Safeguarding

Keeping Children Safe

The physical and emotional safety of the children and adults at St Stephen's is of paramount importance to us all.

This page is a summary many of the day-to-day measures we have in place to ensure that everyone in our school is able to learn, play and work in an environment which keeps them safe and secure.

All safeguarding processes and procedures are underpinned by 'Keeping Children Safe In Education' which you can access here. 

Site Security

It is essential our children feel safe and secure whilst in the school building and in the grounds. To this end, we have a recently upgraded perimeter fence around our grounds, and access to the grounds from the carpark is restricted to staff via a secure gate. 

Entering The School Building

All visitors must enter through the signposted main entrance on Richmond Place and report to the welcome desk where they will be asked to sign in and wear a visitor badge.

Only staff are able to access the school grounds from the carpark. We ask all visitors to walk around to the front of the school and enter through the main entrance.

Parents and carers dropping children off at Breakfast Club or collecting from our After School Care Club do so via the door at the front of the hall. Please step into the porch where a member of staff will let you in to the main hall. 

Maintaining a Safe Environment

We have a team of people ensuring our school environment is safe for the children and adults within it. Our Headteacher Miss Taylor and Site Manager Mr Cox are supported by our Health and Safety Governor Gemma Grierson and Darren Ling, Estates and Facilities Manager at Bath and Wells Multi-Academy Trust. 'Formal' monitoring walks alongside day-to-day vigilance ensure our environment remains a safe place to learn, play and work.

Reporting a Hazard

Our site manager Mr Cox takes excellent care of our building and grounds and is proactive in ensuring the environment is safe for us all. Lots of eyes are better than two though so if you spot a potential hazard, please do not hesitate to let Mr Cox or Miss Taylor know and we will see to it as quickly as possible. 

Play

Our play policy is rooted in the principle that 'risky play' is often the most enjoyable and beneficial, and so we provide opportunities for children to climb, build and explore in a natural environment. However, we risk assess all opportunities carefully, always balancing the likely level of risk against the potential benefits, and our staff are trained to support the children in making appropriate decisions. Accidents do occasionally happen, as they do in every school, however since expanding the play opportunities we provide children, and introducing more opportunities for child-led play, we have seen children becoming more adept at managing risks independently.

As with all aspects of Health and Safety in school, our Governors support us in monitoring and refining our playtime provision, and we are part of the OPAL project (Outdoor Play And Learning) for which we were awarded the Platinum standard in 2018. This ongoing review of our provision means we can ensure our children benefit from the joy of active, natural, sometimes risky play, in as safe an environment as possible.

First Aid 

We have a designated First Aid room and many qualified First Aiders. We are very proactive in contacting parents and carers if we are particularly concerned about a child, and do so as a matter of course if a child has a head bump. All children who are treated in the First Aid room are given a letter to take home with details of the injury or symptoms. 

Medicines

Generally, we operate on the simple principle that if a child requires medicine during the day, they are not well enough to be in school and should stay at home. Children should never be entrusted with bringing any kind of medication into school including cough sweets or similar.

Occasionally however, a doctor may advise that a child may attend school whilst still needing medication and parents are welcome to come into school to administer the medicine. If this is not possible for any reason, please contact the school office or speak to your child's class teacher or teaching assistant, who maintains an overview of all medical needs in their class. 

If your child has an on-going problem, such as a serious allergy, which may affect them while they are at school, please speak to their class teacher, phase leader or Miss Taylor.

Asthma inhalers may be kept by the child or teacher for use if needed. Please label clearly with your child’s name. 

Behaviour

Our behaviour policy works towards ensuring all adults and children at St Stephen's are able to thrive in an environment which not only provides the emotional and physical safety we all need but also offers the support, nurture and guidance we each need to be the best we can be.

Underpinning this policy are three key principles:

1. How we behave comes from our sense of belonging. The school's Christian ethos of inclusive Love inspires and underpins this. 
2. Every person is an individual. Understanding them and establishing a positive relationship is the first step to enabling them to be the best they can be.
3. Behaviour is a communicator of emotion and we must always fully consider and address the underlying feelings that are preventing someone from behaving positively.

We share three expectations which we call ‘The Golden 3’:Try Your Best (represented by the lion), Listen Carefully (represented by the elephant) and Be Kind and Respectful (represented by the owl). Rooted in our core values, these three simple expectations are maintained and celebrated in line with our Behaviour Policy.

Child Protection

Child Protection is an essential aspect of our safeguarding work. We have clear processes that staff may use to respond to concerns, and there are also several preventative measures in place, including the following:

Attendance Policy

We ask all parents and carers to ensure we have three different contacts for each child. This is to ensure that in the event of a child being absent from school, we are able to quickly make contact with someone who knows the reason for the absence.

Safer Recruitment

'Safer Recruitment' is about ensuring that all new recruits to the staff team are vetted against national safeguarding requirements prior to a post being offered. 

Miss Taylor, Ms Flynn, Mr Preedy and members of the Governing Committee have completed accredited safer recruitment training and all interview panels will include at least two people with this accreditation. 

Volunteers in School

We love welcoming people into school to help and in line with Bath and Wells Trust requirements, we carry out checks to ensure our children's safety is assured throughout. This forms the basis of a risk assessment alongside taking references and carrying out DBS checks as appropriate. 

NSPCC - The 'Pants' Rule

Every two years we invite someone from the NSPCC into school to talk to the children about the PANTs rule which is designed to safeguard children from sexual abuse. 

PANTs stands for: Privates are private; Always remember your body belongs to you; No means no; Talk about secrets that upset you.

A few weeks before the session, your child will bring home a letter letting you know when it will be happening (an assembly pitched at Key Stage 1 or Key Stage 2 plus, for Years 5 and 6, a class workshop).

You can find our more about the NSPCC PANTS rule here.