Pastoral Care and Child Protection

The Headteacher is the Designated Person with responsibility for Child Protection issues and deals with a wide of variety of outside agencies such as

• Health Workers
• School Nurse
• Social Workers
• Family Centre workers
• Surestart

to provide comprehensive support to children who may be at risk.  The school has a Child Protection Policy, which is reviewed annually by the Governing Body to ensure that it reflects the current legislation with regard to Child Protection.  The policy provides clear direction for staff and others about expected codes of behaviour and makes explicit the school’s commitment to the development of good practice and sound procedures.  meeting

Careful records are kept of disclosures made by children or concerns expressed by school staff.  The Headteacher keeps these records confidentially and makes decisions about whether outside agencies should become involved.  At all times, the best interests of the child are at the forefront of these referrals.

Copies of the Child Protection Policy are available from the school office upon request or can be viewed on the school website.

All adults working in the school take responsibility for the pastoral care of the children and discuss with the Headteacher any concerns they may have.  All staff members have recently received Child Protection training to enable them to deal sensitively with issues that may occur in school.  All staff members have up-to-date CRB (Criminal Records Bureau) checks.

The school is also fortunate enough to employ a Learning Mentor, Mrs Mandy Fisher, via additional funding from the Excellence in Cities initiative. The Learning Mentor provides support to individuals and groups of pupils who may be experiencing difficulties in school.  This could be for a wide variety of reasons and each child who works with the Learning Mentor has an individual plan which is shared with parents.  She also has whole school responsibility for the PSHE programme delivered to children.

Please see our leaflet ‘What is a Learning Mentor’ for more information.

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