Safeguarding & Prevent

Safeguarding

All our school safeguarding follows our school policy which can be found here

What is safeguarding?

The Cathedral Catholic Primary School is committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children 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 in the policies section on our website.

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. Our Designated Safeguarding Lead is Mrs Holt (Headteacher). Our Deputy Designated Safeguarding Leads are Mrs Grierson (Deputy Headteacher), Mrs Benson (SENCO) and Mr Hodder (KS2 leader). The Governor with responsibility for safeguarding including online safety in our school is Mrs Aravinth.

If you are concerned about a child then The Lancashire Multi-Agency Safeguarding Hub (MASH) can be contacted on 0300 123 6720 or out of hours 0300 123 6722. If you think a child is in immediate danger, don’t delay – call the police on 999.

Extremism & Prevent

At The Cathedral Catholic Primary School we work within the government's Prevent Duty to tackle the problem of terrorism and extremism at its roots and prevent vulnerable children, adults and communities from being drawn into terrorism. This includes far-right extremism and some aspects of non-violent extremism. Prevent isn’t about spying on our communities. It isn’t targeted at religion – extremists can come from any background. It’s not about blame.

Prevent focuses upon early intervention and safeguarding approaches to extremism and potential vulnerability and operates in a similar way to how we would respond to concerns such as those around, physical abuse, drugs and sexual exploitation.

At The Cathedral Catholic Primary School, we work with a range of partners including:

police
Lancashire County Council
other schools and colleges
faith leaders
community groups
voluntary services

All staff and governors undertake regular Prevent training relevant to their role.

Our Risk Assessment and Action Plan is reviewed annually and can be downloaded at the end of this page; click on the image on the right to watch a short film about recognising extremism from the Home Office.

Our Prevent Lead is our Headteacher.

For Parents and carers

Recognising Extremism – signs may include:

Out of character changes in behaviour and peer relationships
Secretive behaviour
Losing interest in friends and activities
Showing sympathy for extremist causes
Glorifying violence
Possessing illegal or extremist literature
Advocating messages similar to illegal organisations such as: “Muslims Against Crusades” or other non-proscribed extremist groups such as the English Defence League

How can parents/carers support children and young people to stay safe?

Know where your child is, who they are with and check this for yourself
Know your child’s friends and their families
Keep lines of communication open, listen to your child and talk to them about their interests
Encourage them to take up positive activities with local groups that you can trust
Talk to your child about what they see on the TV or the internet and explain that what they see or read may not be the whole picture
Allow and encourage debate and questioning on local and world events and help them see different points of view Encourage your child to show an interest in the local community and show respect for people from all faiths and backgrounds
Help your child to understand the dangers of becoming involved in situations about which they may not have the full information
Teach them that expressing strong views and trying to change things for the better is fine but they should not take violent action against others or support those that do
Be aware of your child’s on-line activity and update your own knowledge
Know what social media and messaging sites your child uses
Remind your child that people they contact over the internet maybe pretending to be someone else or telling them things that are not true
Explain that anyone who tells them to keep secrets from their family or teachers is likely to be trying to do them harm or put them in danger
If you have any concerns that your child may be being influenced by others get help – talk to someone you can trust, this could be your faith leader, family members who are peers of your children, or outside help
If you feel there is a risk of a child leaving the country, consider what safeguards you could take to avert travel. You might want to consider taking the precaution of securing their passport in a safe place. It may be advisable to keep all of your children’s passports hidden and safe in order that the passports of siblings cannot be used. Some young people do not need a passport for confirming their age, they can apply for an identification card as an alternative
To obtain an official photo ID for the UK visit: www.validateuk.co.uk
You should also consider what access your child has to savings accounts or gifts of money from family and friends. You may wish to suggest that gifts are made in kind and not in cash

As part of Cathedral Catholic Primary School’s commitment to keeping children safe, we are proud to be part of Operation Encompass.

Operation Encompass is a national initiative which links the Police and educational establishments in an early intervention safeguarding partnership. Its function is to support children and young people who have been involved in, heard or witnessed a domestic abuse incident. Being part of Encompass means our school will receive a notification from Lancashire Police before the start of the next school day. Following an incident, children will often arrive at school distressed, upset, worried and unprepared. Operation Encompass aims to ensure that appropriate school staff are made aware early enough to help and support children and young people in a way that means they feel safe and included.

This is a valuable initiative that means we can help and support children and their families within our school when they need us the most. The Key Adults at our school are Nicola Holt (Headteacher and Designated Safeguarding Lead) and Shiralee Grierson (Acting Deputy Head and Deputy Designated Safeguarding Lead). You can find out more information by visiting the Operation Encompass website or please contact the school with any further questions.

A copy of our letter to parents about Operation Encompass can be found here.

The school also has to follow the statutory guidance called Keeping Children Safe in Education, published by the Department for Education each year. A copy of the current document can be found here.