Safeguarding Purpose and Aims 

The purpose of Maypole School’s safeguarding policy is to ensure every child who is a registered pupil at our school is safe and protected from harm.  This means we will always work to:

• Protect children and young people at our school from maltreatment, whether that is within or outside the home, including online;
• Prevent impairment of our children’s and young people’s mental and physical health or development;
• Ensure that children and young people at our school grow up in circumstances consistent with the provision of safe and effective care;
• Undertake that role so as to enable children and young people at our school to have the best outcomes.

Our Safeguarding policy gives clear direction to all staff including supply staff, volunteers, visitors and parents about expected behaviour and our legal responsibility to safeguard and promote the welfare of all children at our school. 

Our school fully recognises the contribution it can make to protect children from harm and supporting and promoting the welfare of all children who are registered pupils at our school.  The elements of our policy are prevention, protection and support. 

Accessing our Safeguarding policy

This policy is available on the Policies page of this website, and on request from the school office. We also inform parents and carers about this policy when their children join our school, and through our school newsletters. The policy is also provided to all staff on Induction, alongside our Staff Code of Conduct, behaviour policy and the safeguarding response to those pupils who are missing from education. In addition, all staff are provided with Part One of the statutory guidance and Annex A "Keeping Children Safe in Education" (DfE, 2024).

Our Safeguarding duty to absent pupils

We recognise that our safeguarding responsibilities are clearly linked to our responsibilities for ensuring that appropriate safeguarding responses are in place for children who are absent from school or who go missing from education, particularly on repeat occasions. The teaching staff will regularly liaise with the Designated Safeguarding Lead, to discuss all persistently absent pupils and those who go missing, to identify the risk of abuse, neglect and exploitation, including sexual abuse or exploitation, and to ensure that appropriate safeguarding responses have been put in place to reduce the risk of future harm. 

Who this Policy applies to

This policy applies to all pupils, staff, parents, carers, volunteers, visitors and members of the Governing Body.

Our Ethos

The child’s welfare is of paramount importance, and is therefore central to our ethos. Our school will establish and maintain an ethos where pupils feel secure, are encouraged to talk, are listened to and are safe.  Children at our school will be able to talk freely to any member of staff at our school if they are worried or concerned about something. All staff will reassure victims that they are being taken seriously and that they will be supported and kept safe. Victims will never be given the impression that they are creating a problem by reporting abuse, sexual violence or sexual harassment. This is everyone’s job

Everyone who comes into contact with children and their families has a role to play in safeguarding children. 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 required 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 approach to Safeguarding

At Maypole School we ensure that safeguarding and child protection is at the forefront and underpins all relevant aspects of process and policy development. We operate with the best interests of the child at our heart.

Where there is a safeguarding concern, the child’s wishes and feelings are taken into account when determining what action to take and what services to provide. The systems we have in place are well promoted, easily understood and easily accessible for children to confidently report abuse, neglect or exploitation, knowing their concerns will be treated seriously, and knowing they can safely express their views and give feedback.

All staff and regular visitors will, through training and induction, know how to recognise indicators of concern, how to respond to a disclosure from a child and how to record and report this information. We will not make promises to any child and we will not keep secrets.  Every child will know what the adult will have to do with any information they have chosen to disclose.

Safeguarding is underpinned by core working practices including child protection, health care plans, health and safety, site security, safety on school trips, anti-bullying work, safer recruitment and so much more. We work very closely with our Local Authorities to ensure that we are fully joined up in our approach and that we develop a strong and pervasive safeguarding culture in every aspect of school life.

How the Curriculum is designed to support Safeguarding

Another reflection of safeguarding being so central to our ethos is that throughout our broad and balanced curriculum, we will provide activities and opportunities for children to develop the knowledge, values and skills they need to identify risks, including knowing when and how to ask for help for themselves and others to stay safe (this includes online). The Relationships Education, Relationships and Sex Education and Health Education will cover relevant topics in an age and stage appropriate way, through a planned, developmental curriculum enabling pupils to learn about their rights and responsibilities to behave and stay safe in a variety of contexts on and offline. This will provide further reinforcement to help children identify risks, know when to seek support and develop the skills to ask for help from trustworthy, reliable sources. Further information can be found in the DfE guidance ‘Teaching online safety in school.’ and ‘Relationships Education, Relationships and Sex Education and Health Education.’   

The school’s Relationships and Sex Education policy can be found on the Policies page of this website.

Working Together to Safeguard Children

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 (2024) and the safeguarding procedures in the appropriate Local Authorities. 

 

"One clear message from pupils is that they feel understood and safe here. They recognise that their behaviour is not always perfect but are positive about the way staff support them to reflect when things have gone amiss."

Ofsted Report, Maypole School (Sunbury), June 2024