Safeguarding Children in our school
At Hareside Primary we
work hard to safeguard our children, understanding the importance of a culture of vigilance. We are aware that some children are the victims of different kinds of abuse and that they can be subjected to social factors that have an adverse impact upon their lives – including domestic violence, substance misuse, bullying, mental health and radicalisation. We also acknowledge that safeguarding incidents could happen anywhere and we should all be alert to possible concerns arising.
Keeping Children Safe in Education 2024
Through our curriculum we teach children to stay safe and happy. We encourage the understanding that any problem or worry that they may have is legitimate, and to share their worries, big or small with their trusted adult; at home; school or with Tootoot.
Key contacts
- Designated Safeguarding Lead –Mrs Sally Purvis, Deputy Headteacher
- Deputy Designated Safeguarding Lead –Miss Jacqueline Mowat , Head Teacher
- Designated Safeguarding Leads - Mrs Rachel Coleman, Ms Janette Fife, Mrs Amanda Wong
- Safeguarding Governor – Ms Debra Coldwell
Child on Child Sexual abuse and/or harassment
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Dedicated NSPCC helpline 0800 136 663 |
This helpline provides both children and adults who are potential victims of sexual abuse in schools with the appropriate support and advice. This includes how to contact the police and report crimes if they wish. The helpline also provides support to parents and professionals.
Child on Child sexual abuse and harassment is not acceptable and will not be tolerated. Sexual harassment refers to unwanted conduct of a sexual nature that occurs in person, online or offline. Sexual harassment violates a pupil’s dignity and makes them feel intimidated, degraded or humiliated, and can create a hostile, sexualised or offensive environment. If left unchallenged, sexual harassment can create an atmosphere that normalises inappropriate behaviour and may lead to sexual violence.
Sexual harassment could include:
- Sexual comments.
- Sexual “jokes” and taunting.
- Physical behaviour, such as deliberately inappropriately brushing against another pupil
- Online sexual harassment, including non-consensual sharing of images and videos and consensual sharing of sexual images and videos (often known as sexting), inappropriate comments on social media, exploitation, coercion and threats
Domestic abuse - Operation Encompass
At Hareside Primary, we work in partnership with the Northumbria Police and Children’s Services to identify and provide appropriate support to pupils who have experienced domestic incidents; this scheme is called Operation Encompass.
The purpose of Operation Encompass is to safeguard and support children and young people who have been involved in, or witness to, a domestic incident. Domestic abuse impacts on children in a number of ways. Children are at increased risk of physical injury during an incident, either by accident or because they attempt to intervene. Even when not directly injured, children are greatly distressed by witnessing the physical and emotional suffering of a parent.
Operation Encompass has been created to improve information sharing and support for children. It is the implementation of key partnership working between the police and schools. The aim of sharing information with local schools is to allow key adults i.e. DSL or Deputy DSL the opportunity of engaging with the child and to provide access to support that allows them to remain in a safe but secure familiar environment.
In order to achieve this, the Multi-Agency Safeguarding Hub (MASH) will notify us of all domestic incidents where one or more of our pupils has been present, to the Designated Safeguarding Lead(s) (DSL) via email. On receipt of any information, the DSL will decide on the appropriate support the child requires, this should be covert dependent on the needs and wishes of the child. All information sharing and resulting actions will be undertaken in accordance with the Police and MASH Encompass Protocol Data Sharing Agreement. We will record this information and store this information in accordance with the record keeping procedures outlined.
Operation Endeavour
At Hareside Primary, we also work in partnership with the Northumbria Police and Children’s Services to identify and provide appropriate support to pupils who go missing from home; this scheme is called Operation Endeavour.
Prevent Strategy
Prevent is a government strategy designed to stop people becoming terrorists or supporting terrorist or extremist causes. Many of the things we do in school to help pupils become positive, happy members of society also contribute to the Prevent strategy.