Safeguarding at Alexandra

What is safeguarding?

Safeguarding is the highest priority, and responsibility, of every member of staff at Alexandra Primary School.  The safety and well-being of our children are paramount to us as a team and our children are respected and valued.  We hope to teach them effective lifelong skills to keep themselves safe and to understand their rights as children.  Safeguarding children in our current climate encompasses many areas: child protection, online safety, the security of our school as a site, health and safety, behaviour, our anti-bullying policy, radicalisation (encouraging someone to develop extreme views or beliefs in support of terrorist groups and activities), racism and discrimination, peer on peer abuse and contextual safeguarding amongst others.  Please read the Safeguarding policy below for a more in-depth understanding of our responsibilities to the children.  

Safeguarding and Child Protection Policy

Safeguarding Team

The Designated Safeguarding Team are:

In September 2022, the government revised a document called Keeping Children Safe in Education.  It provides clarity that schools should have their own individual safeguarding policy. This policy should meet the needs of their children in their community, with the particular kinds of issues that may be most important for them.

To view our safeguarding and child protection policy please click here.  

We record all of our concerns about a child using an electronic system called CPOMS (Child Protection Online Monitoring and Safeguarding system). All staff are able to enter their concerns about a child on CPOMS, and it automatically alerts the safeguarding team of any issues for follow up.

The safety and wellbeing of every child and member of staff at Alexandra is of paramount importance to us.  All staff are trained annually to Safeguarding Children/Child Protection Process Level 1, and receive weekly safeguarding updates. All members of our Safeguarding team have up-to-date Safeguarding Children / Child Protection Process Level 3 and Safer Recruitment Training.

All staff also have annual Prevent training. The aim of Prevent is to tackle the causes of radicalisation, respond to the challenges that terrorist ideology may present, safeguard and support those most at risk of radicalisation through early intervention and support those who have already engaged in terrorism to disengage and rehabilitate.

If you need to speak to anyone about this, please contact our Designated Safeguarding Lead (DSL) Robert Waiting, or our Deputy Designated Safeguarding Leads (DDSL) Melanie Meek, Polly Jones and Rose Peacock via the school office (020 8546 7176) or email safeguarding@axi.rbksch.org. Our Designated Governor for Safeguarding/Child Protection​ is Jane Casling.

Single Point of Access

You can contact SPA to request support, or to report a concern about a child or young person: 020 8547 5008 (out of hours: 020 8770 5000)

The SPA phone lines are now open as follows: 

• Monday-Thursday 8.00am-5.15pm
• Friday 8.00am-5.00pm

If you think a child is in immediate danger you should call 999.

Allegations against staff

We understand that a pupil may make an allegation against a member of staff or staff may have concerns about another staff member.

The headteacher or the DSL on all such occasions will discuss the content of the allegation with the local authority designated officer (LADO) within 24 hours and before taking any further action.

LADO SERVICE: 07774 332675

lado@achievingforchildren.org.uk

How to seek support / Early help

We aim to support parents and carers and we can access the early help as part of a package of support for children and parents. 

We are able to support a wide range of issues that parents and carers may have, either through support at school or through referrals to outside agencies. Examples of concerns that parents have raised include:

• Housing concerns
• Mobility or health issues
• Bereavement and loss
• Cyber bullying
• Parents in prison
• Financial difficulties

Kingston Council Household Support Fund

Gov.uk Cost of Living Support

Help for Households

• Domestic abuse

Domestic abuse  is defined as an incident or pattern of incidents of controlling, coercive, threatening, degrading and violent behaviour, including sexual violence, in the majority of cases by a partner or ex-partner, but also by a family member or carer. 

Useful links: Kingston Domestic Violence Hub (DV Hub) 020 8547 6064. The DV Hub phone line is open from 9am to 5.30pm, Monday to Friday.

If you need support outside of these hours call the Freephone 24-Hour National Domestic Abuse Helpline on 0808 2000 247.

If you are in immediate danger, call 999.

Women's Aid

Types of support

Support may include putting in place key interventions , targeted support of signposting / referring to other agencies, such as CAMHS, social care and housing.

Some parents may struggle to ensure that their child attends school regularly and in these cases we can work with the Education Welfare Officer to provide support and advice for families.

Who can the school and parents refer to for additional support?

We regularly work with family support workers and early help practitioners to support children and families. Early help can provide direct support to families who need additional support. We can refer to 

• Single Point of Access (SPA). This includes Early Help and Family Support.
• Educational Psychologist
• Occupational Therapy
• School Health team 
• Speech and Language Therapist
• Health Services at Moor Lane, such as the paediatrician
• Richmond and Kingston Special Educational Needs and Disabilities Information Advice and Support Service (SENDIASS) is a free, confidential and impartial service for children and young people up to the age of 25 years who have special educational needs or disabilities, and their parents or carers.
• Other Specialist Support Services

For further information please contact any members of the safeguarding team.

• Child Exploitation and Online Protection (CEOP) If you're worried about online abuse or the way someone has been communicating online, let CEOP know.
• Internet Watch Foundation work to stop the repeated victimisation of people abused in childhood and make the internet a safer place, by identifying & removing global online child sexual abuse imagery.
• Childline 0800-1111 Childline is a free service for children and young people - here whenever they need support or advice
• Educate Against Hate has government advice and trusted resources to safeguard children from radicalisation, build resilience to all types of extremism and promote shared values.
• E-Safety information contains useful information about how to keep your children safe online
• Keeping children safe in education 2022 Keeping Children Safe in Education (KCSIE) is statutory guidance from the Department for Education (DfE). It sets out the legal duties that govern all schools and colleges in England when carrying out their duties to safeguard and promote the welfare of children under the age of 18.
• The National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children (NSPCC) aims to stop child abuse and neglect. Child abuse is when a child is intentionally harmed by an adult or another child – it can be over a period of time but can also be a one-off action. It can be physical, sexual or emotional and it can happen in person or online. It can also be a lack of love, care and attention – this is neglect.
• Action for Children support both adults and children with their Family Partners programme. Family Partners is an intensive support service delivered in the home over 22 weeks. It helps families prevent and reverse child neglect. It does this by teaching positive change. They work with parents to overcome their difficulties.
• Refuge for help with domestic abuse. Domestic abuse is defined as an incident or pattern of incidents of controlling, coercive, threatening, degrading and violent behaviour, including sexual violence, in the majority of cases by a partner or ex-partner, but also by a family member or carer.