Safeguarding

At Dringhouses Primary school we aim for every child to feel safe and cared for at all times.

We recognise that:

• The welfare of the child is paramount
• All children, regardless of age, disability, gender, racial heritage, religious belief, sexual orientation or identity, have the right to equal protection from all types of harm and abuse.
• Working in partnership with children, young people and their parents, carers and other agencies, is essential in promoting young people’s welfare.

We work under the guidance of the Department for Education (Keeping Children Safe In Education – Statutory Guidance for Schools – Sept 2024) and the school’s Safeguarding Policy, which can be found under Our Policies.

Self-Evaluation and Review

Dringhouses Primary School takes its commitment to safeguarding and child protection very seriously. We conduct regular self-evaluation and audits of our policies, practice and procedures. Governors hold school leaders to account for ensuring that planned actions are completed within the timeframes indicated.

Staff Training

Safeguarding is the responsibility of all staff at Dringhouses Primary School and all the teachers and teaching assistants undergo regular training in Safeguarding, including (but not limited to): Child Protection, Safer Recruitment, First Aid, Prevent (the name given to the training which aims to prevent young children becoming radicalised) and Identifying Children at Risk of FGM and other safeguarding risks.

All staff and governors complete an annual ‘Basic Awareness’ qualification in Safeguarding. Annual Safeguarding training also includes staff and governors reading and agreeing to the DFE guidelines ‘Keeping Children Safe in Education (Part 1)’, the school’s Code of Conduct and Safeguarding policy documents.

Preventing Radicalisation

Prevent Strategy Information for Parents explains our responsibilities in protecting children from extremist and violent views. It also supports us in promoting and teaching important values such as tolerance, respect and the celebration of diversity. You can see the parent leaflet – Prevent Strategy here.

Prevent Duty Information is also included in the Safeguarding Policy (available on Our Policies page).

Bullying

We work hard to ensure that any instances of bullying are dealt with quickly and followed up over time. We care about all the children at our school and work closely with children and families to give every child the best experience.

For more information see our Behaviour Policy (available on Our Policies page).

E-Safety

In our modern world, technology poses certain risks that we want to protect our children against.

For more information see our E-Safety Policy (available on Our Policies page).

Whistleblowing

Anybody having any concerns regarding the conduct of any adult within our school community, should refer to the school’s Safeguarding, Complaints and Whistleblowing policies (available on Our Policies page).

Operation Encompass

Our school has been given the opportunity to take part in a new project that will run jointly between all schools in York, City of York Council and North Yorkshire Police. This project is designed to provide early reporting to schools of any domestic abuse incidents that occur outside of normal school hours and that might have had an impact on a child attending our premises the following day: See our Safeguarding Policy for more information (available on Our Policies page).

The letter here also provides information on “Operation Encompass.”  

External organisations

Multi-Agency Safeguarding Hub (MASH) (formally known as Children’s Front Door Service)

Independent Domestic Abuse Services