St George’s Catholic Primary School

Safeguarding Statement 2023 - 2024

Our 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 have a number of policies and procedures in place that contribute to our safeguarding commitment, including our Safeguarding Policy which can be viewed above.

We work in partnership with parents and external agencies to ensure that the children achieve their full potential and make a positive contribution to their learning, behaviour and responsibility to the wider community. Sometimes we may need to share information and work in partnership with other agencies, when there are concerns about a child's welfare. We follow the SET Protection Procedures and work within their framework and good practice guidelines. We will ensure that any concerns we have 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.

All members of staff, both teaching and support staff have successfully undergone safeguarding training in accordance with the guidelines found in Keeping Children Safe in Education.  This includes PREVENT training.

The pupils receive information on keeping safe and safe online use through assemblies, ICT and PSHE lessons and through behaviour support delivered throughout the working day curriculum.

Our Designated Safeguarding Leads are Mrs Annabelle Delgado (Headteacher) and Mrs Christine Wallen  (Deputy Headteacher & SENCO).

Our Deputy Designated Safeguarding Lead is Mrs Sarah McLoughlin (class teacher)

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 school productions, 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. This is emphasised before concerts and shows etc and where practical a record of parents and relatives taking photographs or videos is made.

We understand that in exceptional circumstances a parent or carer may not wish their child to be photographed or videoed in this way. If this is the case then please contact the headteacher to discuss how this can be best achieved.

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 in our prospectus and similar documents, for parent information meetings, newsletters and on our display screens around the school. We also like to use photographs of our children on our website. The child’s full name is never published next to their photograph. If you do not wish photographs of your child to be used for these purposes, then please contact the headteacher.

Reviewed September 2023