Safeguarding

The safety and well-being of every child and member of staff at Offham Primary School is of great importance to us. We hope this area will support you in keeping your child safe at home and help you to know what to do if you are concerned.

Here at Offham Primary School we are committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children and we expect all staff and volunteers to share this commitment.

We are aware that child protection and safeguarding are fundamental to the welfare of all children in our care. We have a number of policies and procedures in place that contribute to our safeguarding commitment, including our Child Protection Policy. To view all of our Safeguarding policies please refer to our Policies and Procedures page on the website

Our policies and procedures aim to give clear direction to staff, volunteers, visitors and parents about the expected behaviour and our legal responsibility to safeguard and promote the welfare of all pupils at our school.

Safeguarding is defined as:

Protecting children and young people at our school from maltreatment;
Preventing impairment of our children’s and young people’s health or development;
Ensuring that children and young people at our school grow up in circumstances consistent with the provision of safe and effective care;
Undertaking Safeguarding roles and responsibilities so as to enable children and young people at our school to have optimum life chances and enter adulthood successfully.

All staff and visitors have an important role to play in safeguarding children and protecting them from harmful actions and influences.

It is the responsibility of every member of the school community to:

be familiar with the school's Child Protection and Safeguarding policy and procedures;
ensure they follow these requirements at all times and work in a way that will safeguard and promote the welfare of all of pupils;
be alert to signs and indicators of possible abuse.

Our Safeguarding Team

We take safeguarding at Offham Primary School seriously. Please take time to read the information below.

Safeguarding and Child Protection Policy

Safeguarding Children's Poster

Safeguarding Guide for Visitors and Volunteers

As part of our commitment to safeguarding and child protection, we fully support the government's prevent strategy, and take guidance from Teaching Approaches to help build resilience to extremism.

What is the Prevent Strategy?

The Prevent strategy is a government strategy designed to stop people becoming terrorists or supporting terrorism. It:

- responds to the ideological challenge we face from terrorism and aspects of extremism, and the threat we face from those who promote these views

- provides practical help to prevent people from being drawn into terrorism and ensure they are given appropriate advice and support

- works with a range of sectors (including education, criminal justice, faith, charities, online and health)

Please click here for a link to the official government document.

Operation Encompass

Operation Encompass is a national scheme that operates jointly between schools and all police forces. 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.

We have ensured that a member of our staff, (Designated Safeguarding Lead) known as a Key Adult, has been trained about Operation Encompass procedures. This allows us to use the information that has been confidentially shared with us by the police, to understand how a child may be impacted by domestic abuse and to then offer support to the children in our care.

Operation Encompass Parent Poster

Safeguarding and Mental Health/Well-being Websites

Kooth (Mental Health and Well-being)

Online Safety

What is online safety?

It is essential that children are safeguarded from potentially harmful and inappropriate online material and behaviours.

The breadth of issues classified within online safety is considerable, but can be categorised into four areas of risk:

content: being exposed to illegal, inappropriate or harmful content
contact: being subjected to harmful online interaction with other users.
conduct: personal online behaviour that increases the likelihood of, or causes, harm.
commerce - financial risks

What do we do at Offham Primary School?

We have excellent security measures in place in school to help safeguard pupils from potential dangers or unsuitable material. Any Online Safety incidents brought to our attention inside and outside school are recorded and managed in accordance with our Online Safety Policy. Online Safety is taught to all pupils explaining and demonstrating how to stay safe and behave appropriately online.

It is very important we work in partnership with parents to ensure the Online Safety message is consistent. Therefore we provide regular parent information presentations, Online Safety magazines and Online Safety guidance to assist you with understanding how to be safe and behave appropriately online.