SAFEGUARDING

How do we keep children safe at Orleans Primary School?

Your child’s safety is of paramount importance to our school and we have clear and consistent policies and procedures in place to ensure that your child is safe. We meet all of the statutory requirements and regularly monitor our safeguarding provision.

We have a lead member of staff responsible for Child Protection and Safeguarding (Alex Jones, Deputy Headteacher) who meets regularly with the Governors for Safeguarding (Kay Thomas, Chair of Governors, and Caroline Green), to monitor the impact of what we have in place; also ensuring we adhere to all legislation.

Below is an overview of the areas of school life which ensure the safety of our children:

• Safer recruitment of staff – including training of interview panel  and all DBS checks.

• Clear and regularly reviewed policies - Safeguarding –including Child Protection, Accessibility, Behaviour, E-Safety –including Acceptable Use, Health and Safety and many other related policies. 

• Site safety – our school has security doors on the main entrance.  All visitors report to the main office in order to gain access to the building. The school is also covered by security cameras, all images are recorded on tape. Outside doors are locked during lesson time as a form of added security.  We have a secure fenced school boundary which is regularly inspected and improved where necessary.

• We hold regular discussions and undertake surveys with the children regarding what is in place at our school to keep them safe and to improve awareness of their personal safety, including what to do and who to speak to if they have any worries or concerns.  See our school poster below.

• Online safety – we have a clear policy and  procedure that all children use, in order to improve their safety whilst on the internet at school and at home. We run parent workshops on how to support your child with this. 

• We have very high standards of behaviour and our behaviour across the school is very good. We have a clear rewards and sanctions policy which enables children to be clear about their responsibilities with regard to behaviour. We work in partnership with our parents/carers if there are any concerns.

• We don’t tolerate bullying and we act swiftly using our clear anti bullying policy and procedures if there are any concerns or issues

• Educational visits are always risk assessed. We ensure the ratio of adults to children meets or exceeds requirements so that your children can enjoy their school trips!

• We have 3 members of staff who are fully trained First Aiders.  Many other members of our team have undertaken Basic First Aid Training.  Children are sent to the medical room if they are hurt or feeling poorly. As well as medical attention a kind word and tlc are also applied!

• We are an inclusive school. Our Inclusion Manager and SENCO (Alex Jones) - contactable via info@orleans.richmond.sch.uk work closely with our children and their families to support any additional needs effectively.

• Health and Safety is rigorous at all times. Our Governors have a termly meeting with the Headteacher to monitor and discuss all aspects of H&S, including termly inspections.

• We teach the children many aspects of their personal safety through our curriculum. Discussions on safety measures and how they can keep themselves safe take place regularly.

• We provide a Termly Safeguarding Report to Governors. This ensures all aspects of safety provision are up to date.

• We have a strong belief in partnership working with our families. Our open door policy means that effective communication can take place.

• We work with Richmond Local Authority to provide any additional support to our families and children if and when it is needed.
• We liaise with the Richmond LADO (Local Authority Designated Officer) when dealing with allegations against staff, in accordance with Working Together to Safeguard Children (2023).

 Single Point of Access

Orleans Primary School has a duty of care to its pupils and part of this duty is to report concerns to the local safeguarding and child protection team.  Our referrals are made to SPA (Single Point of Access) in Richmond, using the following telephone number 020 8547 5008 from 8am to 6pm, or 020 8770 5000 out of hours. If children live in the borough of Hounslow, we contact their child protection support on 020 8583 6600 from 8am to 5pm, or  020 8583 2222 out of hours.

If you are concerned that a child is being harmed or neglected, you should contact SPA using the above numbers or call the police directly on 999 if it is an emergency.

  Early Help 

At Orleans Primary School we are prepared to identify children who may benefit from early help. Early help means providing support as soon as a problem emerges at any point in a child’s life.

Any child may benefit from early help, but at Orleans we are particularly aware of the potential need for early help for a child who:

• is disabled and has specific additional needs
• has special educational needs (whether or not they have a statutory education, health and care plan)
• is a young carer
• is showing signs of being drawn in to antisocial or criminal behaviour
• is frequently missing/goes missing from care or from home
• is in a family circumstance presenting challenges for the child, such as substance abuse, adult mental health problems or domestic abuse
• has returned home to their family from care
• is showing early signs of abuse and/or neglect
• is a privately fostered child
• has emerging challenging behaviours.

Our Designated Safeguarding Lead can take a case to the Early Help Resilience Network  to acquire specific multi-agency support. If early help and/or other support is appropriate, we work closely with local professional agencies including social care, the police, health services and other services including voluntary organisations to promote the welfare of children and protect them from harm. This includes providing a co-ordinated offer of early help when additional needs of children are identified and contributing to inter-agency plans to provide additional support to children subject to child protection plans.

If parents/carers are concerned about their child/ren and feel they would benefit from Early Help, they should contact school office.

  Operation Encompass

• Operation Encompass is a police and education early information sharing partnership enabling schools to offer immediate support for children and young people experiencing domestic abuse. Information is shared by the police with a school's trained Key Adult (DSL) prior to the start of the next school day after officers have attended a domestic abuse incident thus enabling appropriate support to be given, dependent upon the needs and wishes of the child.

• Children experiencing domestic abuse are negatively impacted by this exposure; domestic abuse has been identified as an Adverse Childhood Experience and can lead to emotional, physical and psychological harm. Operation Encompass aims to mitigate this harm by enabling immediate support, making a child's day better and giving them a better tomorrow.

  Operation Encompass believes that children are victims of domestic abuse in their own right and should be acknowledged as such.