Keeping Children Safe - Safeguarding
Children's Services across the country have a duty to protect children and young people and ensure that they are effectively safeguarded from the potential risk of harm. Schools are part of Children's Services and therefore we have an important part to play in the safeguarding of children in Kingston and in our local area.
At Maple Infants' School, we take this role very seriously.
We place great emphasis on the safety and welfare of all our pupils. We take rigorous steps to ensure that children stay safe and do not come to harm and we actively promote an ethos whereby staff, pupils, parents and governors feel able to articulate concerns comfortably, safe in the knowledge that effective action will be taken as appropriate . We work closely with parents and carers and a range of professional external agencies in order to do this.
At Maple Infants' School we provide a safe and secure environment, which includes:
At Maple Infants' School, we take this role very seriously.
We place great emphasis on the safety and welfare of all our pupils. We take rigorous steps to ensure that children stay safe and do not come to harm and we actively promote an ethos whereby staff, pupils, parents and governors feel able to articulate concerns comfortably, safe in the knowledge that effective action will be taken as appropriate . We work closely with parents and carers and a range of professional external agencies in order to do this.
At Maple Infants' School we provide a safe and secure environment, which includes:
- Ensuring that every child is aware of his/her right to be safe
- Ensuring that our staff receive appropriate training on safeguarding matters and that this is updated regularly
- Ensuring that we follow the statutory guidance in the DfE publication 'Keeping Children Safe in Education' (copy below)
- Following Safer Recruitment guidelines when appointing staff
- Ensuring that all relevant checks are carried out on all adults who have contact with children in our school
Every member of staff at Maple Infants' School has a responsibility to keep children safe in our school. We work together to teach and support our children to:
A copy of our Child Protection & Safeguarding Policy can be found below. It applies to all adults, including volunteers, working in or on behalf of our school and it is expected that everyone working here shares the responsibility to keep children safe from harm and abuse and reports any concerns to our Designated Safeguarding Leaders.
- keep themselves safe and healthy
- recognise and manage risks
- develop healthy habits
- learn about relationships
- be aware of staying safe online
- deal with conflict and bullying
A copy of our Child Protection & Safeguarding Policy can be found below. It applies to all adults, including volunteers, working in or on behalf of our school and it is expected that everyone working here shares the responsibility to keep children safe from harm and abuse and reports any concerns to our Designated Safeguarding Leaders.
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If you have any concerns, no matter how small they may seem, about the safety or welfare of a child, please contact our school's Designated Safeguarding Lead - Miss Helen Funnell, Deputy Head.
Helen's contact details - Telephone number: 020 8399 3341 or Email: office@maple.rbksch.org If Helen is not available, please ask to speak to the Senior Deputy Designated Safeguarding Lead, Mrs Claire Barwell, (Headteacher) or our other Deputy Designated Safeguarding Lead, Miss Jessica Dowd. |
You can also contact Kingston Children's Services directly through their Single Point of Access - the following information is from their website which can also be found by clicking here
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Useful safeguarding documents
| Child Protection & Safeguarding Policy 2019-20 |
| Keeping Children Safe in Education 2019 |
| Kingtson & Richmond Safeguarding Children Partnership Leaflet |
The NSPCC also produces several useful resources for schools and families to use that help promote keeping children safe from harm. Links to these resources can be found below by clicking on the resource name:
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E-Safety
.The internet is an essential element in life for education, business and social interaction. Its use is a statutory requirement of the curriculum and a necessary tool for both staff and pupils. The school will provide managed internet access to its staff and pupils in order to help pupils learn how to assess and manage risk, to gain the knowledge and understanding to keep themselves safe when using the Internet and to bridge the gap between school IT systems and the more open systems outside school.
There are many different online games and playing experiences currently available to children e.g. via computers, consoles, internet games and apps. Gaming may be the very first way that your child encounters life online, outside an educational setting. Some games however are for adults or older audiences and contain images and language that are not suitable for children. Therefore it is important that the games your children play are the correct age rating. Like film classifications, these ratings are determined by the game’s content, and all video games sold in the UK are clearly marked with age ratings set by PEGI (Pan European Games Information). Google Play and Windows Store apps are also rated by PEGI.The rating on a game confirms that it is suitable for players over a certain age. Accordingly, a PEGI 7 game is only suitable for those aged seven and above and an PEGI 18 game is only suitable for adults aged eighteen and above. The PEGI rating considers the age suitability of a game, not the level of difficulty.
http://www.pegi.info/en/index/
Many families joined Miss Craik in school on 27th November 2018 for an e-safety workshop which was run by Peter Cowley (AfC ICT and Online Safety Advisor) who helped to identify how to keep our children safe online. Peter outlined the importance of setting parental controls on any devices to ensure that you are aware and have control of what your children are accessing online. This then supports parents to be able to assess that any content is age appropriate and safe. It is particularly useful to do this before a child receives a gift or begins to use the device, so to support families he has provided us with QR codes
which will direct families straight to the instructions for how to set parental controls for four of the main devices. Please see the document below.
There are many different online games and playing experiences currently available to children e.g. via computers, consoles, internet games and apps. Gaming may be the very first way that your child encounters life online, outside an educational setting. Some games however are for adults or older audiences and contain images and language that are not suitable for children. Therefore it is important that the games your children play are the correct age rating. Like film classifications, these ratings are determined by the game’s content, and all video games sold in the UK are clearly marked with age ratings set by PEGI (Pan European Games Information). Google Play and Windows Store apps are also rated by PEGI.The rating on a game confirms that it is suitable for players over a certain age. Accordingly, a PEGI 7 game is only suitable for those aged seven and above and an PEGI 18 game is only suitable for adults aged eighteen and above. The PEGI rating considers the age suitability of a game, not the level of difficulty.
http://www.pegi.info/en/index/
Many families joined Miss Craik in school on 27th November 2018 for an e-safety workshop which was run by Peter Cowley (AfC ICT and Online Safety Advisor) who helped to identify how to keep our children safe online. Peter outlined the importance of setting parental controls on any devices to ensure that you are aware and have control of what your children are accessing online. This then supports parents to be able to assess that any content is age appropriate and safe. It is particularly useful to do this before a child receives a gift or begins to use the device, so to support families he has provided us with QR codes
which will direct families straight to the instructions for how to set parental controls for four of the main devices. Please see the document below.
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Safer Internet Day
Safer Internet Day is celebrated globally in February each year to promote the safe and positive use of digital technology for children and young people and at Maple Infants' School we take an active role in promoting this for our pupils.
You may find the resources below helpful when thinking about online safety at home:
You may find the resources below helpful when thinking about online safety at home:
