Safeguarding
Safeguarding at Wells Hall Primary School
Our policies and procedures ensure that:
- All our pupils are safe and protected from harm.
- Other elements of provision and policies are in place to enable pupils to feel safe and adopt safe practices;
- Staff, pupils, governors’, visitors, volunteers and parents are aware of the expected behaviours’ and the school’s legal responsibilities in relation to its pupils.
School Ethos
At Wells Hall Primary School, our pupils are at the heart of everything we do, and their safety is of paramount importance. Whilst we have a designated safeguarding team, safeguarding is everyone’s responsibility and as a team, we aim to create a safe environment in which all pupils can learn and achieve.
We recognise the importance of pupil voice in keeping children safe and we strive to ensure that our pupils know who to talk to if they are worried about anything within or outside of school. We pride ourselves on building strong relationships which enables pupils to feel safe to share their concerns, knowing that they will be listened to and have appropriate action taken to address their concerns. Our aim is for pupils to talk freely to any member of staff or regular visitor to our school if they are worried or concerned about something. All staff and regular visitors will know how to recognise a disclosure from a pupil and will know how to manage this. We will not make promises to any pupil and we will not keep secrets.
Our Safeguarding Team
Wells Hall has a local governing body whose legal responsibility it is to make sure that the school has an effective safeguarding policy and procedures in place and to monitor that the school complies with them. It is also the responsibility of our governing body to ensure that staff and volunteers are properly vetted to make sure they are safe to work with the pupils who attend our school and that the school has procedures for appropriately managing allegations of abuse made against members of staff (including the headteacher and volunteer helpers). Our local governing body will ensure that there is a named governor and a Designated Safeguarding Lead (DSL) who has lead responsibility for dealing with all safeguarding issues. At Wells Hall these are:
| Mrs K Ashford | Deputy Headteacher & Designated Safeguarding Lead (DSL) Designated Teacher for looked-after and previously looked-after children |
| Mrs K Davies | Deputy DSL Family Support Worker |
| Mrs Sarah Morris | Deputy Headteacher and Deputy DSL |
| Mrs Lawler | Assistant Headteacher and Deputy DSL |
| Mr Jeffrey | Headteacher Deputy DSL |
| Mrs A Torrance | Inclusion Lead and Deputy DSL |
| Mrs Lilly Gore and Miss Steph Codling | Safeguarding Governors |
| Chair of Governors | Jonathon Holyhead |
| Trust DSLs | Jemma Lynch and Steve Watts |
| Gemma Frost | Director of Education |
One of our Safeguarding Leads is always available to discuss safeguarding concerns.
However, if you feel that a child is in immediate danger you can call the Suffolk Safeguarding team directly at Customer First on: 0808 8004005
Please read our Child Protection Procedures which are available from our Attachments section on this page.
Working in partnership
There are occasions when our concern about a child means that we have to consult other agencies. Unauthorised absences, for instance, may be referred to partner agencies such as Suffolk County Council’s Children’s Social Care, Special Educational Needs services or Children Missing in Education teams. Whilst we would always aim to work in partnership with parents there may be exceptions to this when concerns are raised for the protection of a child.
The procedures which we follow have been laid down by the Suffolk Safeguarding Partnership, and Unity Schools Partnership has adopted a Safeguarding Policy in line with this for the safety of all.
Information & Resources
In addition to our Child Protection Procedures available in the attachments section the following documents and websites have a variety of information which you may also find helpful:
