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Regarding the fire at SS Simon and Jude CE Primary School on 17th August ’23, we would like to reassure everyone that no one has been hurt and to thank our fire fighters who worked tirelessly to bring it under control. Please find our latest update here. The school Principal will email parents directly with further updates and information - school can be reached via their office email: sssjoffice@vantageacademies.co.uk.
Here at SS Simon and Jude we are dedicated to ensuring that all children are kept safe at all times. If you have any concerns at all and wish to talk to someone please come into school and have a chat with our designated safeguarding leads Miss Katie Jones (Principal) and Mrs Paula Coleman (Learning Mentor). The school’s link governor for Safeguarding is Mrs Claire Sharpe.
Please see our Policies page for our Safeguarding and Child Protection Policy. This has been written in line with the statutory guidance Keeping children safe in education – GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)
Safeguarding is the action that is taken to promote the welfare of children and protect them from harm.
Safeguarding means:
Child protection is part of the safeguarding process. It focuses on protecting individual children identified as suffering or likely to suffer significant harm. This includes child protection procedures which detail how to respond to concerns about a child. All staff receive safeguarding training on an annual basis and regular updates are given on a regular basis.
Abuse: a form of maltreatment of a child. Anybody may abuse or neglect a child by inflicting harm, or by failing to act to prevent harm. Types of abuse may overlap.
Physical abuse: a form of abuse which may involve hitting, shaking, throwing, poisoning, burning or scalding, drowning, suffocating or otherwise causing physical harm to a child. Physical harm may also be caused when a parent or carer fabricates the symptoms of, or deliberately induces, illness in a child. More information on Fabricated or Induced Illness can be accessed here.
Emotional abuse: the persistent emotional maltreatment of a child such as to cause severe and adverse effects on the child’s emotional development.
Sexual abuse: involves forcing or enticing a child or young person to take part in sexual activities, not necessarily involving a high level of violence, whether or not the child is aware of what is happening.
Neglect: neglect is the persistent failure to meet a child’s basic physical and/or psychological needs, likely to result in the serious impairment of the child’s health or development. Neglect may occur during pregnancy as a result of maternal substance abuse.
Our staff will look out for any of the following indicators and take the appropriate action. The child may:
The above list is not exhaustive and the presence of one or more of the indicators will not be proof that abuse is actually taking place. It is not the responsibility of members of staff to decide that abuse is occurring, but it is their responsibility to act on any concerns. If you are worried about a child, you also have the responsibility to report your concerns. This can be done through the following link Worried about a child? – Bolton Safeguarding Children
SS Simon and Jude CE Primary School is an Operation Encompass school. Operation Encompass means that our school will be told, prior to the start of the next school day, when police have attended an incident of domestic abuse where there is a child or young person who attends our school who is related to any of those involved in the incident. Children can be negatively impacted on by this experience so it is crucial that they get the right support at the right time. Further information can be found in the parents’ poster below.
What is Prevent?
Since 1st July 2015 all schools have had a duty to protect all children and young adults from the risk of Radicalisation and Extremism, under section 26 of the Counter-Terrorism and Security Act 2015. This act requires schools to have “due regard to the need to prevent people from being drawn into terrorism”. This duty is known as the Prevent duty.
In order for schools to fulfil the Prevent duty, it is essential that staff are able to identify children who may be vulnerable to radicalisation, and know what to do when they are identified. At SS Simon and Jude every staff member has been trained on the Prevent Duty and we have regular annual training to ensure we are keeping our pupils safe. We also build pupils’ resilience to radicalisation by promoting fundamental British values and enabling our pupils to challenge extremist views.
Schools have clear procedures in place for protecting children at risk of radicalisation. At SS Simon and Jude our procedures are set out in our Child Protection and Safeguarding policy. General safeguarding principles apply to keeping children safe from the risk of radicalisation as set out in the relevant statutory guidance, Working together to safeguard children and Keeping children safe in education. If necessary school will make a referral to the Channel programme. Channel is a programme which focuses on providing support at an early stage to people who are identified as being vulnerable to being drawn into terrorism. It provides a mechanism for schools to make referrals if they are concerned that an individual might be vulnerable to radicalisation.
For more information on the Prevent Duty please click here.
Further links to specific safeguarding circumstances can be found in the ‘Five Minute Fact Sheets’ below: