Safeguarding

Our Safeguarding Responsibilities

At Etchingham C E School we are strongly committed to safeguarding the well-being of all our children. It is our belief that children learn well and develop as individuals when they feel safe secure and happy. Our safeguarding work is concerned with protecting all of our children from harm. Safeguarding is wide-ranging in nature and extends from ensuring that we have health and safety policies in place within the school and the grounds and that we adhere to them responding to any issues promptly, to the recruitment of staff and volunteers and ensuring that they have been subject to a DBS check (Disclosure and Barring Services). Training is part of Staff induction and is regularly updated. The Executive Headteacher and Head of School are the designated safeguarding lead persons. We are an Operation Encompass school. Operation Encompass is a partnership between police and schools which ensures that we receive timely information about all police-attended incidents of domestic abuse. It is an integral component in child safeguarding and protection.

Our Safeguarding Policy may be found on this website here.

Online Safety

As a school, we are committed to ensuring that our children are equipped with the knowledge and skills they need to use the Internet safely. We regularly remind or children of the need to be “Online safe” when using the internet / e mail.

As a parent, you can work in partnership with us to help your children to further develop these skills. The best way to help your child to be a safe when using the internet and new technologies (including 'Smart Phones') is to talk to them and make sure they understand these simple rules:

You should never give out personal details to online 'friends'. Use a nickname when logging on and don't share full name, email address, mobile number, school name and any photos, including photos of family or friends – any picture or video online can be changed or shared without permission.
Talk to your child about what they are doing online and who they are talking to. Get them to show you how to use things you are not familiar with. Keeping the computer in a family room means that you can share your child's online experience, they are less likely to act inappropriately (i.e. via webcam) and their online 'friends' will see they are in a family room.
If your child receives a message that upsets them, remind them not to reply, they should save the message and show you or another trusted adult.
Spam and junk emails and texts are not true, don't reply or send them to anyone else, just delete them.
Don't open files sent from people you don't know. They could contain a virus, or worse – an inappropriate image or film.
An online 'friend' is anyone you have not met in real life; no matter how long you have been friends with them.
Help your child to understand that some people lie online and that it's better to keep online 'friends' online. They should never meet up with any online 'friends' without an adult they trust.
Make sure they know how to block someone online and report them if they feel uncomfortable.
The social networking site Facebook's policy is that no child under the age of 13 should have their own profile. As such, as a school, in the interest of child protection and online safety, we highly recommend that our families adhere to this policy.

Useful websites: www.safety.lgfl.net www.ceop.gov.uk www.thinkuknow.co.uk

Key Policies

Child Protection and Safeguarding Policy

Online Safety Policy

Additional Safeguarding Policies

Keeping Pupils Safe Online

This area will show all documents uploaded to the /docs/STAYING_SAFE_ONLINE folder.

Documents in folders containing the word 'letter' or 'minute' are listed in the order they were uploaded, most recent upload at the top. Otherwise, documents are listed alphabetically.