Safeguarding

Safeguarding and Child Protection

This pages purpose is to offer important information to parents and carers on matters pertaining to safeguarding and child protection.  Alongside Porchester Junior School’s own policies and procedures, information from other sources will be published to give advice to support parents and carers to help protect their children.

Porchester Junior School’s key safeguarding policies can be found on our policy page:

Safeguarding personnel

The designated leads for child protection at Porchester are:

            Vicki Moore                                    Natalia Thomas                                Natasha Green 

          (Headteacher)                  (Child and Family Support Worker)            (Deputy Headteacher)

NSPCC 

The NSPCC helps parents and carers talk to their children about staying safe. It’s part of our work to prevent abuse from happening to any child. And it’s what these guides are all about.

Child Sexual Exploitation

Child Sexual Exploitation, or CSE, is a form of sexual abuse which sees children/young people being manipulated or coerced into sexual activity for receiving ‘something’ such as; gifts, money, food, attention, somewhere to stay etc.

Technology is very often used to groom victims. This may occur through social networking sites and mobile phones with internet access.

CSE has gained a large amount of media attention over the last year as lots of services involved with children and young people have noticed a rise in cases involving CSE. Charities such as NSPCC and Barnardos have been campaigning to raise the profile of this form of child abuse.  

Information regarding CSE can be found here:

Internet Safety

Children and young people spend lots of time on the internet.  They may go online to research information for homework or to play games, chat with friends and make new ones.

The internet holds a huge amount of useful information and can also be a really good way of learning about new things and keeping in contact with friends and family. It can also be a dangerous place so it is important that children are protected and monitored when they are online.

CEOP (Child Exploitation and Online Protection) has lots of information about how to keep your children safe online and parental controls. 

Porchester has a separate page devoted to eSafety.

Concerned about your child's use of the internet, social media, apps etc? Why not take a look at this great posters and guides! They're all designed to keep your child safe online. Click here

Female Genital Mutilation (FGM)

In April 2014 every school in England received new safeguarding guidelines and detailed information on identifying and responding to Female Genital Mutilation. FGM is a procedure carried out on young girls between the ages of infancy and 15 years of age. 

Female Genital Mutilation is classified as a form of Child Abuse in the UK.  It therefore makes the procedure of it a serious child protection issue.

It is illegal for anyone to perform FGM in the UK or to arrange for a child to be transported to another country for the procedure. The maximum sentence for carrying out FGM or helping it to take place is 14 years in prison.

There is lots of information and support available online for parents/carers concerned about this subject.

If you know someone who is at risk:

• Contact the Police if you think that a girl or young woman is in danger of FGM and is still in the UK.

• Contact the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (020 7008 1500) if she’s already been taken abroad.

The NSPCC offers a free and anonymous FGM 24 hour helpline.  Call; 0800 028 3550 or email fgmhelp@nspcc.org.uk

Forced Marriage

Some useful government advice on forced marriage can be found here.

PREVENT strategy

From July 2015 the government introduced the Prevent Strategy (updated 31.12.23 which places a duty on all schools (as well as other organisations) to safeguard children from radicalisation and extremism.  This means that we as a school have a responsibility to protect children from extremist and violent views the same way we protect them from risks such as drugs or gang violence. Importantly, we provide a safe place for students to discuss these issues so they better understand how to protect themselves.

We would like to provide all parents and carers with an Introduction to the Prevent Strategy which can be viewed below.

Our Tackling Extremism and Radicalisation Policy which can be viewed on our policy page.

If you have anything at all that you would like to discuss about this issue, please do not hesitate to contact the school.

Reporting a Concern of Abuse or Neglect

If you are concerned that a child you know is at risk of harm then you can contact Children’s Social Care at the Multi-Agency Safeguarding Hub (MASH). This team will use your information to make a decision about how they can best respond to your concerns.  In an emergency you can of course contact the Police.  You are also able to discuss your child with a member of staff here at school if you have any worries.

The website will offer you the choice to complete an online form or to phone the team directly:

Tel. 0300 456 4546 (out of hours)

Tel. 0300 500 8090

You can also report you concerns to the NSPCC who will offer you support and advice if you are feeling worried about a child’s safety.