Safeguarding

Earls Colne Primary School is committed to providing a safe and secure environment for children, staff and visitors and promoting a climate where children and adults feel confident about sharing any concerns that they may have about their own safety or the well-being of others.

We have a number of policies and procedures in place that contribute to our safeguarding commitment, including our Child Protection Policy and Child on Child Harmful Sexual Behaviour Policy, which can be viewed in the Policies section of our website, together with Keeping Children Safe in Education.

Sometimes we may need to share information and work in partnership with other agencies, when there are concerns about a child's welfare. We will ensure that our concerns about our pupils are discussed with parents/carers first, unless we have reason to believe that such a move would be contrary to the child's welfare.

Designated Safeguarding Leads: Mrs J. Sibley and Mr N. Woodcock

Deputy Designated Safeguarding Leads: Miss L. Warren and Mrs K. Sercombe

Designated Safeguarding Governor: Mr D. Salt

Photographs and Videos

Whilst lots of parents and carers really enjoy seeing photos and videos of their children’s school life, we are very mindful of our duty of care towards all our pupils.

We take the issue of safeguarding very seriously and this includes the use of photographic and video images.

Any photographs or videos taken by parents, carers and relatives at sports days or other events are for the enjoyment of individual families. They must not be used in any way that could potentially place a child at risk. This would include publishing images in any form of print or on the internet including social networking sites.

Occasionally, the local press will be invited to take photographs of school events and special achievements. We also like to use photographs of our children on our website, in school documents, for parent information meetings, newsletters and on our display screens around the school. All parents and carers are asked to complete a consent form when their child joins the school, on this they can state that they do not wish photographs of their child to be used for these purposes.

We strongly believes that our school should be a welcoming and safe place for our children, staff, parents and visitors alike. We have legal responsibilities for the safeguarding and wellbeing of children and staff, and a duty of care to all users of our school.

All adults who enter our school site at any time set examples of behaviour and conduct which influence children and young people and we believe that they should therefore demonstrate high standards of conduct in order to encourage our pupils to do the same. Parents and carers must show respect to all other parents and carers, children and staff.The Headteacher has the right to restrict parents access to the school. Adults who do not behave in an acceptable manner will be asked to leave the site.

School-related issues, which parents or carers have concerning school, pupils or their families, must be brought to the attention of a member of staff. Parents or carers must not try to resolve any issues themselves by direct action on site. If issues cannot be successfully resolved by, speaking to a staff member, parents and carers may use our Complaints Procedure.

If you have any concerns for the safety of any of the children at school please consult the Headteacher, our designated leader with responsibility for child protection.