Mission Statement of our Education Provision

• Establish and maintain an environment where school staff and volunteers feel safe, are encouraged to talk and are listened to when they have concerns about the safety and well-being of a child.
• Ensure children know that there are adults in the school whom they can approach if they are worried.
• Ensure that children, who have additional/unmet needs, are supported appropriately. This could include referral to Early Help services or specialist services if they are a child in need or have been/are at risk of being abused and neglected.
• Consider how children may be taught about safeguarding, including online safety, through teaching and learning opportunities, as part of providing a broad and balanced curriculum.
• Staff members working with children are advised to maintain an attitude of ‘it could happen here’ where safeguarding is concerned. When concerned about the welfare of a child, staff members should always act in the interests of the child and develop a culture where Safeguarding is everyone’s responsibility.

Keeping our children safe is one of the most important things that we do.   Should you ever have any concerns, the Designated Safeguarding Lead is Mrs Greenwell and the Deputy Designated Safeguarding Leads are Mrs Tooth and Mrs Byrne.

If you have a safeguarding concern, please email safeguarding@baltonsboroughschool.com

To make direct contact with the Local Authority, South West Child Protection Procedures, follow the link below:

https://somersetsafeguardingchildren.org.uk/report-a-concern/

Online Safety is an important part of keeping children safe at Baltonsborough CE VC Primary School. Online Safety is taught to all pupils and makes them aware of how they can to stay safe and behave appropriately online but we can only be successful in keeping children safe online if we work with you.

Your help is needed to talk to your children about how they can keep themselves safe and behave appropriately online.  Children can accidentally or deliberately be exposed to illegal, unwanted or unpleasant content, comments or activity online and there are steps you can take at home to minimise this risk.

Discuss together as a family how the internet will be used in your house. Consider what information should be kept private (such as personal information, photos in school uniform etc.) and decide rules for making and meeting online friends. Ensure your children know the risks of accepting friends’ requests from strangers online and make sure you know what your child is doing online much as you would offline.

Take an active interest in your child’s life online and talk openly with them about the things they do. Talk to your child and ask them to show or even teach you how they use the internet, learn which websites or tools they like to use and why. Learning together with your child can often open opportunities to discuss safe behaviour online.

Make sure your child knows it’s important that they tell an adult they trust if anything happens online that makes them feel scared, worried or uncomfortable.

Remember, the internet is an essential part of young people’s lives and provides them with tremendous opportunities. The vast majority use it without coming to any harm so it’s essential to be realistic: banning the internet or web sites often will not work and it can make a child feel less able to report a problem or concern, so education around safe use is essential.

Information to help you to keep your children safe online:

• www.thinkuknow.co.uk – Visit the “Parent/Carer” Section and use the “Click CEOP” button to seek advice and report online abuse
• www.childnet.com – Visit the ‘Know It All’ Section for an interactive guide about online safety
• www.getsafeonline.org – Free up-to-date Security advice including using complex passwords and managing hacked accounts
• www.internetmatters.org – Information from the four largest internet service providers (BT, Sky, Talk Talk and Virgin)
• www.nspcc.org.uk/onlinesafety – NSPCC’s Share Aware campaign provides information for parents about popular social media sites, apps and games.
• www.saferinternet.org.uk – Parents guides to safety tools on popular devices and signposts report mechanisms for some websites.
• http://el.im/family – Curated resources from the eLearning and Information Management team at Somerset
• https://sscb.safeguardingsomerset.org.uk/ – Somerset Safeguarding Children Board

Further Information & Policy Documents: