RettendonSafeguarding and Pastoral care
At Rettendon Primary School, safeguarding of all of our children is paramount and we are fully committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare and safety of all of our children. Safeguarding is everyone’s responsibility and as a school we implement a range of initiatives in school to promote our children, staff and families well-being and happiness so that everyone has the opportunity to thrive and reach their full potential. Children within our school know how to seek support and feel that they are listened to with supportive action taken by staff within our school.
Safeguarding at Rettendon is about ensuring that everyone is safe from harm and that we all feel safe in our environment – so if you are ever concerned about the safety or well-being of someone within our school community please talk to one of the school’s Designated Safeguarding Leads (DSLs). The safeguarding team within our school is:
Mr Andrews- Designated Safeguarding Lead
Mrs Hammond- Deputy Safeguarding Lead
Mrs Adams - Deputy Safeguarding Lead
Mrs Cunningham - Safeguarding Governor
Within our school all staff and Governors are trained annually on our safeguarding procedures and are fully aware of the key documentation to promote safeguarding within our school, such as the school’s Safeguarding Policy and ‘Keeping Children Safe in Education’ which can be found on the 'Policies' page of our school website. We also actively support the Government’s Prevent Agenda to counter radicalism and extremism and have a range of policies and procedures in place which enhance our contribution to safeguarding within our school.
Keeping Children Safe in Education
Working in Partnership
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 pupils are discussed with parents/carers first unless we have reason to believe that such a discussion would be contrary to the child’s welfare. We work hard to ensure highly effective and productive professional relationships with external partners to ensure the best interests of each learner. Leaders work strategically with services such as Children's Services, Health Services and the Police to support our learners. Safeguarding is also woven into our curriculum through our PSHE lessons, computing lessons, assemblies and through special events and external visitors.
We have exceptionally strong relationships with our families and have a detailed, in-depth knowledge about our community to ensure that our support and actions are proactive, prompt and in line with what our children and families need.
Evaluating our Work
The Senior Leadership Team meet weekly to review the safeguarding work of our school with a focus on process, practice and performance. We are open to scrutiny by our partners and share practice and ideas with other schools. Our Safeguarding Governor has a strong, experienced professional background which ensures rigour around questioning practice and impact. Our safeguarding practice and process are agenda items on our termly Full Governing Body meetings.
Our Programmes of Support
As a school we work closely with all of our families and we would encourage families to share any worries they may have as working together works exceptionally well to support the children. We have close links with a range of support agencies and we are able to signpost parents should they need support. We fully involve families with support programmes through our Team Around the Family approach which ensures that we are all supporting and doing everything we can to help. We are also able to support parents to access a wide range of services and groups in the local area. Some of the services offer practical help with such things as housing or financial advice, some offer contact points or groups to join with others of a similar interest or need.
We also provide a range of bespoke pastoral / counselling programmes and these sessions are designed to support children who are experiencing needs which impact on them emotionally. Mrs Warren, our school counsellor, works with children and families, through referral from staff or parents design and implement a programme of support to meet the individual needs of the child in partnership. Our current pastoral programmes include:
- Lego Therapy - LEGO® Therapy is proven to be an effective way to support children in developing their communication and social skills, improving their social interaction and social competence, whilst giving them skills to sustain lasting friendships and reach their full potential. The course of Lego Therapy lasts for six weeks. We currently have 3 members of staff trained in Lego therapy
- Counselling / Art Therapy - Art Therapy helps children understand their feelings and any upsetting events that they may need to process. Rather than having to explain their emotions, children use art/play to communicate at their own level and at their own pace. This intervention could last up to around 10 weeks and is implemented by our school counsellor who works at our school for four and a half days a week.
- Sensory Development – We recognise that our school can be a busy place. For some of our children, the sheer volume of stimuli can all get too much. The creation of our sensory room offers our children an effective way to provide calming and sensory place which is dedicated to stimulating, developing and relaxing the senses. Children are provided the freedom and autonomy to explore the environment for themselves, in their own time, using all of their senses.
- Speech and Language Support - We have one member of staff who works closely with NHS Speech and Language staff to support a number of children through structured programmes.