Safeguarding

Here at St. Mary's the Mount Catholic Primary School, we take Safeguarding very seriously and want to work together with parents, carers and families to help to keep all the children at St. Mary's safe.

Parents/carers are asked to not be offended if we seem to be asking questions - we are doing our job and adhering to our 'Duty of Care' in making sure that our children are happy and safe both in and out of school.

Our belief is that 'it could happen here' and we have the interest of the children as our priority.

We work with multi agencies to ensure the best outcomes for children and young people.  Our Child Protection and Safeguarding Policy applies to all staff, volunteers and visitors to our school as safeguarding is everyone's responsibility.  The children have their own Safeguarding Policy which is discussed in class and sent home annually.

We send home a termly Safeguarding Newsletter which features advice and current safeguarding topics, as well as signposting parents and carers to support.  These are either requested by parents or feature heavily in safeguarding meetings that our Designated Safeguarding Lead (DSL) regularly attends.  The aim is to keep parents, as well as staff, up to date with current safeguarding concerns in our area.

Operation Encompass

The school will be taking part in a jointly run operation between Walsall Council, West Midlands Police and our school, it is called Operation Encompass.

Encompass has been set-up to help schools to provide support to children who have been present at incidents of domestic violence.  We know that children can be significantly physically or emotionally harmed when they are involved in, present during or witness to domestic violence.  The school will receive a confidential communication from the Operation Encompass Administrator before 10am on the morning after any domestic incident where a child at their school has been involved in, present during or witness to domestic violence.

The school have designated Mrs Hunt and Mrs Jones as Key Adults.  They have received training from Walsall Borough Council to allow them to use the information that has been shared in confidence to make sure that the right support is available for children and their families, who have been involved in or witnessed a domestic violence incident.

We are keen to offer the best support possible to our pupils and we believe this is going to be extremely beneficial for all those involved.

If you have any concerns or questions then please contact one of the above Key Adults or myself and we will be happy to discuss this further.  Information about the project can be found on our school’s website and is available from the school office on request.