Safeguarding

Safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children is of the utmost importance at St. Michael's;

it is everyone's responsibility.

St. Michael's school is committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare and well-being of its pupils, engaging with young people and staff in Policy and practice developments, proactively encourages feedback and expects all staff and volunteers to share this commitment.

In our school, the staff who have specific child protection responsibilities are:

Designated Safeguarding Lead	Deputy Designated Safeguarding Lead

Miss Gill Mawson (Deputy Head)	Mrs Lorna Smith, (Headteacher)
Qualifications: Advanced Certificate in Safeguarding - Nov 2023 Certificate in Online Safety - Nov 2022 Operation Encompass Key Adult - Nov 2022 DfE Prevent in Education for DSLs Training - September 2024	Qualifications: Designated Safeguarding Lead Level 2 & 3 - April 2023 Safer Recruitment - March 2023 Prevent Training - June 2022 Single Central Record - June 2023

Our safeguarding governor is Brendan McArdle

The role of the governor is to support the DSL/DSLs through regular monitoring and challenge to ensure that all our practices and procedures are effective and meet the needs of all our pupils.

If you have a concern about a child or young person please ask to speak to either Miss Mawson or Mrs Smith or you can take your concern directly to Cumbria Safeguarding Children Partnership - Safeguarding Hub

Key Documents

Child Protection Policy and Procedures

Overarching Safeguarding Statement

Keeping Children Safe in Education

NSPCC KCSiE Updates from 2022, 2023 and 2024

Safeguarding Information for Visitors

Working Together to Safeguard Children

Online Safety Policy

Filtering and Monitoring information

Our School is an Operation Encompass School - Operation Encompass Information for Parents

Early Help

Early Help is the response made when a professional identifies unmet needs with a child/family and works with other agencies to meet those needs. At this level of need an Early Help Assessment - Signs of Well-being and Success (EHA) should be completed with the child and family to identify, what is working well, what the worries are and what wellbeing and success would look like? A clear plan will be developed by the agencies with the family that is SMART and is focused on what success will look like for the child/ren.

Any professional from a service that supports families can initiate an Early Help Assessment - Signs of Well-being and Success (EHA) and can be carried out with any child or young person from pre-birth up to age 19 (up to the age of 25 if the young person has a learning difficulty or disability).

The completion of an EHA would trigger a response from different agencies. A date should be set for a Team Around the Family (TAF) meeting, in order to identify a coordinator, agree the plan and which agency would work to achieve each of the wellbeing goals.

Early Help Parent Information

Online Safety

Online safety is a key part of keeping children safe at St. Michael's. This involves educating the children about safe use of the internet and associated technology and also supporting parents.

As part of this we have created an Acceptable Use Agreement for pupils, school and parents. We ask pupils, teachers and parents to read, discuss and sign the document each academic year and it is regularly referred to during appropriate teaching moments.

Acceptable Use Agreement

We regularly share guidance documents from National Online Safety on our school Facebook page and via email.

Here are some useful documents and links to help us work together to keep our children safe online, click on each image to take you to their site:

Advice for parents on cyberbullying