Safeguarding

Eslington Primary School is committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children. We expect all staff and volunteers to share this commitment.

Safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children is defined in Working Together to Safeguard Children (2024) as:

• protecting children from maltreatment
• preventing impairment of children’s mental and physical health or development
• ensuring that children grow up in circumstances consistent with the provision of safe and effective care
• taking action to enable all children to have the best outcomes

Eslingtons ethos and values underpin the importance of our child centred approach, which ensures all children are safe and happy within an environment that promotes social, emotional, physical and moral development of the individual child or young person.

At Eslington Primary School, we believe having a child centred approach is fundamental to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of every child. A child centred approach means keeping the child in focus when making decisions about their lives and working in partnership with them and their families.

Parents need to note that if there is a concern for the well-being of any of our children, the Headteacher will determine if it is appropriate to approach the parent/carer or directly contact the Local Authority’s Child Protection team based in the Social Services Department.

All members of staff and any adults volunteering in school have to apply to the Disclosure and Barring System before they are allowed contact with our children. We recognise that all adults, including temporary staff, volunteers and governors, have a full and active part to play in safeguarding, as well as promoting the welfare of all our pupils and young adults. This requires all staff and volunteers to consider the best interests of the child or young adult at all times.

All staff have been trained to follow Safeguarding procedures and understand policies which have been outlined through the Keeping Children Safe in Education (2024) and Clennell’s Education Services. Where we have any concerns about a child or young adult’s welfare, we will take all appropriate action to address those concerns by working in full partnership with other agencies as outlined by the Local Authority and Keeping Children Safe in Education (2024) publication. These agencies include:

• Operation Encompass: which means that if there is a disturbance at one of our family’s homes and police are called to the property, we will receive a notification so that we can make sure that we support the family in safeguarding our children and young people. This project is run in conjunction with Northumbria Police.

• Operation Endeavor: This is a joint operation between NCC Children’s Services, Northumbria Police and the Police and Crimes Commissioner to safeguard children and young people at risk of harm from going missing.
• Prevent: The Prevent duty requires all education providers ‘to help prevent the risk of people becoming terrorists or supporting terrorism’. This includes safeguarding children from extremist ideologies and radicalisation.

In terms of E-safety, pupils are supervised whilst on the computers in school at all times by a member of staff. Any concerns raised by staff or pupils regarding websites are reported immediately to the council’s ICT Services and firewalls are activated to prevent access to inappropriate sites.

Children are not permitted to bring mobile phones or other electronic devices into school as this could be a potential safeguarding issue and we ask that parents/carers support the school policy in this.

View Our Safeguarding Policies

Security at Eslington Primary School

We view the security of pupils and staff whilst in our school as extremely important. All our doors are controlled by a magi-lock system that enables staff and pupils to be protected whilst on the school premises. Entrance to the school is via the main entrance where a buzzer system enables staff in the school office to meet and greet all visitors. All visitors are asked to sign the visitors’ book and obtain a badge to wear before they enter the main part of the school. Each classroom has internal telephone connections so that our Administration team can let staff know when visitors may need to speak to them.

If you are challenged about your identity whilst in school it is not because our staff and pupils are unfriendly – we simply need to know why you are in the building to ensure our children remain safe.