Safeguarding

Our School

Safeguarding Statement

Hawksworth Wood Primary School is committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children and expects all staff and volunteers to share this commitment. We strive to ensure that effective safeguarding procedures are in place to support families, children and staff at school. We place safeguarding at the heart of everything we do at Hawksworth Wood Primary School and this is actively promoted in our school value of being safe. We recognise that safeguarding is everyone’s responsibility and we work hard to maintain a ‘Culture of Vigilance’ through appropriate formal training from Leeds Local Authority as well as regular ‘in-house’ training and updates to ensure that keeping our children safe is our staff members’ highest priority.

In addition to our values, we support our children’s understanding of keeping safe through our bespoke curriculum, ensuring that they learn about strategies to keep themselves safe as well as the risks to be aware of in the modern world.

At Hawksworth Wood Primary we believe:

Schools can contribute to the prevention of abuse.
All children have the right to be protected from harm.
Children need support which matches their individual needs, including those who may have experienced abuse.
Children need to be safe and feel safe in school.

Designated Safeguarding Team

At Hawksworth Wood there are four members of staff who are trained to be designated safeguarding officers:

Miss Fish
Miss Pickard (Headteacher)
Mrs Benn (Deputy Headteacher)
Mrs Russell (Assistant Headteacher)

If you have any concerns regarding safeguarding and child protection, please contact one of the designated members of staff.

Cause for concern at school

Staff are expected to report any causes for concern to the Designated Safeguarding Staff. Concerns may range from children visible changes in their mood, their presentation, a change in their behaviour or children “disclosing” concerns to us.

Where the school has concerns about a child, one of the safeguarding team will act as a source of support, advice and expertise to staff on matters of safety and safeguarding and when deciding whether to make a referral by liaising with relevant agencies. In general, we will discuss concerns with parents/carers before approaching other agencies, and will seek their consent to making a referral to another agency. Appropriate staff will approach parents / carers after consultation with the Designated Safeguarding Lead. However, there may be occasions when school will contact another agency before informing parents / carers, if the school decides that contacting them may increase the risk of significant harm to a child.

Child Protection information will be dealt with in a confidential manner.

Do you have a concern for a child?

You can alert us by reaching out to a member of the Safeguarding team or by emailing us at safeguarding@hwood.org.uk

As a member of the public, if you hold a concern about a child. You should call children’s social work services directly on 0113 2223301 Monday – Friday 9:00am -5:00pm.

If you think a child is in immediate danger please dial 999 and ask for the police

Please note, due to GDPR, you may not get updates on your concerns, but please be assured they will always be dealt with swiftly.

School Notifications for Domestic Violence and Abuse incidents

Leeds Joint Agency Protocol for Domestic Violence and Abuse: School Notifications (DVA Notifications Process) has been established to support children who are resident in households where there are incidents of domestic violence and abuse. We know that children can be significantly physically or emotionally hurt by being either present in the house or directly witnessing an incident of domestic violence.

The DVA Notification Process has been designed to provide confidential notification to schools on any incidents of domestic violence and abuse which occur within a child’s household that might have an impact on them whilst they are in school.

The process will ensure that a member of staff is trained to allow them to use the information that has been shared, in confidence, and ensure that school is able to make provision for possible difficulties experienced by children, or their families, who have been involved in or witnessed a domestic violence or abuse incident.

If you would like further support or information about domestic violence and abuse please go to www.leedsdomesticviolenceandabuse.co.uk

Online Safety

At Hawksworth Wood, we recognise and value the potential of the internet to enhance learning. The internet and electronic technologies are part of every child’s life. They can be exciting, engaging and can significantly improve children’s knowledge and understanding of many aspects both within school and at home. We aim to teach all pupils to use technology safely and respectfully, keeping personal information private; identify where to go for help and support when they have concerns about content or contact on the internet or other online technologies.

Within school we follow a yearly program of online lessons alongside our skills based computing curriculum.

Within online safety lessons we discuss issues such as:

Keeping personal information safe.
Safe emailing and the risks of viruses and illicit emails.
Cyber bullying –Making sure we are ‘good online citizens’ and what to do if they are being bullied.
Website accuracy – Ensuring that they check their facts and that they understand the internet is open to anyone to publish and so might not be accurate.
Online profiles and social networking – not sharing personal information and not linking to people they do not know.
Online legacy – The fact that many online websites retain the rights over any content you add to them and that these pictures and comments may be visible beyond their school life.
Identifying where to go for help and how to report concerns through the report abuse button.

Useful websites for advice, training and guidance

Parent Info https://parentinfo.org/

Parent Info has been set up as a collaboration between Parent Zone and NCA-CEOP. Parent Info provides support and advice to parents/carers, with contributions from the leading experts and organisations in matters relating to young people and families in a digital world. There is lots of advice for parents/carers around all things digital and how to ensure your child’s safety, resilience and health and well-being in the digital arena.

Child Exploitation Online Protection command (CEOP) https://www.ceop.police.uk/safety-centre/

CEOP aims to protect children from harm online and offline. The Safety Centre provides a wealth of advice and help for parents in how to stay safe online, including age appropriate activities for children. There is also a facility for parents and children to report any inappropriate online activity directly to CEOP.

Thinkuknow https://www.thinkuknow.co.uk/

Thinkuknow is the education portal from CEOP (Child Exploitation Online Protection agency website). It provides guidance and information for adults and children, including games and activities for children to do. Find out the latest information on the sites you like to visit, mobiles and new technology. Find out what’s good, what’s not and what you can do about it.