Safeguarding

Keir Hardie Primary School is committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of all its pupils. We believe that:

  • All children have the right to be protected from harm;
  • Children need to be safe and to feel safe in school;
  • Children need support which matches their individual needs, including those who may have experienced abuse;
  • All children have the right to speak freely and voice their values and beliefs;
  • All children must be encouraged to respect each other’s values and support each other;
  • All children have the right to be supported to meet their emotional, and social needs as well as their educational needs – a happy healthy sociable child will achieve better educationally;
  • Schools can and do contribute to the prevention of abuse, victimisation, bullying, exploitation, radicalisation, extreme behaviours, discriminatory views and risk taking behaviours; and
  • All staff and visitors have an important role to play in safeguarding children and protecting them from abuse.

Safeguarding is defined as

  • Protecting children from maltreatment;
  • Preventing impairment of children’s health or development;
  • Ensuring that children are growing up in circumstances consistent with the provision of safe and effective care; and
  • Taking action to enable all children to have the best life chances.

Keir Hardie Primary school will fulfil their local and national responsibilities as laid out in the following documents:

The Team:

Child Sexual Exploitation Awareness
FGM Information
Internet Safety

At Keir Hardie we believe that all pupils should use technology safely and respectfully, keep personal information private,  and identify where to go for help and support when they have concerns about content or contact on the internet or other online technologies.

Online Safety:

Online safety is an ever-growing issue in society, with children accessing more and more internet-based devices daily. As a school, Keir Hardie teaches pupils the acceptable behaviour needed to achieve a safe and harmonious online community – teaching about the uses of the internet, social media and other internet-based devices and what to do should they encounter something unusual. If we – staff and parents – work together and speak to our children about how to stay safe online and behave appropriately, we can ensure they demonstrate the same standards of safety and acceptable behaviour that we expect in our community.

As a community, we need to recognise and guard against the negative aspects of society (bullying, intimidation, discrimination, grooming and exploitation) which are now ever more present online. At Keir Hardie, we have extensive security measures and safe working practices in place at school which are monitored both internally and externally, to help safeguard pupils from potential dangers or unsuitable material – these measures should be implemented at home in order to protect our children and ensure the Online Safety message is consistent.

In school, children have recently been introduced to J2e, an online cloud-based tool which shows pupils how they can work collaboratively on different devices as well as share work with trusted communities. In addition, pupils have been exposed to a variety of scenarios: asking them what they would do if they encountered danger and how to deal best with it, ensuring rich discussion around Online Safety. As a school, Online Safety incidents are dealt with in accordance with our policies. Sanctions are used to deal with unacceptable behaviour and serious incidents are escalated to the appropriate authorities.

On this page, a number of resources and links to other websites have been provided in order to help protect our children online. If you have any questions then please don’t hesitate to contact the school; we will be able to help you or direct you to get advice about keeping you and your children safe whilst online.

What to do?

Put yourself in control

Make use of the parental controls on your home broadband and any internet-enabled devices. You can find out how at your broadband provider’s website or by visiting internetmatters.org.

Search safely

Use safe search engines such as swiggle.org or kids-search.com. Safe search settings can also be activated on Google and other search engines as well as YouTube. You can find out more at google.co.uk/safetycentre.

Agree boundaries

Be clear on what your child can and can’t do online – where they can use the internet, how much time they can spend online, the sites they can visit and the type of information they can share. Agree with your child when they can have a mobile phone or tablet.

Explore together

The best way to find out what your child is doing online is to ask them to tell you about it. Put the family computer in a communal area so you can see what sites they’re visiting and share with them.

Check if it’s suitable

The age ratings that come with games, apps, films and social networks are a good guide to whether they’re suitable for your child. The minimum age limit is 13 for several social networking sites, including Facebook and Instagram.

Places to go for help and advice:

Online Safety Portal for Parents and Schools – NSPCC

  • Online Safety, Share Aware, Netaware
  • Helpful advice and tools for parents and children.

Help and resources for adults to educate and explain how to stay safe online.

Online Safety Portal for Parents – Digital Parenting (Vodafone) 
https://www.vodafone.com/content/digital-parenting.html

  • Online portal designed for parents with simple, easy to follow practical advice about online safety for their children and adults.
  • E-mag provides tips on talking to children about Online Safety.
  • Advice on protection from online grooming, online bullying, sexual exploitation, privacy and identity theft and inappropriate content.

Online Safety Portal for Children, Parents and Teachers – Childnet International
https://www.childnet.com/

  • Online safety advice for children, parents, carers and anyone who works with children.
  • Annual training sessions and focused internet safety campaigns programme for children

Childnet offers advice to adults and children on how avoid difficulties and stay safe online.

 

Online Safety Portal for Parents and Schools – Internet Matters (BT, Sky, TalkTalk and Virgin Media)
https://www.internetmatters.org/

  • Designed for parents to access simple, easy and practical advice about online safety for their children, right through from pre-school to teens.

Tips on protecting children from online grooming, online bullying, privacy and identity theft and inappropriate content.

At Keir Hardie we have an internet filtering system which protects our children; this is managed by an organisation called the London Grid For Learning.

Below you will find our E-safety Policy and also some useful websites which will help you gain a better understanding to protect your children at home and school.

PROJECT ENCOMPASS

 Primary School is now working as part of the Operation Encompass project to safeguard our children. Read more about the project here: http://www.operationencompass.org/

In  the Summer Term 2018, we asked Year 6 about their thoughts on Safeguarding at Keir Hardie. You can find their responses here.