Keeping Safe at Birkby Junior School
Birkby Junior School is committed to safeguarding and promoting the mental, emotional, social and physical wellbeing of all children. As part of our expectations all staff members, including temporary staff, volunteers and governors share this obligation and therefore have a full and active role in protecting our pupils from harm and ensuring their welfare is our paramount concern.
We have numerous policies and procedures in place which ensure we are following safeguarding policy and practice. Some of these policies include: Positive Behaviour, General Data Protection Regulation, Keeping Children Safe in Education 2022 and the Safeguarding Policy. These are available to view on the policies page of our school website.
We are committed to making sure that our school is a safe and happy place to be.
Pupils are regularly reminded how to keep themselves safe, this maybe during lessons, assembly time or through visitors to school.
Everybody in school takes health and safety very seriously. If you see anything that could be improved please mention it to a member of staff.
All children in school are regularly reminded about who they can talk to if they feel worried, sad or upset. This includes the five members of staff who are responsible for safeguarding children.
Our Safeguarding Team
Our Designated Safeguarding Lead is Mrs Susan Davis (Headteacher).
The following staff are Deputy DSLs at the school:
Mrs Emma Mills (Assistant Head Teacher)
Mr Matthew Henshaw (SENCO and Year 4 teacher)
Mrs Katie Farrington (Assistant Head Teacher)
Miss Jo Gallagher (SENCO and Year 3 teacher)
Mrs Farkhanda Ahmad (Learning Mentor and ELSA)
Mrs Romeena Mir (Learning Mentor and Attendance Officer)
Our Chair of Governors, Mrs Janet Philips, is the safeguarding lead for the Governing Body.
You can find out more about our school's safeguarding and child protection arrangements in the policy below:
What to do if you have a concern about a child
If you have any safeguarding concerns or are worried about the safety and welfare of a child please speak to one of our Safeguarding Leads without delay.
Parents and other members of the school community can also contact the Kirklees Children's Services Duty and Advice Team on 01484 456848 or email DutyandAdvice@kirklees.gcsx.gov.uk
More information about safeguarding children in Kirklees can be found on the following website
Please read our Safeguarding Policy to find out more about how we keep children safe.
PREVENT
Birkby Junior School is fully comitted to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of all pupils. As a school we recognise that safeguarding against radicalisation and terrorism is no different from safeguarding against any other vulnerability.
School uses the Kirklees PREVENT Strategy. The aim of PREVENT is to safeguard and support young people and adults who may be vulnerable to radicilsation, to stop them from becoming terrorists or supporting terrorism.
For more information on the Kirklees PREVENT Strategy please click here
E-Safety
E-Safety is an important part of keeping children safe at Birkby Junior School. We have extensive security measures in place in school, which are monitored both internally and externally, to help safeguard pupils from potential dangers or unsuitable material. Any E-Safety incidents are recorded and managed in accordance with our E-Safety policy. E-Safety is taught to all pupils explaining and demonstrating how to stay safe and behave appropriately online. All pupils at our school agree to following the rules that are set out within our Acceptable use policy.
We can only be successful in keeping children safe online if we work with parents to ensure the E-Safety message is consistent. It is important that parents speak to their children about how they can keep safe and behave appropriately online.
You can find out more at the following websites:
Tips for safe use of the computer at home:
- Make sure you know which internet sites your child is using.
- Children in primary school should not have a computer in their bedroom.
- If your child uses social networking sites e.g MSN Messenger, make sure you know who they are in contact with.
- Please remember Facebook states; 'If you are under 13 - you are not allowed to use the site'.
Social Media Usage
Every day it seems like a new form of social media is launched, each time bringing with it as much potential for misuse as for positive use. It is very difficult to know the differences and risks between them, and this can make it harder to keep our young people safe! We are often asked by parents 'what is the best way to stay up to speed with the social media landscape?' and the answer has not been a simple one in the past. Thankfully there is now a website which goes a long way to making it easy for parents to stay on top of the newest apps and sites:
You can search on individual apps and it gives a very clear, straightforward summary of what it does and doesn't do. It covers everything from how easy it is for youngsters to sign up, to the content normally on the app and, importantly, how easy it is to set privacy settings.
Safeguarding and our Curriculum
We ensure that children are taught about safeguarding and how it keeps them safe. The school's curriculum includes opportunities to explicitly teach the children about safeguarding. Areas of the curriculum with particularly strong opportunities for children to develop the skills they need to recognise and stay safe from abuse include PSHE, Relationships Education and Sex Education and the Computing curriculum. Relevant issues are also addressed should they become apparent for particular children or groups of children. We also recognise that 'a one size fits all' approach is not appropriate for all children, and a more personalised or contextualised approach for more vulnerable children, victims of abuse and some SEND children may be needed.
Safeguarding is embedded deeply within every aspect of the curriculum. The table below shows the various approaches to covering key elements of the school's safeguarding curriculum.
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Operation Encompass
Operation Encompass Safeguarding Statement
Our school is part of Operation Encompass. This is a police and education early intervention safeguarding partnership which supports children and young people who experience Domestic Abuse.
Operation Encompass means that the Education Safeguarding Service will share information about Domestic Abuse incidents with our school PRIOR to the start of the next school day when the police have been called to a domestic incident.
Once a DSL has attended at an Operation Encompass briefing, they will cascade the principles of Operation Encompass to all DSLs.
Our parents are fully aware that we are an Operation Encompass school.
The Operation Encompass information is stored in line with all other confidential safeguarding and child protection information.
Our DSLs have also led training for all school staff and Governors about Operation Encompass, the prevalence of Domestic Abuse and the impact of this abuse on children. We have also discussed how we can support our children following the Operation Encompass notification.
We are aware that we must do nothing that puts the child/ren or the non-abusing adult at risk.
The Safeguarding Governor will report on Operation Encompass in the termly report to Governors. All information is anonymised for these reports.
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