Safeguarding
Abacus Belsize Primary School is committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children, and expects all staff and volunteers to share this commitment.
Our Senior Designated Safeguarding Officer is Ms Melissa Chandler.
Our Deputy Designated Safeguarding Officers are Ms Miriyan Sikkens, Ms Holly Lovell and Mr Thomas Owens.
We have a number of policies and procedures in place that contribute to our safeguarding commitment, including our Child Protection and Safeguarding Policy which can be viewed below and in the Policies section of our website. We actively support the Government’s Prevent Agenda to counter radicalism and extremism.
Sometimes we may need to share information and work in partnership with other agencies when there are concerns about a child’s welfare. We will ensure that our concerns about our pupils are discussed with the child's parents/carers first unless we have reason to believe that such a move would be contrary to the child’s welfare.
Please remember, safeguarding is everyone’s responsibility. Visit the government's website for important information for parents and carers, children and young people and professionals who work with them.
Operation Encompass
We are very pleased that we are now linked to the Operation Encompass Scheme.
Operation Encompass is a unique Police and Education early intervention safeguarding partnership which supports children and young people exposed to domestic abuse.
Operation Encompass is the reporting to schools before the start of the next school day when a child or young person has been involved or exposed to a domestic abuse incident the previous evening.
The information is given in strict confidence to a school’s Key Adult to enable support to be given dependent on the needs and wishes of the child.
Further information about the scheme is included in the poster below and also on the Operation Encompass website.
Online safety
Do you know all the friends who your children invite into your home? Are you sure? If your child has a Facebook profile, they may be ‘friends’ with all sorts of people who are not known to you, and possibly not the sort of people you would be happy for your children to have as friends.
An extract from the Facebook Terms of Use:
“This Site is intended solely for users who are thirteen (13) years of age or older. Any registration by, use of or access to the Site by anyone under 13, is unauthorized, unlicensed and in violation of these Terms of Use.”
The school’s position is that we do not expect any of our pupils to be active on unregulated social networking sites.
For advice on family internet safety try the excellent website thinkuknow - It has specific advice about sites like Facebook.
If you believe your child is receiving illegal or seriously messages from an adult in a chatroom or on a social networking site, then report it to the Child Exploitation and Online Protection Centre (CEOP), a police organisation dedicated to child protection.
The National Online Safety Guides is a useful tool for parents to help you navigate some apps or sites your child may be accessing online (such as YouTube or Minecraft) as well as advice on how to support your child with dealing with ads on social media or how to help children deal with upsetting content. You can find these guides here: https://nationalonlinesafety.com/guides
Other useful links for parents
Please click on the links below for information and ideas about how to keep your child safe online.
www.childnet.com A non-profit-making organisation working directly with children, parents and teachers to ensure that the issues of online child protection and children’s safe and positive use of the internet are addressed.
www.getsafeonline.org A beginner's guide to internet safety, including a quiz and some video tutorials about how to stay safe online.