Safeguarding
What is safeguarding and how does the school ensure its provision is effective?
The first question lots of parents ask is 'What is safeguarding?' One of the best definitions I have heard is:
'It's looking out for everybody and making sure everyone is ok. Like, asking Tommy how his family are because I know they are going through a tough time.'
A mid day supervisor
Safeguarding, as our insightful mid day supervisor points out, is about making sure everyone is ok and develops to the best of their ability. It is everyone's responsibility to ensure safeguarding is effective in school.
'Keeping Children Safe in Education' explains that safeguarding is:
Protecting children from maltreatment
Preventing impairment of children's 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
We work hard in school to ensure safeguarding is effective. We do many things, a flavour of which is detailed below:
- Encourage resilience through our use of Growth Mindset
- Make children aware of the positive, and negative, power of technology
- Encourage the development of strong social skills so our children know what a positive, and negative, relationship looks like
- A strong pastoral offer that encourages the development of robust mental health strategies
We aim to teach to the highest standard and to give our children access to the widest possible variety of opportunities. This includes a wide range of extra curricular sporting and musical opportunities. Our curriculum aims to develop our children into responsible citizens. We believe this approach will help our children feel a part of the global community and contribute to it. We believe this approach will develop a healthy, positive mindset.
We always follow statutory safeguarding policies and procedures, as well as ensuring the school site is safe and secure.
Our Safeguarding team
All schools must have a member of staff who has overall responsibility for safeguarding. This role is called the Designated Safeguarding Lead (DSL). At Burford, that role is filled by Mrs Taylor. She has day to day responsibility for safeguarding, as well as being responsible for its strategic overview. If you have any safeguarding questions, or concerns, she is the best person to speak to.
Mrs Browning (DHT), Mrs Warrener (AHT), Mrs Lee (AHT) and Mr Farrington are the school's Deputy DSL's.
Mrs Jay is the governor responsible for monitoring the quality of safeguarding provision in school.
E Safety
Always be careful when you are using the internet. It can help you to keep in touch with your friends and help your education - but it can also cause harm to you and to others.
Remember help is always available at school if you are having any problems online.
Don’t be afraid to talk to your teacher or another adult at school.
If you or anyone you know is worried about Child Exploitation, Online Protection or anything related to Internet safety please click the link below which will take you to the CEOP reporting website:
Tips for staying safe online:
- Don’t post any personal information online – like your address, email address or mobile number.
- Think carefully before posting pictures or videos of yourself. Once you’ve put a picture of yourself online most people can see it and may be able to download it, it’s not just yours anymore.
- Keep your privacy settings as high as possible
- Never give out your passwords
- Don’t befriend people you don’t know
- Don’t meet up with people you’ve met online. Speak to your parent or carer about people suggesting you do
- Remember that not everyone online is who they say they are
- Think carefully about what you say before you post something online
- Respect other people’s views, even if you don’t agree with someone else’s views doesn’t mean you need to be rude
- If you see something online that makes you feel uncomfortable, unsafe or worried: leave the website, turn off your computer if you want to and tell a trusted adult immediately.