Safeguarding
Safeguarding encompasses all the things we do to protect our children. All schools have a legal duty to protect children and at Elmgrove our duty of care is to our children above everything else. Safeguarding includes child protection, health and safety, poor attendance or late punctuality, anti-bullying and preventing peer-on-peer abuse, preventing risk of radicalisation, e-safety, disclosure and barring checks on staff and adults in the school and behaviour including ensuring no discrimination based on race, cultural background, sexual identity/orientation, disability, religion or gender. All staff have annual training as well as termly updates to ensure they are vigilant and keeping child safety at the forefront of what they do. We support children in identifying 5 trusted adults they can always confide in.
Safeguarding Team
At Elmgrove we have a team of staff trained to support children, staff and families with any safeguarding concerns.
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Designated Safeguarding Lead |
Mrs Gardner |
Deputy Headteacher |
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Deputy Designated Safeguarding Leads |
Miss Neary |
Headteacher |
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Mrs Sylvester |
Assistant Head Nursery, Reception, Years 1 & 2 |
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Miss Wheeler |
Assistant Head Years 3, 4, 5 & 6 |
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Mrs Poonja (from September 2024) |
Assistant Inclusion Lead |
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Mrs Martin |
Year 5 Leader |
Child Protection
If a child discloses something which has made them feel unsafe, we listen, note it down and pass the information on to Childrens' Services to ask for their assessment and instructions on the next steps. Sometimes this can mean an uncomfortable conversation with families however all staff are committed to listening to the child and responding to what they say. We make no apologies for listening to your child to ensure they feel safe. We will work with families to address and resolve any concerns as ultimately the best place for a child is within a safe family unit.
What if you have a concern?
If you have a concern about your child's safety in school, never delay...speak to us straight away. Your child's class teacher of year team leader are key starting people. If you feel it is more serious a member of the Safeguarding team will meet you. Contact us by phone or using the following email address.
Email – safeguarding@elmgrove.harrow.sch.uk
Phone - 020 8909 2992
If your concerns were regarding a child outside of school, you can make an anonymous referral directly to Children's Services by calling 0208 901 2690 or by calling Childline 08001111
While there are huge benefits to being online to stay connected to family and friends many parents feel concerned about the activities and content their children are accessing. This guidance outlines resources to help keep children safe from different risks online and where to go to get support and advice.
Online Safety for Parents
Online Safety is an integral part of children’s education in today’s digital world and is embedded in their learning at school. We are also keen to support parents/carers to improve their own understanding of online safety issues, so you can engage with your children regarding their use of the internet while at home.
We have extensive security measures and safe working practices in place in school, which are monitored both internally and externally, to help safeguard pupils from potential dangers or unsuitable material. For example, the web screen filtering we use prevents use of age inappropriate websites. Filters are also in place which look for the use of inappropriate words and phrases by individuals and alert the school to these so this can be followed up. In addition, if the children do see something on the screen during lessons which concerns them, we have an icon they can click which covers the screen. This allows the adults to follow up a concern raised by a child immediately.
In school children are taught how to stay safe and behave appropriately online. Adults should, as you would in the real world, educate children on what to do when they encounter danger and how best to deal with it. As a school, incidents are dealt with in accordance with our policies.
We can only be successful in keeping children safe online if staff and parents work together to ensure the online safety message is consistent. It is important that adults speak to their children about how they can keep safe, teach them how to behave appropriately online, set rules and deal with bad behaviour.
If you have any questions then please don't hesitate to contact the school. We may be able to help or direct you to get advice about keeping you and your children safe whilst online.
All pupils/ families are required to sign an Acceptable Use Policy before being allowed to use online resources at school.
Reporting urgent matters
We hope that you never have to use these, but these are the places you can go for help. Please also remember that in the case of illegal activity or content that needs to be dealt with urgently, the police should be called on 999 as well.
Grooming or other illegal behaviour:
If you want to report someone who is behaving suspiciously online towards a child, you should in an emergency contact the emergency services by calling 999, or otherwise make a report to CEOP, the Child Exploitation Online Protection Centre, see www.ceop.gov.uk.
Criminal content online:
Child sexual abuse images: If you stumble across criminal content online, you should report this to the Internet Watch Foundation at www.iwf.org.uk/report. Criminal content in the UK includes child sexual abuse images, criminally obscene adult content as well as non-photographic child sexual abuse images.
Online terrorism:
You can report terrorism related content to the police’s Counter Terrorism Internet Referral Unit at www.gov.uk/report-terrorism.
Hate speech:
Online content which incites hatred on the grounds of race, religion, disability, sexual orientation or gender should be reported to True Vision at www.report-it.org.uk.
(advice and content above taken from http://www.saferinternet.org.uk/need-help)
And of course, please talk to us at the school so that we can help.
Further information
The websites and links below will give you further information and advice on supporting your child to be safe online.
https://www.internetmatters.org/
https://www.nspcc.org.uk/keeping-children-safe/
Prevent Duty for Schools
Our wide range of safeguarding and child protection duties includes the government’s Prevent Strategy.
From 1 July 2015 all schools are subject to a duty under section 26 of the Counter-Terrorism and Security Act 2015, in the exercise of their functions, to have “due regard to the need to prevent people from being drawn into terrorism”. This duty is known as the Prevent Duty for Schools.
At Elmgrove, we recognise that safeguarding and creating a safeguarding culture is the responsibility of everyone who works here. As a school we recognise that safeguarding against radicalisation is no different from safeguarding against any other vulnerability. At Elmgrove, we build pupils’ resilience to radicalisation by promoting fundamental British values and enabling our pupils to challenge extremist views. You can read about what we do to promote British Values.
The statutory guidance refers to the importance of Prevent awareness training to equip staff to identify children at risk of being drawn into terrorism and to challenge extremist ideas. The Home Office has developed a core training product for this purpose – Workshop to Raise Awareness of Prevent (WRAP).
Links
Please click on the links below to find more information.
