We are committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children and young people and we expect all staff, governors and volunteers to share this commitment.  We believe that pupils have a right to learn in a supportive, caring and safe environment which includes the right to protection from all types of abuse.

Everyone who works or volunteers at the academy is subject to an enhanced DBS disclosure.
 

Our safeguarding policies are available on our policies page here and the Multi Academy Trust Safeguarding principles are available on the MAT Policies page here.

We follow guidance on good practice on this area from:  

Warwickshire - http://www.warwickshire.gov.uk/wscb

If you have any questions or queries regarding any aspect of safeguarding, please do not hesitate to get in touch with our designated safeguarding lead Rebecca Richards, or one of the safeguarding team Alison Hine or Sherrise Cullen.

Collecting Pupils from the Academy
Please inform the academy office if you arrange for someone other than yourself or an agreed contact to collect your child from the academy.

Young Carers
Young Carers are people aged between 5-18 years of age who have a responsibility or help someone with day to day needs. It may be as simple as talking and listening to them when they are sad or helping out in the family home.

If you think your child/children could be a young carer, please contact us to discuss further or visit http://www.youngcarerscoventry.co.uk or http://www.warwickshireyoungcarers.org.uk/

Local Safe Guarding Children Boards

Local safeguarding children boards are partnerships between local councils, police, National Health Service (NHS) and other key partner agencies working together to safeguard children, young people and adults.

The Warwickshire Multi Agency Safeguarding Hub (MASH) team can be contacted on 01926 414144 or https://www.warwickshire.gov.uk/mash 

Operation Encompass

As of September 2019,  we are taking part in a jointly run operation called Operation Encompass, in partnership with Warwickshire County Council and Warwickshire Police. Its objective is to help schools provide support to children who are affected by domestic violence and abuse. All parents receive a letter outlining this operation but if anyone would like a copy of the letter please contact the school on school.parents@longitchington.covmat.org

Prevent
Prevent is a government strategy designed to stop people becoming terrorists or supporting terrorist or extremist causes. It covers all types of terrorism and extremism, including the extreme right wing, violent islamic groups and other causes.

All schools (as well as other organisations) have a duty to safeguard children from radicalisation and extremism. This means we have a responsibility to protect children from extremist and violent views, in the same way we protect them from drugs or gang violence. Importantly, we can provide a safe place for pupils to discuss these issues so they understand how to protect themselves. 
 
Many of the things we already do in schools to help children become positive, happy members of society also contribute to the Prevent strategy. These include:
· Exploring other cultures and religions and promoting diversity
· Challenging prejudices and racist comments
· Developing critical thinking skills and a strong positive self-identity
· Promoting the spiritual, moral, social and cultural development of pupils, as well as British values such as democracy.

We will also protect children from the risk of radicalisation, for example by using filters on the internet to make sure they cannot access extremist and terrorist material, or by vetting visitors who come into school to work with pupils.

Further information about Prevent can be found here: http://www.ltai.info/what-is-prevent/.

Protective Behaviour

We are a Protective Behaviours (PB) school which is embedded within our PSHE and RSE curriculum.  PB is a practical down to earth approach which builds confidence and resilience by exploring our right to feel safe.  It starts from the belief that we cannot be scared into feeling safe, and therefore it avoids a focus on scary scenarios and rigid sets of rules for how to deal with an unsafe situation.  Instead it teaches an ability to recognise when we are not feeling safe, and provide skills and tools to enable individuals to take action and get help when they need it.

Protective Behaviours is based on two key messages:

• We all have the right to feel safe all of the time
• We can talk with someone about anything, even if it feels awful or small