SAFEGUARDING

St Benet Biscop Catholic Academy is committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of all of its pupils. Our first priority is the welfare of our children. Safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children is of paramount importance and is everyone’s responsibility.

It is the responsibility of every member of staff, volunteer and regular visitor to our school to ensure that, at all times, they work in a way that will safeguard and promote the welfare of all of the pupils at this school. This includes the responsibility to provide a safe environment in which children can learn.

We recognise that staff at our school play a particularly important role as they are in a position to identify concerns early and provide help for children to prevent concerns from escalating. All staff are advised to maintain an attitude of ‘it could happen here’ where safeguarding is concerned. When concerned about the welfare of a child, staff members must always act in the best interests of the child.

Our school is driven to create and maintain an ethos where children feel secure, are encouraged to talk, are listened to and are safe. Children will be able to talk freely to any member of staff at our school if they are worried or concerned about something.

Throughout our curriculum we provide activities and opportunities for children to develop the skills they need to identify risks and stay safe. This will also be extended to include material that will encourage our children to develop essential life skills, please read our personal development web page in conjunction with our safeguarding page.

At all times we will work in partnership and endeavour to establish effective working relationships with parents, carers and colleagues from other agencies in line with Working Together to Safeguard Children (2018) and Local Safeguarding Partners’ Procedures including Northumberland Children and Adults Safeguarding Partnership.

The school has a suite of Safeguarding documents which are reviewed regularly, these are:
• Child Protection Policy & Safeguarding
• Online Safety Policy
• Visitors’ Safeguarding Procedures
• Information for Visitors pamphlet (including Safeguarding)
• Drug Policy
• Health and Safety Policy
• Student Acceptable Use Policy
• Attendance Strategy
• Child on Child Abuse and Anti Bullying Policy
• Behaviour Policy
• Screening, Search and Confiscation Policy
Policies are held in our Policies section.

DOMESTIC VIOLENCE

We are proud to be an Operation Encompass school. Operation Encompass is a police and education early information safeguarding partnership enabling schools to offer immediate support to children experiencing domestic abuse.

Operation Encompass ensures that there is a simple telephone call or notification to a school’s trained Designated Safeguarding Lead /Officer (known as Key Adult) prior to the start of the next school day after an incident of police attended domestic abuse where there are children related to either of the adult parties involved. Information is shared with a school’s Key Adult (Designated Safeguarding Lead) prior to the start of the next school day after officers have attended a domestic abuse incident. This sharing of information enables appropriate support to be given, dependent upon the needs and wishes of the child.

ONLINE SAFETY FOR STUDENTS

Our students live in a digital world and we aim to develop responsible digital citizens. The internet and technology are exciting and beneficial both in and out of the classroom. However, online resources and apps are not always policed as thoroughly as we would like as teachers, parents and carers. All users of such technology need to be aware of the risks associated. Some of apps, platforms and games actually have a minimum age requirement some of which are at the age of 13.

At St Benet Biscop all students receive information, advice and guidance in relation to online safety. We aim to teach students appropriate behaviours and problem solving to enable them to stay safe when using the internet and technology both in and out of the classroom.