Fernvale Primary School is committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children and young people and expects all staff and volunteers to share this commitment. We are fully committed to ensuring that consistent, effective safeguarding procedures are in place to support families, children, and staff at school.

All concerns are passed through the members of staff who are trained as "Designated Child Protection Officers" in school in compliance with the "sharing of information" guidance.

Lead Safeguarding Officers – Mrs. H. Cartledge-Splitt - Headteacher

Deputy Safeguarding Officer – Mrs. C. Dobson - Senior Leadership Team

Lead Safeguarding Governor - Miss. J. Green

Lead Looked After Children Officer - Ms. F. Omar - Inclusion Manager

If you have any serious concerns about your child or any other pupil at Fernvale, please do not hesitate to contact the Designated Safeguarding Lead, who knows who to contact for the best advice and help and is experienced in using the appropriate degree of confidentiality.

For the best interests of all our children we use the following safeguarding measures:

CAUSE FOR CONCERN

Teachers are asked to report any causes for concern to the School Safeguarding Lead using a written proforma. Any concerns will be shared with parents as early as possible, as more often than not there are extremely reasonable explanations for the concern. Concerns may range from children being visibly upset, persistent lateness to children ‘disclosing’ concerns.

ALL OUR STAFF HAVE COMPLETED TRAINING FOR SAFEGUARDING

ATTENDANCE

All lateness and absences are recorded by the School Office Manager, Mrs J Bradley.

Reasons will be sought for all absence or lateness. Attendance is monitored through these systems and referrals to the Safeguarding Team can be made. Parents will always be informed of concerns around attendance at the earliest point. If attendance concerns continue, the school will refer to the Education Welfare Officer.

A child may be at risk of harm if they do not attend school regularly or are consistently late.  

Safeguarding and child protection will be considered in all instances.

SAFETY ON THE WEB

We encourage parents and children to visit the CEOP  to keep you and your friends safe with Hector Protector and his friends. Security on our computer system is a high priority because there are so many users.

 The CEOP website (Child Exploitation & Online Protection) will build knowledge of how to stay safe online. This website has lots of fun activities with which children can gain vital information on staying safe. If you or anyone you know is worried about Child Exploitation, Online Protection, or anything related to Internet safety.

 Internet access at Fernvale Primary School is filtered by our Internet Service Provider (ISP) but, ultimately, parents and guardians of minors are responsible for setting and conveying the standards that their children should follow when using media and information sources. We also have secondary filtering, provided by a dedicated internet server/router. This provides additional filtering which allows the children to only view certain pages.

 What we recommend and teach the children about Personal Security Guidelines:

Pupils should:

• Never reveal personal information, either their own or others, such as home addresses, telephone numbers, and personal e-mail addresses, etc.
• Not use photographs of themselves on their web pages unless the parent/guardians have given permission to do so.
• Never meet people in person that they have contacted on the internet without a parent/guardians permission.
• Notify their teacher whenever they come across information or messages that are dangerous, inappropriate or make them feel uncomfortable.
• Be aware that the author of an e-mail or web page may not be the person they claim to be.

Access Permission

• Pupils are responsible for appropriate behaviour on the schools' computer network just as they are in the classroom or in the school playground. Communications on the network are often public in nature. General school rules and the Behaviour Policy apply and it is expected that users will comply with the guidelines of this policy.
• Through our curriculum, each year children are taught a series of E-Safety lessons that build their knowledge of how to stay safe online. They sign an acceptable use policy which they agree to, at the start of each year.

Parental Support

• Pupils could potentially have unfiltered, unsupervised internet access at home. All parents should be aware of the concerns and benefits of school internet use. Parents are therefore encouraged to look at government guidance available on the internet to help in the supervision of their children. We have also organised and will continue to organise E-Safety training for parents.

Safety on the internet for parents website address: www.parentsonline.gov.uk