Safeguarding

The school’s work to keep pupils safe and secure is good and pupils say they feel very safe in school. – Ofsted 2014

At St. Patrick’s we foster a culture of safeguarding in which the safety and well being of our children is paramount.  Any safeguarding concerns should be raised immediately with Mrs Dix, Mrs Mulholland, Miss Staniland or Mrs Rushton, our safeguarding leaders.  We operate a whistleblowing policy and expect all adults connected with our school to follow our procedures

Please click on a link to view our Child protection Policy or Safeguarding Policy and the DfE Keeping children safe in education policy

All employees, governors and regular volunteers undergo a Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) Check. We follow Hampshire Local Authority’s safeguarding procedures and aim to work in partnership with other agencies that support children and families. By law we are required to be watchful for signs and symptoms of physical, emotional or sexual abuse and neglect. In urgent or repeated incidents the school is obliged to refer these incidents to the Children’s Services Department. The headteacher is the designated person with responsibility for the implementation of these procedures.

If an issue arises outside of school hours or a child makes a disclosure to you Hampshire Children’s Services can be contacted on 0300 555 1373 – http://www3.hants.gov.uk/childrens-services/childrenandyoungpeople/child-protection.htm

Other useful organisation you can contact are:

NSPCC – 0808 800 5000 (For adults)

Childline – 0800 1111 (For children)

Health and Safety

We aim, so far as is reasonably practicable, to provide a safe working environment for children, staff and visitors to the school. Children are encouraged to walk within the school building as running increases the risk of injury. Children are asked not to use the Adventure Playground before or after school. Please ensure that your child abides by this rule as accidents at these times are at parents’ own risk. We ask all parents to support the Health and Safety of the whole school community by adhering to the variety of simple requests made from time to time.

Internet Safety

Pupils have a good understanding of internet safety and are very clear about how to deal with any kind of bullying should it arise. – Ofsted 2014
There is a wealth of information available to parents, teachers and young people to help keep themselves safe on-line.

	http://www.thinkuknow.co.uk/	Run by the Child Exploitation and Online Protection Centre (CEOP), this is a very helpful website for parents of children of all ages
	http://www.childnet.com/kia/	KnowItAll ia a website full of useful resources, run by Childnet International
	http://www.iwf.org.uk/	Internet Watch Foundation – a site to report illegal content
	http://www.microsoft.com/security/default.aspx	Microsoft’s Family Safety Centre
	https://www.facebook.com/safety	Facebook’s Family Safety Centre
	http://www.kidsmart.org.uk/	Website for children about internet safety
	http://ceop.police.uk/	Child Exploitation and Online Protection Centre
	http://www.direct.gov.uk/en/YoungPeople/HealthAndRelationships/Bullying/DG_184893	Government Information about internet safety and cyber-bullying
	http://www.education.gov.uk/ukccis/	UK Council for Child Internet Safety