Safeguarding & Wellbeing | St Mary's Enfield

Safeguarding

We believe that our school should provide a caring, positive, safe and stimulating environment that promotes the social, physical and moral developing of the individual child. Safeguarding children is everyone’s responsibility. We encourage a culture of listening to children and taking account of their wishes and feelings in any action the school takes to protect them.

Child Protection

Aims

The school aims to ensure that:

Appropriate action is taken in a timely manner to safeguard and promote children’s welfare

All staff are aware of their statutory responsibilities with respect to safeguarding

Staff are properly training in recognising and reporting safeguarding issues

Equality statement

Some children have an increased risk of abuse, and additional barriers can exist for some children with respect to recognising or disclosing it. We are committed to anti-discriminatory practice and recognise children’s diverse circumstances. We ensure that all children have the same protection, regardless of any barriers they may face.

We give special consideration to children who:

Have special educational needs (SEN) or disabilities or health conditions

Are young carers

May experience discrimination due to their race, ethnicity, religion, gender identification or sexuality

Have English as an additional language

Are known to be living in difficult situations – for example, temporary accommodation or where there are issues such as substance abuse or domestic violence

Are at risk of FGM, sexual exploitation, forced marriage, or radicalisation

Are asylum seekers

Are at risk due to either their own or a family member’s mental health needs

Are looked after or previously looked after

Are missing from education

Whose parent/carer has expressed an intention to remove them from school to be home educated

Roles and responsibilities

Safeguarding and child protection is everyone’s responsibility.

The school plays a crucial role in preventative education. This is in the context of a whole-school approach to preparing pupils for life in modern Britain, and a culture of zero tolerance of sexism, misogyny/misandry, homophobia, biphobia and sexual violence/harassment. This will be underpinned by our:

Behaviour policy
Pastoral support system
Planned programme of relationships, sex and health education (RSHE), which is inclusive and delivered regularly, tackling issues such as:
- Healthy and respectful relationships
- Boundaries and consent
- Stereotyping, prejudice and equality
- Body confidence and self-esteem
- How to recognise an abusive relationship (including coercive and controlling behaviour)
- The concepts of, and laws relating to, sexual consent, sexual exploitation, abuse, grooming, coercion, harassment, rape, domestic abuse, so-called honour-based violence such as forced marriage and female genital mutilation (FGM) and how to access support
- What constitutes sexual harassment and sexual violence and why they’re always unacceptable

Online Safety – London Borough of Enfield

The internet is a big part of children’s lives in the UK, with children spending 2 to 5 hours online daily (OFCOM, 2024). It helps them make friends, learn, and be creative. However, the internet also has risks, such as exposure to harmful content and online abuse.

Schools have a duty to ensure children are protected and taught how to keep themselves safe. Filtering, monitoring and a robust online safety curriculum all form part of this duty.

However, safeguarding is everyone’s responsibility and while it is never possible to remove risk entirely, parents and carers also have a duty to ensure their children are kept safe and are able to manage risk effectively both in the real world and online. Our parental guide is designed to help families to develop safe and healthy internet use using the TECH approach. It is research-based, practical and trauma-informed.

T.E.C.H Safeguarding Guidance

T - TALK - Encourage two-way communication with your child

E - EDUCATE - Stay informed about the latest online risks

C - CO-VIEW - Spend time online together

H - HOUSE RULES - Set clear rules for internet use

Helpful Guides for Specific Online Risks:

Report sexual abuse images/videos here: Report online child sexual abuse imagery or 'child pornography' (iwf.org.uk)
Parental guidance of sexual image-sharing: Parent guide to sexual image-sharing among kids | Internet Matters
Resources to tackle online grooming: Online grooming resources | Internet Matters
Resources to protect children for radicalisation and grooming: Radicalisation of young children online | Internet Matters
Resources to support your child if they are being bullied: How can I help my child if they are being bullied? | NSPCC
Resources to tackle cyberbullying: Resources to deal with cyberbullying | Internet Matters

Guidance for online abuse: How to talk about harassment and abuse online | Internet Matters
Resources on racism and racial bullying: Racism and racial bullying | Childline
Supporting LGBTQ+ children online: Supporting LGBTQ children and young people online | Internet Matters
Resources to tackle harm from inappropriate content: Learn about inappropriate content online | Internet Matters
Resources to protect children’s privacy and identity online: Online identity theft facts and advice for parents | Internet Matters
Resources to manage in-game spending: How to manage in-game spending:

NOTE: WhatsApp has since changed its age rating to 13+

Documents

Keep Your Child Safe Online Poster 2024
PDF, 619KB

Keep Your Child Safe Online Guide 2024
PDF, 6.7MB

Reducing Smartphone Use in Childhood ENFIELD

Online Safety

Do you know the age rating for some of the games your children are playing? Please find attached a sheet explaining the different age certificates of some games. The guidance is there for a reason – you may not always realise what your children are exposing themselves to. If you want more information on how to keep your child safe please look at these websites:

• https://parentzone.org.uk/advice/parent-guides - this is a fantastic website, giving parents information about the games children are playing, safety settings, advice on how to help your child question things they see on line.

• NSPCC have some excellent resources about online safety. These can be downloaded from - https://www.nspcc.org.uk/preventing-abuse/keeping-children-safe/online-safety/

• Childline has also produced some short videos about recognising unhealthy relationships, aimed at teenagers. They can be viewed at http://www.omdukblog.com/our-work/childline-launches-new-listen-selfie-campaign/. This would be a useful starting point for discussing wider issues around unhealthy relationships.

• Stopitnow.org.uk is a website that people can access if they are worried about their own, or other people’s behaviour, both on and offline.

• CEOP https://www.ceop.police.uk/safety-centre/ is a site which shows you how to report concerns on line.

• Think you know - https://www.thinkuknow.co.uk/ Lots of useful advice