Safeguarding at Brightside
At Brightside Nursery Infant School, the safety and wellbeing of every child is our highest priority. We are committed to creating a safe, nurturing and inclusive environment where all children are listened to, valued and supported to thrive.
Safeguarding is everyone's responsibility. All members of our school community have a role to play in protecting children from harm and promoting their welfare.
Our commitment
We are committed to:
- Protecting children from abuse, neglect and exploitation.
- Providing a safe, welcoming and inclusive learning environment.
- Listening to children and taking their concerns seriously.
- Supporting children's emotional health and wellbeing.
- Promoting positive relationships and respectful behaviour.
- Teaching children how to keep themselves safe, both in school and beyond.
- Working in partnership with parents and carers wherever possible.
- Working closely with external agencies when additional support or protection is needed.
- Ensuring that all staff receive appropriate safeguarding training and understand their responsibilities.
Our safeguarding practice is underpinned by current statutory guidance and Sheffield's local safeguarding arrangements.
Designated Safeguarding Leads
Our Designated Safeguarding Lead (DSL) has overall responsibility for safeguarding and child protection within school.
Headteacher and overall responsibility for safeguarding:
Miss Louisa Frost
Designated Safeguarding Lead:
Mrs Danielle Jenkins-Omar
Deputy Designated Safeguarding Lead:
Mr Ryan Morris- Acting Deputy Head
Mrs Liane Batham- Senco
Mrs Molly Barrowclough- Teacher
Safeguarding Governor:
Pat Tomlinson
Our DSL and Deputy DSLs are available to provide advice and support to staff, children and families where appropriate.
If you have a safeguarding concern
If you are concerned about the safety or welfare of a child, please contact a member of our safeguarding team as soon as possible.
You can contact the school by:
Telephone: 01142441826
Email: headteacher@brightside.sheffield.sch.uk
If your concern relates to a member of staff or another adult working within school, please report this to the Headteacher.
If your concern relates to the Headteacher, please contact the Chair of Governors through the school office.
If you think a child is in immediate danger
If you believe a child is at immediate risk of harm, call 999.
If you have a concern about a child but believe they are not in immediate danger, you can contact Sheffield Children's Social Care to seek advice or make a referral.
Sheffield Children's Social Care:
01142734855
Our safeguarding curriculum
Safeguarding is not only about responding to concerns. We help children develop the knowledge, skills and confidence they need to keep themselves safe.
Through our curriculum and wider school provision, children learn about areas such as:
- Healthy and respectful relationships.
- Recognising and expressing emotions.
- Online safety and digital wellbeing.
- Personal boundaries and appropriate touch.
- Knowing who can help them.
- Road and community safety.
- Healthy lifestyles.
- Bullying and prejudice.
- Privacy and personal information.
- Risks associated with the wider world.
- How and when to ask for help.
We use age-appropriate language and approaches so that children understand that they can always speak to a trusted adult if something is worrying them.
Safeguarding is everyone's responsibility
We encourage parents and carers to talk to us if they have any concerns about their child or another child.
You do not need to be certain that abuse or neglect has occurred before raising a concern. If something does not feel right, please speak to us.
Sharing information at an early stage can help us provide the right support to a child and family.
We will always consider concerns carefully and follow our safeguarding procedures. Where necessary, we will seek advice from or make a referral to appropriate safeguarding professionals.
Further information
Our full Child Protection and Safeguarding Policy can be found on our school website.
Other safeguarding information available on our website includes:
- Child Protection and Safeguarding Policy
- Online Safety
- Attendance
- Behaviour
- SEND
- Anti-Bullying
- Complaints
- Whistleblowing
- Safer Recruitment
If you have any questions about safeguarding at Brightside Nursery Infant School, please contact Mrs Jenkins-Omar.
At Brightside Nursery Infant School we are committed to working together to safeguard all children. We use CPOMs to record any safeguarding concerns. Please click here for the Keeping Children Safe in Education document
For more information, please click on this link for the Safeguarding Sheffield Children Website.
At Brightside we follow the Prevent Duty Guidance
Online safety
Online safety is an important part of keeping children safe at Brightside NI School. We have extensive security measures in place in school, which are monitored both internally and externally, to help safeguard pupils from potential dangers or unsuitable material. Any online safety incidents are recorded and managed. Online Safety is taught to all pupils through a a progressive PSHE and computing curriculum explaining and demonstrating how to stay safe and behave appropriately online.
We can only be successful in keeping children safe online if we work with parents to ensure the online message is consistent. It is important that parents speak to their children about how they can keep safe and behave appropriately online. We provide a parent/carer workshop every year to provide information and so parents/carers can take part in an online safety session with their child.
As part of our participation in the Speak Out Stay Safe programme, our colleagues from the NSPCC have helped us deliver an online safety workshop annually for parents. This is usually on or around Online Safety Day. Please follow the link below for further advice and guidance on how to keep our children safe online and speak to Mrs Jenkins-Omar if you have any concerns regarding Online Safety.
https://www.nspcc.org.uk/what-we-do/about-us/partners/nspcc-o2-online-safety-partnership/
Please click on the link for some top safety tips from Virgin Media https://www.virginmedia.com/blog/online-safety/childrens-internet-safety-test/
It’s essential to be realistic - banning the internet or technology will not work and it often makes a child less likely to report a problem. Education around safe use online is esstential and making sure you sit with your child when they are playing computer games or when they are online.
Search Engines
Please note that no search engine is ever 100% safe but below provides some links to some “safer” search engines:
Gaming
When children are accessing games via Xbox LIVE, privacy settings can be set up. To read more, click here.
Websites for more information
Please click on the icon to go to the relevant site
CEOP (The Child Exploitation and Online Protection Centre) delivers a multi-agency service dedicated to tackling the abuse and exploitation of children in the real and ‘online’ world. Often it is referred to as an online 999. By clicking on the button, young people and parents can get advice on a range of issues such as viruses, hacking and dealing with bullying online.
Vodafone have produced a Digital Parenting Magazine which informs parents about the various technologies children are accessing today. There is information on Facebook settings, Xbox 360 settings, Blackberry settings, jargon busting and many more 'How to Guides'. They are well worth a read and some are attached below for you to download.
The “Thinkuknow” website is brought to you by the Child Exploitation and Online Protection (CEOP) centre.
New e-Safety Portal for Parents and Schools – Internet Matters
Internet Matters is a new online portal designed for parents to access simple, easy and practical advice about online safety for their children, right through from pre-school to teens. It provides tips on protecting children from online grooming, cyberbullying, privacy and identity theft and inappropriate content. Internet Matters is a not-for profit organisation set up by BT, Sky, TalkTalk and Virgin Media.
ParentINFO is a collaboration between ParentZone and CEOP. There are useful guides and articles on helping your child stay safe online.