At Sacred Heart School, we take our responsibilities to safeguard our children very seriously. We regard safeguarding as everyone's responsibility, and all Staff, Governors and Volunteers play a full part in keeping children safe. A copy of our Safeguarding and Child Protection Policy is available below: this document is updated annually and is the guidance that each member of the Sacred Heart team adheres to.
As a school, we work within Government Legislation 'Keeping Children Safe in Education 2022' in conjunction with 'Working Together to Safeguard Children' (updated September 2021). These documents highlight current significant national issues.
As a school, we work to prevent Radicalisation in line with the 'Prevent' Strategy (see our Anti-Radicalisation Policy). Moreover, we are acutely aware that with the internet available to every child in today’s modern society we need to be vigilant of issues such as Grooming and Child Sexual Exploitation.
As a school, we work together with external agencies including Health, Social Care, and the Police to ensure all our children are kept safe and protected from harm.
The Designated Safeguarding Lead (DSL) for Child Protection is Mrs Clare Taylor.
Should you have any concerns about a pupil, or a pupil makes a disclosure to you, please speak to Mrs Taylor immediately. If Mrs Taylor is not in school, please speak to Mrs Brenda Green (our Deputy DSL).
It is important to remember that however small a concern may seem to you it may be one of a series of concerns raised by different adults. As a result, recording such concerns can enable the school and external professionals to build a bigger picture so that the appropriate action can be taken to ensure that all children’s needs are met.
All information is treated confidentially and will only be shared if there are concerns that a child is at risk. We aim to always share our concerns transparently with the child’s parent or guardian before making a referral. However, we reserve the right to refer without consent if we are sufficiently concerned about a child’s safety or we are unable to contact a parent/guardian after reasonable attempts have been made.
Single Point of Access (SPA)
As an individual, you can also contact Richmond or Kingston Children’s Services about a child, young person or parent/carer that needs support through the Single Point of Access Team (SPA).
Richmond SPA (Single Point of Access)
Call us on 020 8547 5008 during office hours.
Call the out of hours Duty Team (evenings and weekends) on 020 8770 5000
In an emergency
If you think a child is in immediate danger you should call 999.
If you need to speak to someone urgently outside of office hours, please call 020 8770 5000.
Thank you for your invaluable support with safeguarding our children.
What is an AUP?
We ask all children, young people and adults involved in the life of Sacred Heart to sign an Acceptable Use* Policy (AUP), which outlines how we expect them to behave when they are online, and/or using school networks, connections, internet connectivity and devices, cloud platforms and social media (both when on school site and outside of school).
This AUP is reviewed annually, and you will be asked to sign it upon entry to the school and every time changes are made. This will usually be annually.
Why do we need an AUP?
All staff (including support staff), governors and volunteers have particular legal / professional obligations and it is imperative that all parties understand that online safety is part of safeguarding as well as part of the curriculum, and it is everybody’s responsibility to uphold the school’s approaches, strategy and policy as detailed in the full Online Safety Policy located on our school website.