ROSEMARY LANE NURSERY SCHOOL EASINGTON VILLAGE

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1 ROSEMARY LANE NURSERY SCHOOL EASINGTON VILLAGE SAFEGUARDING POLICY

2 ROSEMARY LANE NURSERY SCHOOL SAFEGUARDING POLICY The purpose of this policy is to document the systems and procedures in place within Rosemary Lane Nursery School to ensure the safeguarding and welfare of children and to ensure that there is a robust mechanism in place to monitor and review the effectiveness of these. Effective safeguarding underpins the five elements of the Every Child Matters agenda Be Safe Be Healthy Enjoy and Achieve Make a positive contribution Achieve economic well being Schools have a duty to co operate with relevant agencies to safeguard and promote the welfare of the children. Within the Statutory Framework of the Early Years Foundation Stage the Welfare Requirements state The provider must take the necessary steps to safeguard and promote the welfare of children. At Rosemary Lane Nursery School, we have a core objective to keep children safe by; providing a safe environment for children and young people to learn identifying children and young people who are suffering or likely to suffer significant harm, and taking appropriate action with the aim of making sure they are kept safe both at home and in the education setting. Achieving this objective requires systems designed to: prevent unsuitable people working with children and young people; promote safe practice and challenge poor and unsafe practice; identify instances in which there are grounds for concern about a child s welfare and initiate or take appropriate action to keep them safe; contribute to effective partnership working between all those involved with young people. Safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children is defined for the purposes of this policy as: protecting children from maltreatment; preventing impairment of children s health or development; ensuring that children are growing up in circumstances consistent with the provision of safe and effective care; undertaking that role to enable those children to have optimum life chances and to enter adulthood successfully.

3 At Rosemary Lane Nursery School the health, safety and wellbeing of all children is of paramount importance. Parents send their children to nursery each day with the expectation that we will provide a safe and secure environment in which their children can flourish. The school therefore has to ensure that this expectation becomes reality. In order to do this a wide range of policies and procedures are put in place to form part of the wider agenda for safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children including; Attendance Behaviour Management Code of Conduct Child Protection Educational Visits Equality, Diversity & Cohesion First Aid Health & Safety Mobile Phones Recruitment & Selection Safeguarding Security Single Central Record Social Networking Relevant contact numbers Ofsted Social Care Direct Social Services (Seaham) Police Child Protection (County Hall) NSPCC helpline Single Central Record The school operates and maintains a Single Central Record in line with the DCSF guidance Safeguarding Children and Safer Recruitment in Education which records in one database the details of staff working and volunteering within the school. The record includes the following details; Name Address Date of Birth Qualifications (where required for the role) Evidence of identity CRB disclosure number Date of CRB check List 99 check Review date of CRB Right to work in the UK For regular visitors accessing the school site, evidence of identity is checked and disclosure number is taken and recorded on the Single Central Record.

4 For people visiting the school on a one-off or ad hoc basis and who will not have unsupervised access to pupils, photograph identification is requested and checked. Visitors must report to reception and sign in and out of the Visitors book. 2. Child Protection Procedures The school has a comprehensive child protection policy which has been approved by Governors. It is the duty of the Governing Body to review this policy every year as a minimum and address and rectify any issues identified. All staff and some Governors have completed Level 1 Child Protection training, this is renewed every 3 years. Copies of the DCSF document What To Do If You re Worried A Child Is Being Abused are available for staff reference information. Designated teachers / officers have completed the relevant training for this role and undertake re-training when necessary (training requires updating after 3 years). Designated Child Protection Officers are; Mrs Gillian Parker Head Teacher Mrs Jill Jones Assistant Head Teacher Miss Allison Worthington Senior Member of Staff. 3. Anti-Bullying Procedures All cases of alleged bullying are taken seriously by the school and are acted upon accordingly. The anti-bullying policy clearly documents the procedures in place for handling allegations of bullying and these are reviewed by Governors. 4. Attendance Attendance is monitored closely by the Head Teacher. Children who are absent for three days without notification are identified from the registers and response telephone calls are made to parents to establish the reason for absence. If absences continue or a regular pattern of non attendance is highlighted, parents are contacted again by telephone and letter and the notification of the possibility of removing the pupil from the register is issued. Statistics and trends in pupil absence are also monitored and these are reported to Governors. The nursery school is committed to ensuring that children attend regularly and thereby receive the best possible education. 5. Health And Safety The school has a health and safety policy in place and this is monitored and reviewed by the Governing Body. Risk assessments covering all aspects of school operations are in place and are reviewed as and when required. The responsibility for health and safety is that of the Governing Body; however, this is delegated to the Head Teacher and staff. Fire evacuation practices are undertaken termly and these are reported to Governors using the Head Teacher report. There is a Critical Incident Response Plan in place, which details information and actions required in the event of a critical incident. 6. First Aid (see also health and safety policy)

5 All teaching staff are qualified to administer first aid with key people having paediatric first aid qualification, which meets the requirements of the EYFS guidance. Training is renewed on a regular basis. Portable first aid kits are available for educational visits. 7. Mobile Phones and Social Networking Sites All staff (and students) are made aware of the mobile phone and social networking site policies the school has and sign agreements to say procedures will be followed. Any member of staff who is found to have abused the procedures will face disciplinary action. 8. Effective Behaviour Management Children are expected to behave appropriately both inside and outside of the school. Positive behaviour is encouraged and parents are informed of the school s policy through the school brochure and displays. 9. Safe Recruitment and Selection The school adheres to the requirements detailed in the DCSF Safeguarding of Children and Safer Recruitment in Education document. 10. Staff conduct The school expects staff to act as positive role models for the children attending the school and therefore expects utmost professional conduct at all times. Staff who act unprofessionally or inappropriately are subject to disciplinary investigation. 11. Curriculum The curriculum plays an important part in ensuring that children know how to keep themselves safe. It is supported by outside visitors such as police and fire fighters, nurses etc. 12. Managing Allegations Against Staff The school has adopted and adheres to the Durham Local Safeguarding Children Board (LSCB) and follows procedures as detailed in the policies. 13. School Security Access to the school is restricted via an access control system, operates by office staff. There is a perimeter fence around the school, which not only ensures that children cannot freely egress from the school site but also that unauthorised people cannot easily enter the site. Dogs with the exception of assistance dogs, are prohibited from entering the school site. Outside play equipment and playgrounds are inspected daily to ensure the site and equipment and playgrounds are inspected daily to ensure the site and equipment are safe for the children to use. Quarterly and annual checks are also conducted. 14. School Vistors Any visitors accessing the school site will be required to show evidence of their identity. Regular visitors to the school will already be recorded on the Single Central Record (see above). Ad hoc visitors who do not regularly access the school will be accompanied by a member of staff at all times. All visitors will be required to sign in at reception and then sign out accordingly. This process is

6 overseen by the school administrators. Anyone who cannot fulfil the above criteria will not be allowed on the site. School staff are required to challenge any adult that they see in school who are not authorised and a member of the leadership team will be called upon to deal with the situation. 15. Use of Pupil Information Pupil information is recorded on the school SIMS system. Access is restricted to key personnel to ensure information is centrally updated and secure. To prevent unauthorised access computers are logged off at the end of each day. Monitoring and Review This policy will be reviewed annually or earlier if appropriate and will be approved by the Governing Body. October 2013