Safeguarding

Safeguarding Policy

At St Mary’s CE School we believe that the needs of the child are paramount. All children deserve the opportunity to achieve their full potential; they have the right to be protected from harm and exploitation whatever their race, religion, first language or ethnicity, gender or sexuality, age, health or disability, political or immigration status.

Designated Safeguarding Lead

Christine Graham

Deputy Designated Safeguarding Lead

Matt Wright

Deputy Designated Safeguarding Lead

Susanne Rowe

Deputy Designated Safeguarding Lead

Nirvana Henry

The safeguarding team can be contacted via the School Office (phone 0208 6902613 / email admin@st-marys.lewisham.sch.uk)

If you are worried about a child

If you have a concern about the safety or wellbeing of a child, please contact a member of the safeguarding team as soon as possible. We will always take concerns seriously, and act in the best interests of the child. If a child is in immediate danger, please contact the police on 999.

For urgent safeguarding concerns outside school hours, please contact the Lewisham Multi Agency Safeguarding Hub (MASH). You can contact the MASH during office hours on 020 8314 6660. The out of office hours (5pm -9am weekdays, weekends and Bank Holidays) is: 020 8314 6000 and ask for the emergency duty team.

Safeguarding at St Mary's

All staff accept their fundamental responsibility to keep pupil’s safe, promoting children’s social, physical, emotional and moral development. All staff are trained to identify signs of abuse, and work to identify, assess, and support those children who are suffering harm. Staff will help to equip children with the skills needed to keep them safe.

There are three main elements to the child protection and safeguarding policy:

PREVENTION through the teaching and pastoral support offered to pupils and the creation and maintenance of a whole school protective ethos.

PROTECTION by following agreed procedures for identifying, monitoring and reporting cases, or suspected cases, of abuse; protecting children from unsuitable people.

SUPPORT to victims of abuse and to staff in identifying signs and symptoms of abuse.

Peer on Peer Abuse

It is important to be aware that children can abuse other children (often referred to as peer on peer abuse), and that it can happen both inside and outside of school. Please see Section 3.19 (page 27) of our Safeguarding Policy for further details.

Below are some useful resources for parents and carers:

NSPCC PANTS	The NSPCC (National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children) have produced these resources - PANTS is a simple conversation to help keep your child safe from sexual abuse.
Child's Play	This resource for parents is provided by 'Stop it Now!' - a campaign aiming to stop child sexual abuse.
Parents Protect!	Parents Protect! is part of the Lucy Faithfull Foundation who provide resources, publications, posters and other awareness raising material that will help everyone prevent child sexual abuse.

Contextual Safeguarding

An important area of our Safeguarding work is to support children to make safe choices both in and out of school. This includes lessons and workshops to reflect, identify and talk about places that children feel less safe. As part of this programme, we welcomed the 'Riot Act' theatre workshop, which was focused on Road Safety. Local councillor Louise Krupski visited St Mary's to learn about the important work that we do in contextual safeguarding. The attached list documents some of the other events that have recently supported our children.

Contextual Safeguarding at St Mary's