Safeguarding

St-Helen’s Primary School is committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of all its pupils. We believe that:

• All children have the right to be protected from harm;
• Children need to be safe and to feel safe in school;
• Children need support which matches their individual needs, including those who may have experienced abuse;
• All children have the right to speak freely and voice their values and beliefs;
• All children must be encouraged to respect each other’s values and support each other;
• All children have the right to be supported to meet their emotional, and social needs as well as their educational needs – a happy healthy sociable child will achieve better educationally;
• Schools can and do contribute to the prevention of abuse, victimisation, bullying, exploitation, radicalisation, extreme behaviours, discriminatory views and risk taking behaviours; and
• All staff and visitors have an important role to play in safeguarding children and protecting them from abuse.

Safeguarding is defined as

• Protecting children from maltreatment;
• Preventing impairment of children's health or development;
• Ensuring that children are growing up in circumstances consistent with the provision of safe and effective care; and
• Taking action to enable all children to have the best life chances.

St-Helen’s Primary school will fulfil their local and national responsibilities as laid out in the following documents:

       CCO talking to your child about online sexual harassment- a guide for parents 2021

       CCO talking to your child about online sexual harassment- poster for parents 2021

• CEOP
• Childline Website
• Keeping Children Safe in Education: Statutory guidance for schools and colleges (DfE Sept 2024)
• Mental Health and Behaviour in Schools: Departmental Advice (DfE March 2018)
• The Children Act 2004
• The Education Act 2002 s175 / s157
• The Procedures of Newham Safeguarding Children Board
• Working together to safeguard children (DfE July 2023)
• Youngminds Website
• Band Runner

Our Safeguarding policies can be found here

St-Helen's Child Friendly Safeguarding Policy

We recently delivered a workshop on how to keep children safe . Workshops held reinforced important messages how we can keep children safe in and out of school. The power point shared at the workshop can be found here.

Operation Encompass

This operation is a national partnership between all schools, families and the Police.The intention is that all parties will be informed immediately of any reported domestic abuse.The reason for this relates directly to the impact that domestic abuse has upon the success of young people in education. Children can be victims of domestic abuse when they are directly targeted for violence/abuse or if they are accidentally assaulted in an incident with others.

Children can also be seriously affected by witnessing domestic abuse.If the Police are made aware of an incident of domestic abuse, they will notify the school by 11am of the following morning. The school will then decide the appropriate support that is required for the student. The information will be shared with the appropriate members of staff.

The designated lead at St Helen’s for Operation Encompass is Miss L van Biljon

The deputy designated lead at St Helen’s for Operation Encompass is Miss C Doherty

Click here to access Operation Encompass website.

If you suspect Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) of a child please inform the police.

If you have concerns around risk, please inform the school Safeguarding Team or email Mash on MASH@newham.co.uk

Our LADO (Local Authority Designated Officer) is: Alex Mihu 0203 373 3803 or email LADO@Newham.gov.uk

Roles & Responsibilities

Key personnel at St-Helen's are:

• Safeguard Designated Lead (DSL): Linda Van Biljon
• Deputy Safeguard Designated Lead / SPOC: Claire Doherty
• Deputy Designated Safeguarding Lead: Mary Orwell
• Children Sexual Exploitation: Linda Van Biljon
• Early Help Lead: Ann Bullock
• Online Safety: Linda van Biljon
• Child Protection / Safeguarding Governor: Ms G Joseph
• DSL Trained: Ann Bullock / Justine Burch / Niall Lewis/Carmel Cook