Safeguarding
Swiss Gardens Primary School is committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children and expects all staff and volunteers to share this commitment. This means that we have a safeguarding culture and have Safeguarding and Child Protection Policies and procedures in place which are robust in approach and expectation. All staff are trained annually on Safeguarding and we follow this up throughout the year. Parents and carers are welcome to read the Policy which is accessible below or a hard copy on request. Our policy and practice is in line with, and supports, the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child and all national statutory requirements.
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 his/her parents/carers first unless we have reason to believe that such a move would be contrary to the child’s welfare.
What to do if you are concerned...
If you are concerned about a child’s welfare, please contact the school office so that they can immediately find a Designated Safeguarding Lead (DSL) for you to talk to. Or if you would rather send an email, send it to office@sgprimary.co.uk - mark it confidential and for the attention of one of the DSLs. We also have key phone numbers in the school enabling you to contact relevant agencies.
Alternatively you can call West Sussex Children’s Services - Intergrated Front Door (IFD) on 01403 229900 or the Police.
Equally if your concerns relate to the actions or behaviour of a member of staff please ask to speak to a DSL in confidence, who will refer the matter to the Headteacher, or the Chair of Governors if the concern relates to the Headteacher and procedures will be followed.
Click on the document below to view the school’s Safeguarding and Child Protection policy:
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The NSPCC have a range of PANTS guides for parents and carers including guides in other languages, guides for people with a disability and for children with autism. For more information and to download them, click here
Prevention Strategy
As part of Swiss Gardens School’s ongoing safeguarding and child protection duties we are fully behind the government’s Prevent Strategy.
From 1 July 2015 all schools are subject to a duty under section 26 of the Counter-Terrorism and Security Act 2015, in the exercise of their functions , to have “due regard to the need to prevent people from being drawn into terrorism”. This duty is known as the Prevent Duty for Schools.
At Swiss Gardens, we build pupils’ resilience to radicalisation by promoting fundamental British values and enabling our pupils to challenge extremist views.
You can read about what we do to promote British values on our website under – Our Values.
The statutory guidance refers to the importance of Prevent awareness training to equip staff to identify children at risk of being drawn into terrorism and to challenge extremist ideas. The Home Office has developed a core training product for this purpose – Workshop to Raise Awareness of Prevent (WRAP). All our staff have been made aware of what Prevent is about and how to deal with any issues they may see inside or outside school. Senior Leaders have also completed training on Preventing Violent Extremism (PVE).
Operation Encompass
West Sussex School are working with West Sussex Police Constabulary on a joint initiative called Operation Encompass. All schools in West Sussex will be using this system as from 16th April 2018 . We have been asked by WSCC to provide you with the following information.
The aim of this initiative is for the police to report to the school, prior to 9am on the next school day, when a child or young person has been exposed to or involved in any domestic incident. This disclosure will include risk information affecting the child or young person, not all information obtained by the police at the incident. This information is already being shared with school but there are often delays. The new process improves this by supplying ‘live’ information to the school allowing appropriate support to be put in place to assist in mitigating these issues. This will support the long term wellbeing of children affected by domestic abuse.
The information shared will be received by a dedicated member of the school staff, known as a Key Adult, who is appropriately trained to manage this information. Claire Older will take on this role. This allows us to liaise with the police and to use the information that has been shared in confidence. This enables the school to implement support and safeguarding for children and young people affected by these incidents.
We are keen to offer the best support possible to all children and young people and we believe this will be extremely beneficial for all those involved.
Find Out More…
Department For Education - Keeping Children Safe in Education 2022