Safeguarding children at St Wilfrid’s

St Wilfrid’s Catholic Primary School is committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children and expects all staff and volunteers to share this commitment.

All staff and Governors have received training on the most up to date ‘Keeping Children Safe in Education’ document published in annually by the Department for Education. We also encourage parents/carers to read the document.

Policies

We have a number of policies and procedures in place that contribute to our safeguarding commitment, including our Child Protection Policy which can be viewed here.

We have a child-friendly safeguarding policy which can be viewed here.

Sometimes we may need to share information and work in partnership with other agencies when there are concerns about a child’s welfare. We will ensure that our concerns about our pupils are discussed with his/her parents/carers first unless we have reason to believe that such a move would be contrary to the child’s welfare.

If you ever have a concern about child safety or safety on the school site, please bring it to the immediate attention of a member of staff, so it can be responded to as soon as possible.

Worried about a child?

If you are worried about the immediate safety of a child, contact Gateshead Council’s Children’s Services (in confidence) on:

0191 433 2653 (office hours: Monday – Friday, 8.30am to 5pm)

0191 477 0844 (out of hours, at night, at weekends and bank holidays)

The Emergency Duty Team will help with personal or family problems that reach a crisis at these times. All calls go through to the Gateshead Care Call Service where a telephone operator takes all the calls. This service is the contact point for all council services out of hours. If the phone isn’t answered straightaway, please be patient as they will be dealing with another call. You can find further information here.

In an emergency always call 999.

Support for Parents and Carers

The NSPCC website offers advice and support for parents and carers. You can access this by clicking this link.

Operation Encompass

St Wilfrid’s is an Operation Encompass school. Operation Encompass is a police and education early information sharing partnership enabling schools to offer immediate support for children and young people experiencing domestic abuse. Information is shared by the police with a school’s trained Key Adult (DSL) prior to the start of the next school day after officers have attended a domestic abuse incident thus enabling appropriate support to be given, dependent upon the needs and wishes of the child.

You can find more information on Operation Encompass here.

Staff responsible for safeguarding

Designated Safeguarding Leads (DSL)

• Mrs Claire Johnson (Headteacher)
• Miss C Egdell (Head of School)

Deputy Designated Safeguarding Leads

• Mrs Leanne Smith
• Mrs Stephanie Wilkinson (SENDCO)

Governor with Safeguarding Responsibility

• Mr Peter Crawley