Heathrow Primary School
“Safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children is defined for the purposes of this guidance as: protecting children from maltreatment; preventing impairment of children’s mental and physical health or development; ensuring that children grow up in circumstances consistent with the provision of safe and effective care; and taking action to enable all children to have the best outcomes.“
At Heathrow Primary School we are committed to safeguarding children and young people and we expect everyone who works in our school to share this commitment.
Adults in our school take all welfare concerns seriously and encourage children and young people to talk to us about anything that may worry them.
Designated Safeguarding Leader – S Giles
Deputy Designated Safeguarding Leaders – A Hayer & N Gill
Our school will always discuss concerns with parents/carers and consent for any referrals should be sought unless to do so would:
Place the child at risk of significant harm or further risk of significant harm.
Place a vulnerable adult at risk of harm.
Compromise any enquiries that need to be undertaken by children’s social care or the police.
The school will endeavour to ensure that parents have an understanding of the responsibilities placed on the school and staff for safeguarding children.
In the best interests of safeguarding children there may be occasions when the school has to consult with other agencies without a parent or carer’s prior knowledge. Our first concern and responsibility is the child’s welfare and we have a duty to protect children first and always. Such consultation may result in a formal referral which could prompt visits from social care and/or the police. We fully understand that this can be a very distressing set of circumstances. Our school will follow the procedures required by Hillingdon Safeguarding Together.
Operation Encompass
The school has been given the opportunity to take part in a project that will run jointly between schools and the Metropolitan Police Service. This project is known as Operation Encompass.
Operation Encompass is the notification to schools that a child (under 18) has been exposed to, or involved in, any domestic incident. The DSL can then use the information that has been shared, in confidence, to ensure the wellbeing of the child.
Child safety issues and child protection will be addressed through the curriculum where appropriate, especially through PSHE, Computing and E-Safety, Citizenship, Relationships and Sex Education (RSE) and British values.
We use a variety of resources and approaches to teach the children how to keep themselves safe, build their resilience and manage risks.
The curriculum, and in particular the personal, social and health education development strand of the curriculum, includes an emphasis on relationships (relationships and sex education), building confidence and resilience in pupils and in developing preventative strategies to ensure their own protection and that of others. Opportunities are provided for pupils to develop the skills and strategies they need to stay safe from abuse, including age appropriate discussions about healthy relationships, their bodies and being able to say no to requests that they do not want to carry out. Clear advice and guidance is built into the curriculum to ensure that pupils understand that there is a range of contacts they can turn to for advice and support and that they know where and how to report abuse.
Children and young people spend lots of time on the internet. They may go online to research information for homework or to play games, chat with friends and make new ones. The internet holds a massive amount of useful information and can also be a really good way of learning about new things and keeping in contact with friends and family. It can also be a very dangerous place so it is important that children are protected and monitored when they are online.
CEOP (Child Exploitation and Online Protection) has lots of information about how to keep your children safe online and parental controls. The link to the website is below.
CEOP - Thinkuknow