Safeguarding
Safeguarding at St Thomas More
MAC child protection policy COVID-19 addendum
St Thomas More Catholic Academy is committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children. We recognise that this is everyone’s responsibility. We pay due regard to new legislation when carrying out our duties to safeguard and promote the welfare of children.
St Thomas More Catholic Academy works with the procedures set out by the Warwickshire Safeguarding Children’s Board, Working Together to Safeguard Children (2018) and Keeping Children Safe in Education (2020). We do this by:
- Ensuring that safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children is everyone’s responsibility.
- Ensuring children in our school can share their concerns and ensure that they have a ‘voice’.
- Ensuring our staff are trained, regularly and rigorously.
- Ensuring children in our school are educated through a broad and balanced curriculum offering advice and guidance which allows them to make decision to help keep themselves safe.
- Ensuring we work collaborative, knowing that no one agency can have the full picture, sharing information in a timely and accurate way and also ensuring that when required, we are not afraid to challenge professionals to ensure the best outcomes for children and young people.
If you have a concern that any student is being harmed, is at risk of harm, or you receive information (intentionally or unintentionally) you must contact school reception as soon as possible and ask to speak to the Designated Safeguarding Lead (DSL). Alternatively you can contact the police on 101 or children’s services for Warwickshire on XXX
Further information regarding how to keep children safe, identifying and preventing abuse and what help is available can also be found on the NSPCC website
Our staff training programme ensures that above and beyond the statutory requirements of PREVENT and Level 1 Training, we provide regular information and communication on specific safeguarding issues, contextual safeguarding, early help, categories of abuse, amongst other topics. Staff receive weekly E-Newsletters on these topics, staff knowledge is then reviewed with a short quiz taken after each theme. This ensures that staff understand the information shared with them, the things to look out for and our internal and external referral procedures.
In accordance with statutory guidance all St Thomas More Catholic Academy staff are fully aware of and are in compliance with the following guidance:
- Working together to Safeguard Children
- Keeping Children Safe in Education
Further safeguarding information for parents:
Relevant information relating to Safeguarding for Parents will be shared through our weekly newsletter. We strongly advise parents to read this information and discuss it with their child/ children.
Useful websites for parents are listed below:
Abuse |
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Bullying and Cyber bullying Advice for parents on how to keep children safe. https://www.nspcc.org.uk/preventing-abuse/child-abuse-and-neglect/bullying-and-cyberbullying/
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Sarah’s Story- Child sexual abuse https://www.nspcc.org.uk/preventing-abuse/child-abuse-and-neglect/child-sexual-abuse/
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CSE and Grooming |
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Child Sexual Exploitation https://www.nspcc.org.uk/preventing-abuse/child-abuse-and-neglect/child-sexual-exploitation/
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Grooming https://www.nspcc.org.uk/preventing-abuse/child-abuse-and-neglect/grooming/
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Harmful Sexual Behaviour https://www.nspcc.org.uk/preventing-abuse/child-abuse-and-neglect/harmful-sexual-behaviour/
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E-Safety
We aim to ensure that all members of our community are able to work in a safe and secure environment, this includes when accessing the internet. The following links can be used to report any concerns that you may have if you are not able to, or don't feel comfortable to, report to a teacher or other responsible adult.
We will raise awareness and educate students on safer online practices through assemblies, registration and tutorial programmes. Students will be taught about potential risks, how to report concerns and how to make decisions that will keep them safe online.
At St Thomas More Catholic Academy we have a system which monitors all members of our community when accessing any of our ICT networks, it monitors internet records and history, keystrokes and any use of software on any device accessing our network. This system flags up concerns to the Designated Safeguarding Lead and Deputy Safeguarding Leads. Any use of our network, which does not comply without Acceptable User Agreement will be followed up by staff.
Parents/Carers can also support staff and students by monitoring their child’s use of social media, checking that they are safe by ensuring privacy settings are appropriate and set to ensure that children can only communicate with people they know, checking the nature of posts made online, paying regard to your child’s digital footprint that is being created when they post online and ensuring that interactions online are not in any way negative. Most social media platforms have age restrictions and we strongly advise parents to pay due regard to these. Where incidents occur, relating to inappropriate use of social media, it may be appropriate for the school to involve external agencies to support children and parents.
Further E-Safety Information for Parents.
Useful websites are listed below.
E-Safety |
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NSPCC Online Safety Help From setting up parental controls to getting advice, parents can call the helpline on 0808 800 5002. https://www.nspcc.org.uk/what-we-do/about-us/partners/nspcc-o2-online-safety-partnership/ |
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CEOP- Parent Information Parent Info is a collaboration between Parent Zone and NCA-CEOP, providing support and guidance for parents from leading experts and organisations. |
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For-me Childline App The first App to provide counselling to your smartphone. |
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Zipit Helping Teenagers deal with sexting. https://www.childline.org.uk/info-advice/bullying-abuse-safety/online-mobile-safety/sexting/ |
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Keeping Children Safe in Education (DfE 2020 Update Jan 2021)
