​Bantock Primary school recognises it has a legal duty of care of all staff and takes seriously its responsibilities to protect and safeguard the interests of all children. Our school is concerned about the welfare and safety of its pupils and works to create a culture of security to enable them to feel valued, listened to and to know that their wishes and feelings are respected. Pupils have a fundamental right to be protected from harm. School should provide a caring, positive, safe and stimulating environment which promotes the social, physical, emotional and moral development of each pupil.

Child Protection has to be considered within “professionals’’ wider “safeguarding” responsibilities’ that include a duty to co-operate under the Children Act 2004.  ‘Working Together’ requires all schools to follow the procedures for protecting children from abuse and providing a co-ordinated offer of early help when additional needs of children are identified and contributing to inter-agency plans to provide additional support to children subject to child protection plans. Protection is a shared community responsibility.

A child’s welfare is paramount. Our policy applies to all our school community, namely pupils, staff, governors and volunteers. These are the main elements to our policy:

• Ensuring that we practise safe recruitment in checking the suitability of all staff and volunteers to work with our pupils and prevent unsuitable people working with children and young people
• Raising pupil awareness of child protection issues and equipping pupils with the skills to keep them safe
• Developing, and then implementing, systematic procedures for identifying, monitoring and reporting cases, of suspected cases, of abuse, and training staff to use these procedures effectively by knowing their responsibilities in identifying and reporting cases of abuse
• Supporting vulnerable pupils and those in difficult circumstances, as well as supporting those pupils who have been abused in accordance with their agreed protection plan
• Establishing a safe environment in which children can learn and thrive.
• Each child is unique; Action taken by child welfare organisations should be child-centred taking account of a child’s cultural, ethnic and religious background, their gender, their sexual orientation, their individual ability and special needs.
• Adults who work with children are responsible for their own actions and behaviour and should avoid any conduct which would lead any reasonable person to question their motivation and intentions.