Ensuring that every child is safe at school, at home and in other aspects of their lives is our highest priority.
Safeguarding Policies
We publish our safeguarding and child protection policy annually on our website. The policy works as part of a set of other policies to keep children safe. At the bottom of this section are links to some of our key safeguarding policies.
Our Approach
Much of our work centres on educating children about how to keep themselves safe through a whole school approach to teaching about safeguarding. We also teach children what to do if they have problem. We work hard to ensure that school is a safe environment, with well-trained, suitably qualified, caring staff. Children are taught about online safety as they move through the school. Filtering is in place to restrict access to harmful content and the system is tested to ensure that it is performing at a sufficiently high standard.
Our Governors play an important role in the leadership of the school. They take part in safeguarding training, support with strategic planning and hold senior leaders to account. Each year, they read Keeping Children Safe in Education, receive training about key changes and work with the Designated Safeguarding Leads to ensure that policy and practice are up to date and ensure the highest possible standards of care and support for children.
Working in Partnership
To provide the best quality support for children, we work in partnership with parents. We can provide in-house pastoral support or, where appropriate, we can make referrals to other agencies who can provide support.
Making Referrals
In most cases, referrals are made with the consent of parents and are often the result of an ongoing dialogue between school and parents. In some cases where there is the potential for significant risk to a child, school can make an emergency referral to Children’s Social Care without consent.
Receiving Information – Operation Encompass
We can receive information about a child from a variety of sources:
- their parent
- the child
- other agencies working with the their family
Should the Police attend an incident at a child’s family home, then we receive information through ‘Operation Encompass’, a county wide system for alerting schools and other agencies that there has been an incident at a child’s home.
Key Contacts
Should you have a concern about a child, the key contacts in school are:
Gail Bowskill, Designated Lead for Safeguarding head@caton.lancs.sch.uk
Elouise Cain, Back-up Designated Lead for Safeguarding and Assistant Headteacher ecain@caton.lancs.sch.uk
Our Safeguarding governor is John Gordon.
For emergencies out of school hours you can call the Children’s Services Duty Team on 0300 123 6722
Safeguarding and CP policy September 2024
Prevent Strategy Parent Pamphlet