The voice of our pupils-May 2022
* 100% of pupils asked stated they feel safe at Thursby School
*Pupils were able to tell us how school/adults keep them safe at school and listed many ways including: identification lanyards, Hi-Viz jackets, head-counting, key fobs for secure doors, fire drills, helping them if they have an accident, keeping the gates closed and teaching them in lessons and assemblies about keeping safe and keeping safe online.
*Pupils were able to talk about their Online Safety quizzes that help tell them and their teacher what they still need to learn and understand and Class 4 discussed what they know about their Digital Footprint!
Our commitment to Safeguarding
Thursby School is committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare and well-being of its pupils, engages with young people and staff in Policy and practice developments, proactively encourages feedback and expects all staff and volunteers to share this commitment.
.Safeguarding at Thursby School is first and foremost at the centre of our school and our local community. We pay due diligence to ensuring all pupils are safe and secure within our school. We work with families to maintain strong positive links and develop every aspect of a child's life.
Staff are very vigilant and have professional curiosity towards keeping children safe. All staff refresh their level 1 training each September. There is then ongoing regular safeguarding reminders, staff meetings or internal training throughout the year.
We, at Thursby School, offer your child a safe, happy, nurturing environment, where children's wellbeing and safety are at the forefront.
Please take time to view our Child Protection Policy and our parent leaflet within this section of the website.
Our Safeguarding Team
Thursby Primary School is committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children and expects all staff and volunteers to share this commitment.
Our Designated Safeguarding Lead (DSL):
Mrs Jayne Williams (Headteacher)
The role encompasses leading everything that is safeguarding from Child Protection to school site safety of pupils; from recruitment to developing staff knowledge.
Qualifications: Child Protection Level 2 and Level 3 -Safehaven- June 2021
Safer Recruitment - Kym Allan- 23.06.2021 and NSPCC 2020
Level 1- Safehaven 01.09.2021 and refreshed Level 1 01.09.22
Prevent- Train the Trainer completed 2019
Prevent- Channel Awareness refreshed 29.06.2021
NGA Governor Safeguarding module-May 2021
SCR training refreshed 30.01.2022
NSPCC- Online Safety 20.04.22
Early Help- 05.09.22
Online Safety-Filtering and monitoring-September 2022
Online Safety-Whole school approaches & curriculum- 26.09.22
* Ongoing online module training through CSCP
Our Deputy Designated Safeguarding Lead (DDSL)
Mr Dave Colombi (Assistant Headteacher)
The role is to support the DSL and act in the absence of the DSL for safeguarding. This includes but is not limited to: Early Help, Operation Encompass, pupil safety, site security.
Qualifications: Level 2 and Level 3 -Safehaven- January 2022
Level 1 Safeguarding-Safehaven- 01.09.2021 and refreshed September 2022
Prevent- Channel Awareness 2019
SCR-The National College-February 2022
Early Help- 05.09.22
Ongoing Online Modules through Cumbria CSCP
Our Designated Governor for Safeguarding:
Mrs Liz Craig
*The role is to support, monitor and challenge DSL/DDSL to ensure the effectiveness of safeguarding remains very robust and ensure systems and procedures in school are in place and followed consistently.
Qualifications:
Annual Level 1 training refreshed- annually
Ongoing online modules training through CSCP
Level 2 Safeguarding in Education 05.09.2020
SCR- The National College 30.01.2022
NGA Governor Safeguarding module 11.10.2021
Our designated Child Looked After Teacher
Mrs Jayne Williams (Headteacher)
The role of Designated Teacher is to lead and follow the procedures for pupils who are in the Local Authority's care.
Our designated Mental Health leader
Mrs Jayne Williams
The role is to lead and support wellbeing and mental health within school and Mrs Brown is the staff wellbeing co-ordinator.
Online Safety Co-Ordinator
Miss Emma Sisson (Year 5 class teacher)
supported by Jayne Williams as DSL
Site Security-Safeguarding Outdoors
Thursby School has written risk assessments for safety on our school grounds. Our fencing, gates, car park, EYFS gate area, school's shelter and decking areas have control measures in place to keep children safe. These can be viewed by contacting school for a copy. Our site manager Alison Bell does a morning sweep of the grounds every day before children arrive to check for any rubbish or dangerous items that can be found after community use during evenings and weekends. We tape off any areas if they require additional measures for a temporary period of time. All outdoor equipment has a visual check and logs are kept of these checks with any defects acted on immediately.
All staff on duty outdoors wear a hi-Viz jacket to be easily identifiable to children and also to minimise the risk of unknown adults attending site during school time.
We ask that parents awaiting to drop their children off in the morning and collect after school do not allow any child/toddler to play around the staff car park or in the bushes directly outside the hall entrance/exit for safety of everyone. Any cars that are damaged due to parents allowing children to play in out of bound areas may be charged for the damage.
We expect all families/staff and visitors to ensure they close every gate behind them in line with our clear signage.
New fences and gates were erected from 2020 to divide the school field and car park, the car park to the yard and a padlock is in place during the school day on the Jubilee field gate. In 2022 a new perimeter fence was erected to replace the old fence.
Family Action – FamilyLine. A service available for all Cumbrian families
Family Action are commissioned by Cumbria County Council to provide 0-19 Child and Family Support Services in four of Cumbria’s six districts – but there are services that are available to all families in Cumbria.
One of those services is FamilyLine. FamilyLine is a free support service available via telephone, text, email and web chat.
Family Action recognises that family pressures can sometimes be difficult to manage without emotional support and guidance to help. Many people feel confused by what information is available or struggle to access services close to home.
FamilyLine uses a network of volunteers from across the country to support family members over the age of 18 through telephone calls, email, web chat and text message.
The service aims to:
provide both immediate and long-term support
help with practical information and guidance
provide emotional and listening support
help with understanding and accessing relevant services and information
provide regular one-to-one befriending support to service users feeling isolated
access to short term telephone counselling
a referral into our many projects across England and Wales, where relevant.
Family Line is for family members aged 18 years old and over from anywhere in England, Wales and the Isle of Man.
Opening times:
Monday to Friday, 9am to 9pm
Contact details:
Telephone: 0808 802 6666
Text message: 07537 404 282
If a family need support outside of those hours, they can leave a message and they will receive a call back in operational hours. If it is a crisis, then there is a crisis line to a trained professional 24/7 that can be access by texting FAMILYACTION to 85258. This service is delivered in partnership with Shout.
Full information can be found at https://www.family-action.org.uk/what-we-do/children-families/familyline/
https://www.operationencompass.org/school-participation
Operation Encompass
Thursby School participates in Operation Encompass. This means that any Domestic Abuse incidents that occur at home and are logged with the police, school will be informed of within 24 hours. This information will be given to the school's safeguarding team only (DSL- Jayne Williams or DDSL- Dave Colombi in DSL's absence). The information allows school to keep their duty of care to the child in school at a level they may need after a domestic abuse encounter. For example: child may be tired, not eaten well, not dressed correctly in school uniform etc due to the home incident.
DISCLOSURE and BARRING SERVICE (DBS)
Any individual who has, or is likely to have unsupervised access to children will require an Enhanced Disclosure For regulated Activity.
Further details on this are available on our 'Vacancies' section on our website or by contacting the school on 01228 711180 or by email to admin@thursby.cumbria.sch.uk or can be found on the DBS website
Members of staff will have this check paid for by Thursby School. A suitable check must have been carried out and the certificate seen before a member of staff can start working in school.
Students may have their DBS arranged by their education provider and if it is, this must be in place before they begin their placement in our school. A copy of the document must be seen in school before the start date and the education provider must sign a document to state that they will inform Thursby School of any ‘Additional Information’ that they receive regarding a student. Thursby School has the right to withdraw the offer of a placement in the event of receiving applicable adverse information.
Volunteers may need a DBS check arranged for by Thursby School. There is no cost for the actual check as this is free for volunteers, but the company that we use to undertake this check charges an administration fee. The cost of this must be met by the volunteer. Volunteers cannot start volunteering until the check has been successfully completed and the certificate received.
Other relevant documentation for parents/carers can be found online through the Department Of Education website (DFE)
Every Local Authority has an independent local safeguarding children partnership. Cumbria has a dedicated Children's 'Cumbria Safeguarding Children's Partnership' (Cumbria CSCP ) website. The Parents and carers can access this site to gain information regarding information of their arrangements, their vision and values alongside the numerous documents and information it holds to support families. https://cumbriasafeguardingchildren.co.uk/
Please check out our 'Parents' section on this website for 'Useful Links' to other relevant documentation.
At Thursby School the Governing Body has overall strategic responsibility for filtering and monitoring. The
Senior Leadership Team have responsibility for:
* Procuring filtering and monitoring systems
* documenting decisions on what is blocked or allowed and why
*Reviewing the effectiveness of provision
* overseeing reports
They also ensure staff know their roles eg that they understand their role, are appropriately trained, follow policies, processes and procedures and act on reports and concerns.
Our IT provider has technical responsibility for:
* Maintaining filtering and monitoring systems
* Providing filtering and monitoring reports
* Completing actions following concerns and checks to systems