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OUR SAFEGUARDING CULTURE

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RECOGNISE, RESPOND, REFER
As a community, we are committed to safeguarding all our children, staff and visitors.  All children have a right to be cared for and protected and protecting them is everyone's responsibility.  We follow the guidance found in Keeping Children Safe in Education.  


Our DSP's are:

Miss Harkness- DSP

Mrs Webb- DDSP

Mrs Byford-DDSP

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If you receive a disclosure, suspect or witness abuse...

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If the child or adult is in immediate danger- Speak to a DSP immediately.  They will assess the situation and decide to call the police or refer to HCC Safeguarding Team.  You can also make referral yourself by calling 03001234043

If a child makes a disclosure to you...

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- Listen to the child and write down everything that is said by you and to you.  DO NOT ask leading questions.

- Reassure the child but DO NOT promise to keep what they are saying a secret.

- Complete a record of concern using CPoms- make sure all relevant information is completed.

- Respect confidentiality.

Speak to a DSP who will follow our safeguarding policy for next steps

- Expect relevant feedback around your concern.

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If you are concerned about a member of staff, speak to Miss Harkness  If this is not possible, please contact our Safeguarding Link Governor.

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In order to achieve the very best possible outcomes for themselves and so that they can form and sustain healthy relationships and contribute to society at large, they need to be able to thrive and grow unimpeded by anything or anyone that might cause them harm.

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Personal Development (PD) is the area of the curriculum in which pupils are explicitly taught about keeping themselves safe and healthy and we use the Jigsaw scheme for this. 

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ANTI-BULLYING

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What is Bullying?

Bullying behaviour is defined as – “the repetitive, intentional hurting of one person or group, where the relationship involves an imbalance of power. Bullying can be physical, verbal or psychological. It can happen face to face or through cyberspace.”

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If it does not contain one of the four highlighted words it is not bullying.

 (Anti-Bullying Alliance 2014)

 

For a pupils it can be said in child speak ‘Bullying is when someone hurts you on purpose, it keeps happening and you cannot get it to stop’.

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 Bullying can be:

  • Verbal Bullying – hurting someone’s feelings

  • Physical Bullying – hurting someone’s body

  • Indirect Bullying – hurting someone’s friendships

  • Cyberbullying – hurting someone virtually

  1. Emotional –being unfriendly, excluding others, tormenting (e.g. hiding belongings, threatening gestures)

  2. Physical – pushing, kicking, hitting, punching or any use of violence

  3. Racist – racial taunts, graffiti, gestures

  4. Sexual – unwanted physical contact or sexually abusive comments

  5. Homophobic – because of, or focussing on the issue of sexuality

  6. Verbal – name calling, put downs, threats, spreading rumours, teasing, ridiculing, belittling, excessive criticism or sarcasm

  7. Cyber – all areas of the internet, such as email, internet chat room/social networking sites misuse, mobile threats by text messaging, picture/video clips and calls, misuse of technology

  8. Relational: relational aggression is manipulation calculated to hurt or control another child’s ability to maintain rapport with peers. Relational aggression is not typical bullying but a more subtle form of aggression that uses relationships to damage or manipulate others

 

Pupils who are being bullied may show changes in behaviour, such as becoming shy and nervous, feigning illness, taking unusual absences or clinging to adults. There may be evidence of changes in work patterns, lacking concentration or truanting from school. Pupils must be encouraged to report bullying in schools.

Bullying can take place in many forms.  All of them are wrong.  Bullying is not acceptable in any form. It may be carried out by a group or one person and it will be over a period of time.  It may involve hitting, kicking, threats, name calling or less obvious ways, such as ignoring or excluding someone. 

It is similar to harassment and other forms of abuse, such as racism and the abuse of children by adults.  The person or people doing the bullying (both sexes bully and are bullied) maybe the same age or older or younger than the person they are bullying.

 

It does not only take place between children.  Parents, teachers and other adults sometimes bully children.  If a teacher persistently humiliates a child, his/her self-esteem will be damaged. Children may bully parents, teachers and other adults.  A concern is that adults may be reluctant to admit this. A more positive, open, approach should help all members of our school to develop the necessary skills to deal confidently with all aspects of bullying.

 

Investigation may take time.  Feelings of guilt, shame, anger, frustration, fear and foolishness may lead people to deny that they have been bullied.

 

Similarly, the people who are bullying are unlikely to have the skills of self-control and unable to control their behaviour as yet and therefore, are likely to rationalise their behaviour.  They may deny that they have been bullying {e.g. “it was only a joke}; they may minimise the seriousness of it {e.g. “I didn’t really hurt him}; they may attempt to justify the behaviour {e.g. “he asked for it”}; they may deny personal responsibility {e.g. “I was in a bad mood – I couldn’t help it”}.  These rationalisations need to be exposed.  Everyone is always responsible for their own actions and bullying is never acceptable. 

 

These days people (adult and children) often use the term ‘banter’ – which is to speak in a playful or teasing way.  However, banter could easily turn into bullying behaviour – it goes through 3 stages:

  • Friendly banter – there’s no intention to hurt and everyone knows the limits

  • Ignorant batter – crosses the line with no intent to hurt, will often say sorry

  • Malicious banter – done to humiliate person, very often in public

 

Please inform the school if you think your child is being bullied.  You can find our Anti-bullying policy here.

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STAYING SAFE ONLINE

As a parent the world of online safety can be confusing and overwhelming. There is so much information out there and often the children are so much further ahead in their understanding.

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Online Safety is just as important as teaching your child about stranger danger or what to do in a fire.  As a school we promote online safety in all aspects of ICT usage.

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All the children here at Sauncey Wood sign an 'Acceptable Use Policy' to ensure they understand the rules and follow them.

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Further information for parents:

HFL online safety newsletter- Summer 2023

Keeping children safe online during Covid-19

https://www.nspcc.org.uk/keeping-children-safe/online-safety/

https://www.net-aware.org.uk/

https://www.nspcc.org.uk/keeping-children-safe/online-safety/parental-controls/

https://www.nspcc.org.uk/keeping-children-safe/online-safety/talking-child-online-safety/

https://www.childnet.com/parents-and-carers

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

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Thank you for helping us to keep everyone safe, healthy and happy.

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