Safeguarding
St. Mark’s Catholic Primary School is committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children, and expects all staff and volunteers to share this commitment. We ensure there are consistent and effective safeguarding procedures in place to support families, children and staff at school.
Safeguarding legislation and government guidance says that safeguarding means:
- 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
- Taking action to enable all children and young people to have the best outcome
Safeguarding includes child protection, health care plans, health and safety, site security, safety on school trips, anti-bullying work and so much more.
Our and Safeguarding and Child Protection Policy applies to all children, staff and visitors to school, and to all members of the school community.
We have a Health and Safety Policy for the practical protection of children, staff and visitors. Site inspections are conducted on a regular basis by the school caretaker, leadership team and the Governing Body.
If you see anything of concern whilst on the school grounds, or near to the school grounds that poses a risk to children, please report the risk immediately to a member of the safeguarding team.
Safeguarding – People to Contact
All adults in school recognise the importance of working together to keep our children safe from harm and that keeping children safe is everyone’s responsibility.
Here at St. Mark’s, we operate an open-door policy. If you are ever concerned about a child, please do not hesitate to contact one of the designated safeguarding members of staff (see photos below). Please speak to a member of staff urgently if you have a concern (all concerns matter so please don’t wait for something more serious to happen before you approach a member of staff).
Please call the school office on 0121 357 9892 and explain that you have a safeguarding concern and need to speak to a member of the safeguarding team. A member of the team will then speak with you about your concern.
If a child is in imminent danger, then please call 999
Mrs Linley, Lead DSL
Mrs Dykes, DSL
Miss Dorsett, DSL
Mr Linford, DSL
Mrs M Hussain, Attendance Officer
We work hard as a team to ensure that we keep EVERYONE safe. We take our behaviour and attitudes towards safeguarding and child protection seriously. The following three aims are embedded in our school and they are there to support our children, families, staff, visitors and all stakeholders in our school.
When we are concerned about a child, to help decide whether to contact Birmingham Children’s Trust to make a referral, we first refer to Birmingham’s multi-agency threshold document, Right Help, Right Time
We work with many agencies and sometimes, a multi-agency approach is required to provide the best support possible for children and families. Senior members of staff may approach parents/carers to discuss concerns about the welfare of some children, this will always be done sensitively and with the child’s best interests in mind. Our aim is never to cast judgement, but rather to provide support for the child and the family.
We foster solidarity as a principle of Catholic Social Teaching (CST) and are therefore committed to promoting and fostering care, compassion, empathy and respect when dealing with our families. Our approach is child centred and we have the best interests of the child at the heart of all action.
Also see:
Safeguarding Newsletters
We aim to create newsletters with a specific focus on Safeguarding every term. This is so that we can bring you up to date contextual information and knowledge. The latest newsletters are at the top.