Information for Parents about Safeguarding

Information for Parents/Carers:

Welcome to the section of the website dedicated specifically to parents.  This page is to help you support your child’s education in the best possible way.  It will tell you where to look on this website and others for information about your child’s school and the best way to help them grow as fabulous citizens of the future.  We are committed to safeguarding your children as can be seen in the statement and policy below:

Whistleblowing Policy for Schools

E-Safety for you and your child:

One of the most important areas you can help your child is by being computer savvy and understanding how important e-safety is for the overall development of your child’s well-being and education.  Please click on the link here to see our online safety page.

Keeping myself safe week:

Every year, the children throughout the school take part in Keeping Myself Safe Week. They learn about many aspects of safeguarding including how we can keep themselves safe in school and at home.

Child Protection and Safeguarding

The page about our Child Protection policy and practice can be found here: Child Protection. 

What other ways can I help my child?

The newsletter is a weekly publication, which comes home in electronic form. A link is sent via text on a Sunday. The newsletter is also available on the school website. It gives parents and carers the opportunity to know what is happening in school.  Mrs Ryan keeps this up to date and it is important that you read the newsletter each week to see what is happening around school. 

To see the recent newsletters, please click here. 

There is a lot of information on the school website.  This includes:

• The Curriculum Offer: this is the long term planning for your child and tells you what they will be studying each year.  There is also information about the Core Curriculum and the Wider Curriculum.
• Our Staff: this tells you who works where in our school. 
• OFSTED reports: this is a link to our last inspection reports both for OFSTED and the Diocese.
• School Policies:  this tab is specifically pitched at informing parents what school policies are in place and is organised to help you find the policy you want relating to different aspects of school life. These policies are updated all the time and if they are on here then they are likely to be very current.
• Prospectus:  this is the best place to go to find out about how our school runs.  The prospectus is a very comprehensive document that tells you pretty much everything you need to know about our fabulous school.
• SEND Offer: this is where parents need to look for information about Special Educational Needs, Child Protection and Safeguarding.
• School results in the recent SATS assessments which we use for empirical, externally validated data. 

There is also information about our Mission Statement and Aims, our Sports Premium Grant and how we use the additional funding we are given to support our most vulnerable pupils through the pupil premium.  We also have information about how we promote British Values in our school.

Behaviour and Bullying 

Behaviour and Bullying are always issues which some parents worry about in school.  We work hard as a staff to ensure that we have a safe and secure environment for all our pupils and the vast majority of them tell us that they are blissfully happy in school all the time! Our Student Council members put together the leaflet published below to help children who were feeling a little vulnerable to help them get things sorted out.  There is also a leaflet pitched at parents:

School Council Anti-Bullying Leaflet revised

Anti-Bullying Statement for Parents and Carers

https://www.nspcc.org.uk/preventing-abuse/child-abuse-and-neglect/bullying-and-cyberbullying/

We do speak to the children about bullying all the time and we encourage them to take a measured approach to it especially during Keeping Myself Safe week.  Children can be unkind to one another but this is not always bullying.  We use the following definitions with the children to think about bullying in school:

When someone says or does something unintentionally hurtful and they do this once, that’s RUDE

When someone says or does something intentionally hurtful and they do this once, that’s MEAN

When someone says or does something intentionally hurtful and they keep doing it – even when you tell them to stop or show them that you’re upset – that’s BULLYING.

WE DO NOT TOLERATE BULLYING IN OUR SCHOOL and we will do everything we can to eliminate it but we cannot do anything to help if we don’t know it’s happening which is why it is so important that children and parents keep us informed of things that are making them unhappy.  It’s good to talk… it’s good to tell someone.  Our Child and Family Practitioner, Miss Rowlands will always be there to support our children if they are being treated unkindly or being bullied in school.

Bullying can take many forms and increasingly children and young people might be bullied for reasons such as gender, homophobia and/or race.  If you think your child is being mistreated in this way then you should seek support from school immediately by speaking to Mrs Ryan, Mrs Dowd, Miss Hulbert, Ms Walker, Mrs Speight or Miss Rowlands.  You might also like to check out the links below:

https://www.theproudtrust.org/

https://www.nspcc.org.uk/preventing-abuse/child-abuse-and-neglect/bullying-and-cyberbullying/

If ever you’re not sure about something in school then it is always a good to pop in an ask.  That said we hope our website provides parents with all the information they need to work in partnership with us so that we can all work to build God’s kingdom at St Theresa’s.