Safeguarding
At Cross Lane Primary School, we regard the safeguarding of children to be of utmost importance.
What is Safeguarding?
At Cross Lane Primary School, we consider the safeguarding of children to be our most important priority. Children need to feel safe, cared for and valued in order to learn and thrive. In our school, we follow the guidance set out in ‘Keeping Children Safe in Education’ 2019 which states that schools must ensure they:
- Protect children from maltreatment
- Prevent the impairment of children’s health or development
- Ensure children grow up in safe and effective care
- Take action to ensure children achieve the best outcomes
To ensure the above guidelines are followed, we take action to enable all children to have the best outcomes through our safeguarding measures regardless of their age, culture, physical needs, gender, language, racial origin, religious beliefs and sexual identity. In order to do this, we have clear procedures in place to ensure that disclosures or allegations are taken seriously, recorded correctly and investigated.
Who is Responsible for Safeguarding?
At Cross Lane we have three Desiginated Safeguarding Leads (known as DSLs). Please speak to them regarding any concerns about the safety and welfare of a child. For out of school hours concerns, please email: safe@crosslane.calderdale.sch.uk (in the event of an emergency, ring 999).
.jpg?width=320&height=240&scale=LIMIT_MAXSIZE "mark 1 (2)")
.jpeg?width=320&height=240&scale=LIMIT_MAXSIZE "kirstie (4)")
Our Curriculum
How does our Curriculum Support Safeguarding of Pupils?
To support pupils with confidence and knowledge of safeguarding issues, we ensure our curriculum allows lots of opportunities to develop their understanding.
For example:
- We cover whole school national and global themes across the whole year such as Anti-Bullying week and Safer Internet Day
- We learn about our values and keeping safe in lessons and assemblies to help children develop their sense of worth and confidence
In addition, there is a regular review of the school setting to ensure that pupils are in an environment where they feel safe, and are safe. Pupils are well equipped with the knowledge and understanding of how to keep safe, maintain a healthy lifestyle (including healthy relationships) and keep mentally healthy through activities such as recognising Online Safety, Road Safety and Anti-Bullying weeks, NSPCC assembly and workshops for years 5 and 6, visits from the Fire Brigade and Community Police as well as health professionals leading programmes such as ‘PANTS’ to our younger children and ‘Branching Out’ to our older pupils (alcohol and drugs). We are also annually visited by the Healthy Lifestyle Caravan, provided by Coram Life Education. These workshops cover a range of topics for each year group and cover some important safeguarding messages.
Cross Lane Safeguarding Curriculum
Links with External Agencies
In order to provide the best possible safeguarding for all pupils in our school we work with outside agencies to ensure we get expert advice and support. We follow procedures set out by the Local Education Authority, the Calderdale Safeguarding Children Board as well as ‘Keeping Children Safe in Education’ in accordance with child protection procedures.
Below are some of the links we have with external agencies:
- NSPCC
- West Yorkshire Police
- Education Social Work Team
- Educational Psychology Team
- CAMHS (Child and Adult Mental Health Service)
- Behaviour Support Service
- Social Services
- Family support workers
- Parent Support Advisor
- Health practitioners
- Special Educational Needs and Disability Team
Should you need more information about services available in Calderdale around Early help for families then visit the Calderdale Council website: https://safeguarding.calderdale.gov.uk/
Sharing of Information
We are required to have information from parents/carers prior to a child joining our school.
This includes:
- Information about who has legal contact with the child and who has parental responsibility
- Any special health requirements for the child
- Information relating to food i.e. dietary requirements and food allergies
- Emergency contact numbers (updated as required throughout the child’s time at school)
- Child Collection arrangements
In our school we follow the Data Protection principles. Information regarding children is stored safely and securely and it is only shared with professionals permitted to have it.
.jpg?width=1920&height=1080&scale=LIMIT_MAXSIZE "brain(1)")
Who is Responsible for Safeguarding?
Everyone who comes into contact with children and their families has a role to play in safeguarding children. Staff are made aware that any safeguarding issues need to be reported via the correct route to the designated safeguarding leads.
On-going safeguarding measures are in place for all staff members: regular training, circulation of updates to the safeguarding policy and sharing of good practice to ensure that all staff can recognise the signs and symptoms of abuse and report using our agreed procedures.
Where national issues come to the fore, whole school staff training is put in place, for example around the PREVENT agenda or around online safety.
Staff attend pertinent training throughout the year, for example – domestic violence, child bereavement, drug and alcohol abuse when necessary.
Parents are invited to attend workshops, wherever possible, around online safety.
There is a Calderdale Council site around family information services, where support and information that will help parents to safeguard their children is available: https://safeguarding.calderdale.gov.uk/
Governors are subjected to the same checks as staff and are invited to complete training with staff, through governors sessions or by accessing our online training provider.
.jpg?width=1920&height=1080&scale=LIMIT_MAXSIZE "heart(1)")