Safeguarding

Online Safety

If you or your child uses the internet, you NEED to read the information below.

The internet is incredible – it has revolutionised the way we work, shop, learn about the world, interact with each other and so much more. However, it comes with a dark side. A side which we must ensure children are aware of and simultaneously protected from. This is challenging.

This page will signpost you to a range of websites where you can get age-appropriate advice about using the internet.

Childnet – Supports pupils with SEND staying safe online.

Herts for Learning e-safety Letter

Internet Matters

‘Internet Matters’ is a fantastic organisation that offers advice on pretty much everything to do with safe internet use

CEOP

Another incredibly useful website is ‘Thinkuknow‘. Like internet matters, this website has information and resources available for parents and children alike. Thinkuknow is part of CEOP – The Child Exploitation and Online Protection Agency.

Social Media

Our recommendation at Maple Cross is that Children of Primary School age do not use social media. We recognise, however, that some children do. If your child uses any social media platforms we strongly recommend that parents/carers monitor what they say (and what is being said to them). This website gives guidance on current social media trends for children, and makes you aware of potential dangers.

NSPCC & Childline

Both of these fantastic organisations have resources to help you keep your child safe. The NSPCC do this through their ‘Share Aware’ campaign. Similarly, Childline offer a wealth of advice to keep children safe and to help when things go wrong.

Prevent Duty

The Prevent strategy, published by the Government in 2011, is part of our overall counter-terrorism strategy, CONTEST. The aim of the Prevent strategy is to reduce the threat to the UK from terrorism by stopping people becoming terrorists or supporting terrorism. In the Act this has simply been expressed as the need to “prevent people from being drawn into terrorism”.

The 2011 Prevent strategy has three specific strategic objectives:

• respond to the ideological challenge of terrorism and the threat we face from those who promote it
• prevent people from being drawn into terrorism and ensure that they are given appropriate advice and support
• work with sectors and institutions where there are risks of radicalisation that we need to address

In school we have two members of staff trained as Prevent trainers: Mrs Hannah Trickett and Miss Katie Saxon. The staff lead regular training and updates in school for all staff.

Further information can be found here.

Recruitment

Safer recruitment is a set of rigorous practices to ensure all staff and volunteers are suitable to work with children and young people. It's a vital part of creating a safe and positive environment and making a commitment to keep children safe from harm.

Safer recruitment is a continuing process of improvement for us because our services involve contact with children. All processes and checks are recorded on our Single Central Record. This is regularly monitored by our Governors and DSLs.

Staff and Governors undertake safer recruitment training. Below is a record of everyone who has undertaken safer recruitment training.

Safeguarding Procedures

Full details of our safeguarding procedure are detailed in our safeguarding policy on our policy tab.

Safeguarding is most successful when all aspects are integrated together. Three key elements include a clear safeguarding ethos, a policy that sets out clear expectations and processes, and high-quality training that ensures staff know what to do and do it consistently across the school.

Our safeguarding team undertake and host regular in-house training as well as statutory training using resources from The Safeguarding Network. More details about The Safeguarding Network can be found here.