finding a safe place to stay or stopping a visa if you have been forced to sponsor someone. You have the right to choose who you marry, when you marry or if you marry at all.

Visit their website on https://www.gov.uk/stop-forced-marriage

Call their support line Monday to Friday (9-5) on 0207 008 0151 or during out of work hours on 0207 008 1500 and ask for the global response centre.