Keeping Children Safe
The physical and emotional safety of the children and adults at St Martin’s Garden is of paramount importance to us all.
This page is a summary many of the day-to-day measures we have in place to ensure that everyone in our school is able to learn, play and work in an environment which keeps them safe and secure. All safeguarding processes and procedures are underpinned by 'Keeping Children Safe In Education' which you can access here.
Site Security
It is essential our children feel safe and secure whilst in the school building and in the grounds. To this end, we ensure that are site is secure and access to the grounds from the carpark is restricted to staff via secure gates from both the Lympsham Green and Frome Road side of the school.
Entering The School Building
All visitors must enter through the signposted main entrances on the Frome Road and Lympsham Green entrances and report to the reception area where they will be asked to sign in and wear a visitor badge.
Parents and carers dropping children off at Breakfast Club do so via the dining hall door on the Frome Road side of the school.
Maintaining a Safe Environment
We have a team of people ensuring our school environment is safe for the children and adults within it. Our Interm-Co Head teachers, Mrs McMurtry and Mrs Boulton are supported by our Health and Safety Team, and our Governor, Mr Cross. Our school staff are all proactive in ensuring our environment is safe. 'Formal' monitoring walks, alongside day-to-day vigilance, ensure our environment remains a safe place to learn, play and work.
Reporting a Hazard
Our site managers, take excellent care of our building and grounds and are proactive in ensuring the environment is safe for us all. Lots of eyes are better than two though so if you spot a potential hazard, please do not hesitate to let Mrs McMurtry, Mrs Boulton, Mr Lund or our office staff know and we will see to it as quickly as possible.
Play
Our play policy is rooted in the principle that 'risky play' is often the most enjoyable and beneficial, and so we provide opportunities for children to climb, build and explore in a natural environment. However, we risk assess all opportunities carefully, always balancing the likely level of risk against the potential benefits, and our staff are trained to support the children in making appropriate decisions. Accidents do occasionally happen, as they do in every school, however since expanding the play opportunities we provide children, and introducing more opportunities for child-led play, we have seen children becoming more adept at managing risks independently.
As with all aspects of Health and Safety in school, our Governors support us in monitoring and refining our playtime provision. This ongoing review of our provision means we can ensure our children benefit from the joy of active, natural, sometimes risky play, in as safe an environment as possible. Before the start and at the end of the school day parents are responsible for ensuring their children are supervised on out school site.
First Aid
We have a designated First Aid rooms and many qualified First Aiders including Paediatric Trained First Aiders. We are very proactive in contacting parents and carers if we are particularly concerned about a child, and do so as a matter of course if a child has a head bump. When children are treated for First Aid, it is logged on Medical Tracker and parents/carers are notified by e-mail with details of the injury or symptoms.
Medicines
Generally, we operate on the simple principle that if a child requires medicine during the day, they are not well enough to be in school and should stay at home. Children should never be entrusted with bringing any kind of medication into school including cough sweets or similar.
Occasionally however, a doctor may advise that a child may attend school whilst still needing medication and parents are welcome to come into school to administer the medicine. If this is not possible for any reason, then you will need to complete an administration of medication consent on Medical Tracker at the school office.
If your child has an on-going problem, such as a serious allergy, which may affect them while they are at school, please speak to the school office and they will ensure that a member of the SLT contacts you.
Asthma inhalers may be kept by the child or teacher for use if needed. Please label clearly with your child’s name and complete medication consent form on Medical Tracker at the school office.
Behaviour
Our behaviour policy works towards ensuring all adults and children at St Martin’s Garden are able to thrive in an environment which not only provides the emotional and physical safety we all need but also offers the support, nurture and guidance we each need to be the best we can be. A copy of our Behaviour Policy can be found on our website.
Child Protection
Child Protection
Child Protection is an essential aspect of our safeguarding work. We have clear processes that staff may use to respond to concerns, and there are also several preventative measures in place, including the following:
Attendance Policy
We ask all parents and carers to ensure we have at least 3 different contacts for each child. This is to ensure that in the event of a child being absent from school, we are able to quickly make contact with someone who knows the reason for the absence.
Safer Recruitment
'Safer Recruitment' is about ensuring that all new recruits to the staff team are vetted against national safeguarding requirements prior to a post being offered.
Mrs McMurtry, Mrs Boulton, Mr Bogg, and specific Governors have completed accredited safer recruitment training and all interview panels will include at least two people with this accreditation.
Volunteers in School
We love welcoming people into school to help and in line with Palladian Academy Trust requirements, we carry out checks to ensure our children's safety is assured throughout. This forms the basis of a risk assessment alongside taking references and carrying out DBS checks as appropriate.
NSPCC - The 'Pants' Rule
Every two years we invite someone from the NSPCC into school to talk to the children about the PANTs rule which is designed to safeguard children from sexual abuse.
PANTs stands for: Privates are private; Always remember your body belongs to you; No means no; Talk about secrets that upset you.
A few weeks before the session, your child will bring home a letter letting you know when it will be happening (an assembly pitched at Key Stage 1 or Key Stage 2 plus, for Years 5 and 6, a class workshop). · You can find our more about the NSPCC PANTS rule here.
Online Safety
Safeguarding encompasses issues such as online safety and cyber-bullying,
Online Safety can also be called ‘internet safety’, ‘E-safety’ or ‘web-safety’. Online safety is often defined as the safe and responsible use of technology. This includes the use of the internet and also other means of communication using electronic media (e.g. text messages, gaming devices, email etc.).
In practice, online safety is as much about behaviour as it is electronic security. Online safety in this context is classified into three areas of risk:
· Content: being exposed to illegal, inappropriate or harmful material
· Contact: being subjected to harmful online interaction with other users
· Conduct: personal online behaviour that increases the likelihood of, or causes, harm.
The Internet has become an important aspect of everyday life to which children need to be able to respond safely and responsibly.
At St Martin’s Garden Primary School we believe that the Internet offers a valuable resource for teachers and children providing ways to communicate with others world-wide and initiate cultural exchanges between pupils. Access to the Internet offers both children and teachers vast, diverse, and unique resources and helps to raise educational standards. It supports the professional work of staff, enhancing the school’s management information and business administrative systems.
The main reason that we provide Internet access to our teachers and children is to promote educational excellence by facilitating resource sharing, innovation, and communication. Access to online interactive learning spaces where pupils can access targeted learning and where they can publish their own learning, such as Times Table Rockstars are hugely beneficial to children, and encourage them to extend their learning beyond the classroom. However, for both children and teachers, Internet access at school is a privilege and not an entitlement.
There is always a small risk inherent with internet use that children may encounter inappropriate material on the Internet. The school will actively take all reasonable precautions to restrict pupil access to both undesirable and illegal material, as well as educate pupils to take appropriate action if they do come across such material.
