As an OFSTED ‘outstanding’ school for children’s Personal Development, safeguarding is the number one priority at Whinmoor St Pauls. It is everyone’s responsibility and we must recognise that it could happen here. LV, Governor
Keeping children safe is everybody’s job – we all have a role to play. JP, Staff
Everyone matters in our school in our own way. Our school ensures that we are always safe for each and everyone of us. WSP Pupil
My teachers show me how to stay safe in school and at home – this is very important to me. WSP Pupil
Our schools keeps us safe when we feel vulnerable – we can go to a member of staff and feel confident that they will put our needs first. WSP Pupil
Our teachers ensure we know how to keep safe online at all times. WSP Pupil
Our prime responsibility as a school is to ensure that all of our children are safe both at home and at school. At Whinmoor St Paul’s we have a culture where we make safeguarding everyone’s responsibility from the Senior Leaders to office staff, from volunteers to parents / carers and the children themselves. Safeguarding is the action that is taken to promote the welfare of children and protect them from harm.
Safeguarding means:
Whinmoor St Paul’s is committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of all children. To achieve our commitment, we will ensure continuous development and improvement of robust safeguarding processes and procedures that promote a culture of safeguarding among our staff, governors and volunteers.
We are committed to inspiring, challenging and safeguarding our pupils, enabling them to become:
This is best achieved when we all work together to support the development of the whole child. We pride ourselves on knowing not just about our children’s learning, but about them and their families; as individuals and valued members of our school and community.
We educate children about safeguarding in class through the curriculum, via Collective Worships, through our thought and reflections boxes and by having good relationships where children trust the adults around them. We actively support the Government’s Prevent agenda to counter radicalism and extremism. We teach about respect for oneself and others in a wide variety of contexts. We also promote awareness through a wide variety of other education to ensure safe and positive lifestyles which lead to making good choices, these include: online safety – including social media, water, rail, road and fire safety, drugs education and first aid for all children. In our PSHE lessons we follow the ‘You, Me, PSHE’ scheme of work which encompasses many safeguarding topics and we follow the MindMate Scheme of Work to promote excellent social, emotional and mental health. We are an ‘early adopter’ of the new RSE Guidelines.
We have a number of policies and procedures in place that contribute to our safeguarding commitment, including our Child Protection Policy which can be viewed on the Policies and Forms Page.
The Designated Safeguarding Leads in school are:
Mrs L Vaughan
Mr M Smith
Mrs K Burns
Miss E Emmerson
Mrs J Percival
All adults who work in school have a responsibility to read and understand the key safeguarding documents and policies and to act within accordance of the policy at all times.
All staff in school who work directly with children have read:
We make it very clear who the Designated Safeguarding Leads are and what their responsibilities are. Our staff are kept up to date on a regular basis through notices and one minute guides – the latest awareness is around cuckooing, sad-fishing , up-skirting and peer on peer abuse.
The Designated staff undertake training courses each year to ensure that they keep their training up to date.
Governors are asked to read the same documents and sign to say they have read them. They must also read Annexe C about Online Safety and the section regarding Safer Recruitment. The Designated Safeguarding Team in school present the Governors with updates to Keeping Children Safe in Education on an annual basis as part of their statutory duties. Several of our Governors are also ‘Safer Recruitment’ trained to support the school in the recruitment process.
Further information about safeguarding children in Leeds can be found on the Leeds Safeguarding Children Partnership website: https://www.leedsscp.org.uk
The NSPCC website has a wealth of information that might help in a variety of situations. Please visit: https://www.nspcc.org.uk
If you would like help and advice about a range of different issues including Online Safety including games and apps, Sex and Relationships Education, Parenting or Health and Wellbeing, please visit: https://parentinfo.org this website has a wealth of information.
If you have any worries or concerns about any of our children or our families, including your own family – we are here to help and support in a non-judgmental manner. Please don’t wait, contact a member of staff confidentially as soon as possible, the door is always open. Remember, safeguarding is everyone’s responsibility. You can also send an email to office@whinmoorstpauls.co.uk and a member of staff will be happy to contact you.
If you would like to take your concern directly to Children’s Social Work Services, you can call Duty and Advice:
Weekdays (9am-5pm) – 0113 3760336 (option 3).
Evenings, weekends and Bank Holidays, contact the emergency team: 0113 5350600.
Alternatively, you can contact Leeds Social Care on 0113 2224405 during office hours.
If you feel that a child is in immediate danger, call 999.
We were able to welcome PCSO Louise Rothery into our school to deliver a ‘Road Safety’ message to our children. Below is a link to the slides she shared with us.