Waterside Primary School is committed to safeguarding and promoting the wellbeing of children and young people. We expect all adults (staff, including temporary staff, volunteers, governors) to share this commitment and therefore have a full and active part to play in protecting our pupils from harm and that the child or young person’s welfare is our paramount concern.

We believe that Waterside Primary School must provide a caring, positive, safe and stimulating environment that promotes the social, emotional, physical, moral and cultural development of the individual child or young person.

We have a number of policies and procedures in place that ensure our safeguarding commitment is fully achieved including Safeguarding and Child Protection, Online Safety, Safer Recruitment, Social Media, Tackling Extremism , Data Protection to name a few. Please refer to the Documents and Policies section on our school website.

We actively support the government’s Prevent agenda to counter radicalisation and extremism.

In accordance with the Department for Education’s publication Keeping Children Safe in Education (DfE September 2016 update), all staff receive appropriate safeguarding and child protection training which is regularly updated. In addition all staff members receive safeguarding and child protection updates (for example, via training, email, e-bulletins and staff meetings), as required, but at least annually, to provide them with relevant skills and knowledge to safeguard children effectively.

Should a pupil disclose information of a sensitive nature to a member of staff, staff will listen and explain clearly and calmly to the pupil that information about their safety may mean that other people have to be informed in order to support and safeguard them. They cannot promise to keep such information a secret. We will ensure that our concerns about our pupils are discussed with his/her parents/carers first unless we have reason to believe that such a move would be contrary to the child’s safety and welfare.

When a member of staff has any child protection or welfare concerns about a pupil, they have a duty to report these concerns to the Designated Teacher for Safeguarding. In dealing with such instances, we may be required to involve external agencies including Local Authority Social Care.

Waterside Primary School takes its Safeguarding and Child Protection responsibilities very seriously. We work closely with Local Authority and other appropriate external agencies to ensure the welfare of all our pupils.

At Waterside, the designated safeguarding lead is Emma Moakes  (Head teacher) who is supported by the designated safeguarding team:

Kira Jacobs (Safeguarding Officer – Deputy Designated Teacher)

Lesley Ralls-Baird (Safeguarding Officer – Deputy Designated Teacher)

Katie Shimman – Safeguarding Governor

If you have an online Child Protection Concern also see the National Crime Agency website CEOP