Safeguarding
Our first duty is to the children; everything we do centers around acting in their best interests.
What is safeguarding?
Safeguarding is the processes and procedures we have in place to protect children from being mistreated; to prevent impairments to their mental or physical health or development; to ensure that children grow up in circumstances and situations where they will receive effective care, and be safe. We are committed to taking action to enable all children to have the best outcomes.
Useful Links
Safeguarding at George Dixon
All adults in our school have regular safeguarding training and updates, but if you have a concern you can speak to any of our Designated Safeguarding Leads:
Mrs Good (Headteacher)
Miss Peckett (Deputy Head)
Mr Darby (Deputy Head)
Mrs Hussain (SENCo)
Mr Clarke (Learning Mentor)
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Communicating With Parents
When a concern arises in school, or if we need to gain consent for a referral, we will speak directly to the parents or family. We would only avoid doing so if we believe it would place the child, or children, at risk of serious harm.
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The school will talk to parents to ensure we have let them know our responsibilities and duties, and sometimes it will be necessary for school to seek advice and support from other organisations and agencies without parents' or carers' prior knowledge.
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In very serous circumstances social workers and/or the police might need to visit school or home; we know this sort of situation can be very distressing - our school will follow the procedures as required by our duty under the law and required by the Birmingham Safeguarding Children Partnership.
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Birmingham's website for safeguarding, full of useful resourses
Website for the National Society of Prevention of Cruelty to Children
A confidential helpline children can use day or night
Support website for Female Genital Mutilation which is illegal
Information on preventing radicalisation
Curriculum
Keeping safe and child protection will be addressed through the curriculum where appropriate, and especially through our work in PSHE, Computing and E-Safety, Sex and Relations Education (SRE) and British values.
The curriculum, and in particular the personal, social and health education development strand of the curriculum, includes an emphasis on relationships (relationships and sex education), building confidence and resilience in pupils and in developing preventative strategies to ensure their own protection and that of others. Opportunities are provided for pupils to develop the skills and strategies they need to stay safe from abuse, including age appropriate discussions about healthy relationships, their bodies and being able to say no to requests that they do not want to carry out. Clear advice and guidance is built into the curriculum to ensure that pupils understand that there is a range of contacts they can turn to for advice and support and that they know where and how to report abuse.