Safeguarding newsletter

November 2023

Safeguarding Governor Role 

The Safeguarding Governors’ responsibilities include

➢ Ensuring the school is following safer recruitment procedures when recruiting any new staff members

 ➢ Reviewing all activity and policy relating to the physical and emotional well-being of all children

➢ Seeking improvement to ensure the school follows best practice in creating a productive and safe environment for all 

We believe that one of the best ways to safeguard children is to equip them with the knowledge and skills to be able to keep themselves safe.  Safeguarding themes are interwoven throughout our curriculum and the opportunities we offer in school. Some examples include:

➢ Our ‘Values’ assemblies which are delivered to all children from EYFS to Y6

➢ Online Safety days with age-appropriate workshops

 ➢ Online safety discussions within computing and other relevant lessons

 ➢ Involvement in Anti-Bullying Week and Mental Health Awareness Week

➢ Relationships, Sex & Health Education (RSHE) lessons

 ➢ Personal, Social, Health and Citizenship Education (PSHCE) lessons

 ➢ Our OPAL playtime

Children Safe in Education is a statutory Department for Education document that all schools are required to follow when carrying out their duties to safeguard and promote the welfare of children.  It covers many aspects of safeguarding, including different forms of abuse, early help processes, safer-recruitment, how concerns must be reported and the role of the Designated Safeguarding Leads.

 Safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children is defined as:

 ➢ Protecting children from maltreatment

➢ Preventing impairment of children’s mental and physical health or development

Ensuring that 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

   Snapchat (minimum age 13) – a photo-sharing app where users can send photos or videos to their friends. These will display on screen for up to ten seconds before being deleted, although it is possible to take screenshots of messages and download other apps designed to capture and save Snapchat content.

 TikTok (minimum age 13) – TikTok users can make their own short videos on the mobile app and often like to have music accompany these. The users have creative control over the videos. Other TikTok users can ‘react’ to videos they see by filming their responses alongside the original video, or ‘duet’ by making a video alongside another video.

 WhatsApp (minimum age 16) – a free-of-charge, real-time messaging service. Users can share images and videos, take part in ‘group chats’ and share locations. As it’s based on knowing the user’s phone number, you can only message users if you already have this information.

We are sure that like us, you as parents and carers realise the importance of attendance and punctuality. At Arboretum we continue to work hard to maintain our excellent attendance levels and to reduce incidences of lateness. 

Attendance facts:

• All schools must report their termly attendance percentages to the local authority.

• Parents have a legal responsibility to ensure that their child receives a full-time education.

• Parents can be issued with a fixed penalty notice for failing to ensure their child attends school regularly – this includes taking a child out of school on holiday.

 • The local authority has the power to prosecute parents in the magistrate’s court for the offence of failing to ensure their child attends school regularly.

• If your child arrives after 9.15am we are required to mark them as having an unauthorised absence for the whole morning – arriving after 9.15am once in a week brings their attendance down to 90% for that week.

There is much evidence to show that good attendance plays a vital role in helping your child to achieve their potential.  We also know that poor attendance can lead to other problems for children. Children who do not attend school regularly are more likely to:

- Fall behind in their school work

 - Find it difficult to make and keep friends

 - Be unhappy at school

- Misbehave so that others cannot see that they are finding the work difficult

- Learn poor attendance habits that follow through to secondary school and future employment

Poor punctuality can also disadvantage children in many ways:

- Being frequently late adds up to lost learning. For example, arriving 15 minutes late every day is the same as being absent for 2 weeks of the year

- When children are late they find it harder to settle in to the routine of the day - When children arrive late they often miss key messages and teaching which continues to have an effect on their learning for the rest of the lesson or day

 - Poor punctuality disrupts the class and is embarrassing for the child

 - Your child being late disturbs the learning of the whole class Getting here on time every day really is important in helping your child to become a happy and successful learners

Every day really does count!