Safeguarding Seal

Staying Safe at Seal

Our trust (TKAT) is fully committed to Safeguarding and promoting the welfare of all children and young people.

At Seal, we aim to provide a caring, positive, safe and stimulating environment which promotes the social, physical and moral development of the individual child, and strive to make sure that every pupil in the school feels secure, well cared for and able to reach their full potential. Children are taught to keep themselves safe in many areas of the curriculum, for example:

What safe and caring relationships look like (RSE curriculum)

How we can manage our emotions and changes in our life (RSE curriculum)

How to keep ourselves safe on trips (sharing risk assessments with children and discussing safety issues)

How to be safe online (Computing curriculum)

Who we can talk to about problems or worries (RSE curriculum and assemblies)

The physical and emotional safety of the children is extremely important and plays a central role in everything we do: from our fundamental safeguarding procedures, to risk assessments, to the curriculum: including working alongside the NSPCC to deliver 'Staying Safe' assemblies and workshops.

Safeguarding procedures

Safeguarding is clearly a key part of our day to day work and we take this responsibility very seriously. Please see our policy tab for our Child Protection policy, which is updated at least annually. All staff and governors receive updated safeguarding training annually. Our Designated Safeguarding Lead (DSL) for child protection is Melanie Strachan. Her safeguarding update training was completed in October 2022.

Statutory requirements are that this training is completed every two years. Our link governor for safeguarding is Andrew Jenkins.

For details of other members of our safeguarding team, see our webpage 'Safeguarding Team'.

How to report any safeguarding concerns to the school

Reporting a concern to the school:

You can do report a safeguarding concern by contacting the school on 01243 602746 and asking to speak to the Designated Safeguarding Lead or a Deputy Safeguarding Lead . 

Alternatively, you can contact the Designated Safeguarding Lead, who is the headteacher, directly at dsl@seal-tkat.org or a Deputy Safeguarding Lead via the same email address at dsl@seal-tkat.org. Any concern you have relating to safeguarding will be responded to within school hours. 

Please see the West Sussex information below for emergencies.

How to report safeguarding concerns to West Sussex Children's Services

If you have a safeguarding concern about a child, you can also call or email:

  • Phone: 01403 229900 (Monday to Friday between 9.00am and 5.00pm)

  • If you require the West Sussex Emergency Duty Team (EDT) outside of office hours (5.00pm-9.00am weekdays) or at weekends and bank holidays, please call 033 022 26664.If the Emergency Duty Team line is unavailable and you need to report an emergency safeguarding concern, please call 07711 769657. Note that this number does not accept texts.

How to report safeguarding concerns to the police

If you think a child is in immediate danger call 999.

Safer Recruitment

Through our selection process we are clear that we believe in robust safeguarding and that all successful applicants will be subject to a Disclosure and Barring Service check (it used to be called CRB) and other 'fit for work' checks before they can start in school. All of our selection panels have at least one person who has passed Safer Recruiting training to ensure that robust safeguarding procedures are put in place at recruitment level. Regular volunteers are also subject to DBS checks, although we only allow 1:1 work with children in public areas such as the corridor.

Medical Conditions

We have a number of children with on-going medical conditions and ensure their safety and health through adjustments to the school building where reasonable and the administration of medicines where necessary. All staff administering long-term prescription medicines are trained for each individual by a healthcare professional. If you believe this to be applicable to your child, please see our Supporting Pupils with Medical Conditions policy in the policy tab.

For children who have severe allergies we take appropriate steps to keep them healthy in school. We strive to be a nut-free school and can provide special menus for children with certain allergies. If this applies to your child, please come and let us know at the Welcome Office. All staff receive annual training on asthma and epi-pen use, and the most recent training took place in September 2023.

 

Operation Encompass

The school is part of Operation Encompass, an operation that is run with local schools and Sussex Police.

Operation Encompass has been designed to provide early reporting to schools / colleges of any domestic abuse incidents that occur in which a child was present, ordinarily resides at the incident location or with an involved party. We know that children can be significantly affected through witnessing or being exposed to domestic abuse and this operation will allow us to better support our pupils and their families.

A nominated member of staff, known as a Key Adult, will be trained to liaise with the police.   At Seal Primary Academy our Key Adult is the Headteacher and Safeguarding lead, Melanie Strachan.  She will be able to use information that has been shared with her, in confidence, to ensure that the right support is available should it be required by a child and / or their family.

Our Seal Safeguarding policy can be found here