We recognise the importance of providing an environment within our school that will help children feel safe and respected. We recognise the importance of enabling children to talk openly and to feel confident that they will be listened to. We will work with parents to build an understanding of the school’s responsibilities to ensure the welfare of all children, including the need for referrals to other agencies in some situations.
The governing body will ensure that our school will safeguard and promote the welfare of pupils and work together with other agencies to ensure that our school has adequate arrangements to identify, assess and support those children who are suffering or likely to suffer harm.
Safeguarding is everybody’s responsibility. The Designated Senior Lead (DSL), Mr D. Brown and Deputy Designated Senior Leads (DDSL), Mrs N. Roper (Year 7), Mrs S. Jones (Year 8), Mrs V. Coyle (Year 9), Ms J. Jenkins (Year 10) and Miss R. Sutton-Smith (Year 11) work together to ensure that students and staff feel safe and supported and are confident in the procedures for discussing any safeguarding concerns. The safeguarding governor is Mrs A Wardle. Also DSL trained are Mr G. Peevers (Headteacher), Miss T. Banks (Senior Assistant Headteacher) and Mrs A. Davies (Data Manager).
We maintain records in line with East Sussex Education Division guidance and these are monitored regularly by the DSL as part of ongoing quality assurance. We work closely with appropriate agencies and ensure attendance at child protection conferences, core group meetings and other multi-agency meetings, as required.
The DSL and DDSL’s attend updated training every two years and organise annual whole school training, ensuring that staff who miss the training receive it by other means. All new staff, in all capacities, receive training to ensure they have access to and understand Ratton’s publicly available safeguarding and child protection policy and referral procedures. The DSL ensures that the annual training includes any changes to child protection legislation and procedures and relevant learning from local and national serious case reviews.
The DDSL discuss with the DSL all potential referral cases and refer all cases of suspected abuse to East Sussex Children’s Social Care and to the Police if a crime may have been committed.
The DSL discusses any potential safeguarding matters with the Headteacher both in link meetings and as part of scheduled safeguarding meetings. The DSL also meets regularly with the Governor for Safeguarding. Ratton completes the annual Safeguarding Children in Education Audit toolkit, supplied to county. The DSL meets formally with the DDSLs every fortnight.
The school has adopted all required safeguarding policies, including a Child Protection and Safeguarding policy and On-line Safety policy, which are updated annually. The DSL and DDSL staff are indicated around the school and referral procedures are contained in the school handbook, policies and school staffroom. Referral documents are located on the school computer system and hard copies are made available in both the staffroom and reception. School visitors are required to sign in using our digital sign in system and wear lanyards to identify them. Visitors will receive a Safeguarding Booklet on arrival. The school is part of Operation Encompass; a partnership between police and schools where all incidents of domestic abuse are shared with schools, not just those where an offence can be identified.
Ratton School has six core virtues of compassion, respect, creativity, teamwork, effort and responsibility. British values form an integral element of Ethics, a core subject for all students. School staff have received Prevent training and key school staff have received additional Prevent training. A Prevent risk assessment has been carried out and the school has adopted an extremism and radicalisation policy.
Ratton School is in the process of gathering evidence to support accreditation of this award in the academic year 2024/25.