Safeguarding - Keeping Children Safe

Children’s Social Care across the country have a duty to protect children and young people from abuse and neglect.  Schools are part of Children’s Services and therefore we have an important part to play in the safeguarding of children in Lewisham.

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 any harm. We work closely with parents and carers and a range of professional external agencies in order to secure this.

If you have any concerns, no matter how small they may seem, about the safety or welfare of any child, please contact the school's Designated Lead for Child Protection, Caroline Phillips, Head Teacher. 

Please see our mission statement below on Safeguarding.

Baring Primary School is committed to Safeguarding and promoting the welfare of all of its pupils. We recognise that some children may be especially vulnerable to abuse and that children who are abused or neglected may find it difficult to develop a sense of self-worth, to view the world in a positive way or achieve academically. We recognise that some children who have experienced abuse may harm others. We will always take a considered and sensitive approach in order that we can support all of our pupils.

The school pays full regard to DfES guidance ‘Keeping Children Safe in Education’ September 2018.  We ensure that all appropriate measures are applied in relation to everyone who works in the school who is likely to be perceived by the children as a safe and trustworthy adult including volunteers and staff employed by contractors. Safer recruitment practice includes scrutinising applicants, verifying identity and academic or vocational qualifications, obtaining professional and character references, checking previous employment history and ensuring that a candidate has the health and physical capacity for the job. It also includes undertaking interviews and The Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) checks.

Our Safeguarding Policy is available for parents to read and this sets out the procedures we follow if a situation arises.

• Good communication between home and school is very important, so please tell us if your child has had an accident or is upset about something at home
• We have a legal duty to report to the Lewisham Safeguarding Children Team situations where we believe children to be at risk. If we believe that your child is at risk of significant harm, we can share information about your child without your permission
• Other safeguarding policies including online safety are on our school policies page 

Prevent

Prevent - what's that?
Prevent is part of CONTEST, the Government’s strategy to address terrorism. The main aim of Prevent is to stop people becoming terrorists or supporting terrorism. Prevent focuses on all forms of terrorist threats.  E.g. international terrorism, far right extremists (among others). 

Information on what our local authority, Lewisham, are doing about Prevent can be viewed here .  Staff have received training to understand the Prevent duty and a draft policy has been created which can be viewed here and on our policy pages.