Everyone who comes into contact with children and their families and carers has a role to play in safeguarding children. If you have any safeguarding concerns, however small, about a child please contact the school Designated Safeguarding Lead or Headteachers straight away.
Safeguarding
Worried about a child?
Our Safeguarding Lead:
Mrs D Williams
Headteacher
0121 464 3248
drb Ignite Multi Academy Trust:
Robert Bowater | CEO
safeguarding@drbignitemat.org
For out of hours concerns:
Birmingham CASS
Monday to Thursday: 8:45am to 5:15pm
Friday: 8:45am to 4:15pm
Telephone: 0121 303 1888
Emergency out-of-hours:
Telephone: 0121 675 4806 or in an emergency call 999
Purpose of our Child Protection and Safeguarding Policy
Our policy supports a strong school culture of safeguarding and provides clear direction to all stakeholders about expected practice in dealing with safeguarding concerns and issues.
It makes explicit the school’s commitment to the development of best practice and effective procedures, ensuring that safeguarding concerns and referrals are handled sensitively, professionally and in a way that supports and protects the needs of the child at all times.
Our culture of safeguarding has three clear drivers:
- Prevention: by creating a positive, safe and secure school ethos and providing high quality teaching and pastoral support to pupils
- Protection: by following agreed procedures and ensuring staff are appropriately recruited, trained and supported to respond appropriately and sensitively to safeguarding concerns
- Support: by providing support for all pupils and staff with a strong focus on particularly vulnerable pupils who may require bespoke interventions.
This means that everyone at The Oval School is committed to:
- protecting children from harm at all times
- preventing impairment of children’s health or development
- ensuring children grow up in circumstances consistent with the provision of safe and effective care
- taking action to enable all children to have the best outcomes
- working in partnership with parents and external agencies to keep children safe
Children’s voice in safeguarding
At The Oval School we have an active Children’s Local Safeguarding Board who are known as the Rights Respecting Rangers. The children in years 4, 5 and 6 apply to be Rights Respecting Rangers and we link this with our UNICEF work. The children meet on a regular basis to discuss how they can safeguard children at The Oval School. These projects have included:
- Internet safety
- Road safety
- Training to be young PCSOs.
The Trust also hosts an annual Children’s Safeguarding Conference with all the other Trust schools so that we ccan share our successes together.
We are an Operation Encompass School
Our school takes part in a joint operation involving Birmingham Children’s Trust, Birmingham City Council, and West Midlands Police. This is formally known as Operation Encompass. Operation Encompass has been established to help schools provide in-school support to children who have been present at, exposed to or involved in any domestic abuse incident.
We know that children can be significantly harmed, physically and/or emotionally, during these situations, and that it also negatively affects their learning and behaviour in class. Therefore, as part of the Operation Encompass procedure, and to help mitigate the resulting negative impact, the school will now receive a confidential phone call or email from West Midlands Police before 9am the morning after a child or young person has been witness to, or involved in, any reported domestic abuse incident.
We have a dedicated and child-focussed Safeguarding Team. They are specially trained to effectively use the information the Police share, in confidence, and enable the school to provide the right support to any child and their family. We always endeavour to offer the best support possible to our pupils and believe this will be extremely beneficial for all those involved.
More information can be found at Operation Encompass. However, if you have any concerns or questions regarding Operation Encompass, please don’t hesitate to contact the school.
