At St Mary’s Fields Academy the health and safety, safeguarding and promoting the welfare of all children is of paramount importance.
‘Safeguarding is everyone’s responsibility, every day’.
The new OFSTED framework explains that the safeguarding standards have been developed from the requirements of ‘Keeping children safe in education’ and ‘Working together to safeguard children’.
Safeguarding is ‘met’ when all the following apply:
Our first and foremost priority is to keep your child safe and healthy.
Your child and their health & safety are our number one priority.
We employ the following strategies to keep your child healthy and safe:
All staff receive appropriate training in Safeguarding and Child Protection to ensure that they are aware of the school’s procedures for child protection and their responsibilities. We have a written policy and procedures for Safeguarding and Child Protection (see link below). The Designated Teachers for Safeguarding are Miss Laura Haycock (Designated Safeguarding Lead, Assistant Headteacher and Special Needs Co-Ordinator), Mrs. Helen Nott (Headteacher), Mr. Joseph Clark (Deputy Headteacher) and Mr. Carl King (Assistant Headteacher). The designated governor for Safeguarding and Child Protection is Callum Bartlam.
Under the Race Relations (Amendment) Act 2000 and Home Office Code of Practice on reporting and recording racist incidents (2000) schools are required to record and investigate all racist incidents and to report them to the Local Authority on a regular basis. Definition of a racist incident: as recommended in the Stephen Lawrence Inquiry Report 1999: ‘A racist incident is any incident which is perceived to be racist by the victim or any other person.’
In line with the DfE’s Prevent Duty advice (June 2015) we are committed to actively promoting the fundamental British values of democracy, the Rule of Law, Individual Liberty and Mutual Respect and Tolerance of those with different Faiths and Beliefs. Our core mission of diversity permeates all we do. We place a strong emphasis on the common values that all communities share such as self-respect, tolerance and the sanctity of life. We work hard to broaden our students’ experience, to prepare them for life and work in contemporary Britain. We teach them to respect and value the diversity around them as well as understanding how to make safe, well-considered decisions. We recognise that we have a responsibility to protect children from all forms of extremism and this forms an integral part of our Safeguarding Policy (see link above). This includes the use of internet filtering systems in school, to ensure children are safe from terrorist and extremist material when using the internet. If you have any concerns regarding radicalisation and extremism please contact one of our Designated Safeguarding Leads (Laura Haycock, Helen Nott, Joseph Clark and Carl King) at the school.
Please try and make appointments out of school hours if possible. If you have to collect your child during the school day for a medical or dental appointment, please write a note to the class teacher or let the office staff know.
Please keep them at home and notify us by 9am on the first day of any absence so that we know they are safely at home with you. We have a policy of contacting parents / carers if we haven’t received a message by 10am. If your child becomes ill during the day they will be monitored and we will telephone you if we feel it is necessary to do so. Any cuts and grazes resulting from normal play in the playground will be dealt with by our first aid trained staff. Any bumps on the head will be reported to the child’s teacher and parents / carers will also be notified. We ensure that several members of staff have First Aid certificates.
If a child is receiving ongoing medication, parents are allowed to come into school by prior arrangement to administer this. Medication cannot be administered by school staff without prior agreement: please visit the school office to discuss this. Medicine and tablets must never be given to a child to be brought into school. We will ask you to fill in a “REQUEST FOR ADMINISTRATION OF MEDICINES (GENERAL CARE PLAN)” if your child has medical needs. You can read our policy about the administration of medicines by following the link above. Please advise the school if there are any changes to your child’s health which the school should know about.
In Foundation Stage 2 and Year 6 our pupils are visited by members of the school nursing team as part of “The National Child Measurement Programme (NCMP)” . The NCMP measures the height and weight of children in reception class (aged 4 to 5 years) and year 6 (aged 10 to 11 years) to assess overweight and obesity levels in children within primary schools. This data can be used at a national level to support local public health initiatives and inform the local planning and delivery of services for children. Our School Nurse Team (see link below) offer “drop in” sessions for parents/carers to give them the opportunity to discuss any worries that they may have. If the parent, nurse or teacher have any concerns, they can request a referral to the school nurse.
For the sake of safety we request that jewellery should not be worn to school, with the exception of small stud ear-rings, religious jewellery and watches which may be worn at the owner’s risk. We ask that all jewellery is removed for PE and swimming lessons. Where earrings and religious jewellery cannot be removed these will have to be covered over with tape or plasters.
Our fire bells/alarms are tested weekly and a fire drill is held each term to ensure the swift evacuation of the building. If you are visiting the school and the alarm sounds, please leave by the nearest exit and assemble in either the Key Stage 1 or Key Stage 2 playground whichever is closest.
From time to time the school welcomes representatives from the local Fire Brigade who come to talk to KS1 and KS2 children about Fire Safety.
As part of our Travel Plan we have set a target to continue to increase the number of children walking and cycling to school. We ask parents / carers to support us and ease traffic congestion by walking your child to school, or by encouraging them to scoot or cycle; this provides an ideal opportunity to teach your child about road safety and traffic awareness. Zig-Zag lines are in force around the school so, if you do travel by car, please park well away from the school entrance for the sake of the safety of our pupils.
Road Safety Officers visit the school from time to time to ensure that all children are aware of how to stay safe as pedestrians.
As part of the bikeability training children in years 5 are taught how to cycle safely on quiet roads and about road safety awareness.
Before and after school
We have very clear rules about behaviour and use of play equipment in the playground. Supervising adults are outside with the children every playtime and lunch time.
Our school building and grounds are a designated No Smoking or Vaping area so we ask for your co-operation in extinguishing cigarettes before entering the school site and not using vapes/electronic cigarettes whilst on school site.
The school was built or has been adapted with security of pupils and staff in mind including:
Although we want to have an open door policy we must balance this against the safety of pupils and staff and we request that parents / carers respect this.
Any visitors to the school must sign in and out as a visitor and wear their badge at all times. Our staff are trained to challenge anyone not following this practice, so we apologise in advance.
At the beginning and end of each day there is always at least one member of staff at the gate to make sure that children stay safely inside the school playground once they have been dropped of by parents and do not leave without an accompanying adult (unless they are older pupils with permission to go home unaccompanied).
As part of the national curriculum children cover age appropriate sex and relationship education. All parents receive a letter before the subject is covered explaining the topic and how they are taught. We ask parents/carers to make an appointment to speak to a member of the Senior Leadership Team if they have any questions about this.
Year 5 study drugs and alcohol during Personal, Social and Health Education lessons (PSHE). Year 6 learn more about it at their trip to the Warning Zone.
We have excellent relations with out local police and community officers who regularly attend our school events and are invited in to different classes to talk about a variety of topics.
Children in years 4, 5 and 6 go swimming throughout the school year. They are accompanied by members of staff who remain poolside during the lesson and closely supervise the children in the changing rooms. The children are taught swimming by fully trained instructors.
All school trips involve the undertaking of a risk assessment
It is the responsibility of the whole school to ensure that school is a bully free zone. We are proactive in promoting a caring and positive ethos between all members of the school community – our school values promote being safe, motivated and friendly.
We have an anti-bullying policy with very clear procedures in place in the event of an incident involving bullying.
The schools values being focused on being Safe (& keeping others safe), being motivated (to learn more and be a better person/citizen) and being friendly (being a good friend, being trusted and showing empathy) – Having strong values and promoting an ethos of good behaviour we believe is the key to success and prevents bullying from arising in the first place.
We are extremely proud of the Academy’s Personal Development and the sense of Belonging that we are able to create. We are a diverse school and our pupils and their families speak over 40 different languages and many have joined us directly after moving from other countries. The warm welcome on offer at St Mary’s Fields is often commented on by visitors who describe the school as having ‘a lovely friendly feel – where everyone feels welcome’.
We have a strong Personal, Social, Health and Citizenship Education curriculum and an extended programme of study which incorporates the ‘Everyone’s Welcome/No Outsiders’ texts to aid learning opportunities. PSHCE is on the timetable and is taught weekly by our HLTA who ensures that as pupils move through the school key learning and themes are revisited, revised and built on. St. Mary’s Fields Academy has a Behaviour Policy that incorporates the Anti-Bullying Policy which captures all the strategies this school employs to ensure the social and emotional wellbeing of pupils.
Below are just a few of the strategies employed to help children learn to work and behave co-operatively, in order to minimize the possibility of bullying taking place:
We also work with families to promote positive behaviours, in order to prevent any bullying on the way to and from school, and outside of school hours.
You can read our Behaviour / anti-bullying policy below.
Online Safety is taught as an integral part of the Computing Curriculum throughout a child’s time at St Mary’s Fields Academy. To maintain safe internet use in school we have clear rules for responsible use, which are covered with the children and are displayed in school and children from Year 1 have the rules for acceptable internet use explained and are asked to sign to say that they will keep to the rules. This is explained in the Acceptable Internet Use Policy (follow the link above to view). We have filtering systems in place to prevent children at school accessing websites considered to be unsafe or inappropriate, and encourage parents and carers to recognise the importance of being aware of the online material and websites that their children are accessing at home.
Further information on how to help support online-safety at home is available for parents and carers on the Online Safety page (see link below)
You can read more about Safeguarding at St Mary’s Fields Academy on our Safeguarding page and view our safeguarding team there too.
