Safeguarding at Woodhall Primary School

Our policies and procedures ensure that: 

• All our pupils are safe and protected from harm.
• Other elements of provision and policies are in place to enable pupils to feel safe and adopt safe practices;
• Staff, pupils, governors’, visitors, volunteers and parents are aware of the expected behaviours’ and the school’s legal responsibilities in relation to its pupils. 

Our Safeguarding Ethos

Safeguarding at Woodhall is considered everyone’s responsibility and as such we aim to create the safest environment within which every pupil has the opportunity to achieve the best outcomes they can. 

We recognise the contribution we can make in ensuring that all pupils feel that they will be listened to and have appropriate action taken to any concerns they may raise.  Pupils at our school will be able to talk freely to any member of staff or regular visitor to our school if they are worried or concerned about something. All staff and regular visitors will know how to recognise a disclosure from a pupil and will know how to manage this. We will not make promises to any pupil and we will not keep secrets.

Designated Safeguarding Staff

Woodhall has a local governing body whose legal responsibility it is to make sure that the school has an effective safeguarding policy and procedures in place and to monitor that the school complies with them. It is also the responsibility of our governing body to ensure that staff and volunteers are properly vetted to make sure they are safe to work with the pupils who attend our school and that the school has procedures for appropriately managing allegations of abuse made against members of staff (including the headteacher and volunteer helpers).  Our local governing body will ensure that there is a named governor and a Designated Safeguarding Lead (DSL) who has lead responsibility for dealing with all safeguarding issues. At Woodhall these are:  

One of our Safeguarding Leads is always available to discuss safeguarding concerns. For further contact details please click here or the Child Protection Policy and Procedures in the Attachments above.

However, if you feel that a child is in immediate danger you can call the Suffolk Safeguarding team directly at Customer First on: 0808 8004005

Please read our Child Protection Policy and Procedures which is available from our Attachments section on this page.

Working in partnership

There are occasions when our concern about a child means that we have to consult other agencies.  Unauthorised absences, for instance, may be referred to partner agencies such as Suffolk County Council’s Children’s Social Care, Special Educational Needs or Children Missing in Education teams. Whilst we would always aim to work in partnership with parents there may be exceptions to this when concerns are raised for the protection of a child.

The procedures which we follow have been laid down by the Suffolk Safeguarding Partnership, and Unity Schools Partnership has adopted a Safeguarding Policy in line with this for the safety of all.

Information & Resources

In addition to our Child Protection Procedures available in the attachments section the following documents and websites have a variety of information which you may also find helpful:

Associated Pages