Safeguarding

At Great Malvern Primary School, we believe that safeguarding is everyone’s responsibility. Mrs Nikki Selby (Headteacher) is our Designated Safeguarding Lead. Mrs Sarah Gashi is our Pastoral Lead and Deputy Designated Safeguarding Lead, Miss Emma Grace (Deputy Head teacher) Mrs Jo Cory (Family Liaison Officer), Mrs Kerry Williams and Mrs Helen Jenkins are all Deputy Designated Safeguarding leads. The Governor with responsibility for child protection is Dr Alex Malm.

Great Malvern Primary School believes that it is completely unacceptable for a child to experience abuse of any kind. We recognise our responsibility to safeguard the welfare of all children. We will provide staff and volunteers with guidance to follow when they suspect a child may be experiencing abuse or at risk of harm. We will work co-operatively with other agencies to safeguard and promote the welfare of children. We will ensure that our concerns about our pupils are discussed with parents/carers first – unless we have reason to believe that such a move would be contrary to the child’s welfare.

We recognise and strive to maintain a school where children feel safe and are in an environment where they feel they are able to share concerns and worries, allowing us to safeguard children most effectively. We provide early intervention support for social and emotion support for children and families.

Mrs Gashi is our Senior Lead teacher for Mental Health in school alongside Mrs Selby who is a Mental Health first aider and other members of staff are trained in Mental Health Awareness. These members of staff support other staff to spot signs and symptoms of common mental health issues, to provide non-judgemental support and reassurance whilst signposting to appropriate professional support.

Our school delivers comprehensive Personal, Social, Health and Economics, (PSHE) and Relationship and Sex Education (RSE) programmes. These further support the children’s understanding of how to keep themselves safe. It also broadens their understanding of strategies to develop their resilience, as well as their awareness of their mental health and approaches to keep this aspect of their lives healthy.

We are committed to ensure that all staff and volunteers access the school after safer recruitment guidance has been followed.

We ensure that everyone working in our school has the necessary checks completed to enable them to work with children and that they are regularly trained to deal with issues around child protection and safeguarding.
We have staff members and governors who are specifically trained and nominated within the school.
We have policies and procedures in place that contribute to our safeguarding commitment, including our Safeguarding Policy which can be viewed below. Please take the time to read our policies and do not hesitate to contact the school should you have any questions.
We follow the Worcestershire Safeguarding Children’s Partnership guidance and have systems in place to share concerns regarding children’s welfare with our Designated Safeguarding Leads, with parents and with relevant external agencies.
We actively support the Government's Prevent agenda, to counter radicalism and extremism.

Staff are expected to adhere to the school’s Code of Conduct and to maintain a professional manner at all times and must report any concerns about any staff conduct to the Headteacher. If there are any concerns about the conduct of the Headteacher, then these should be share with the Trust CEO Mr Dafydd Lawday. The staff “Whistleblowing Policy” has been discussed and adopted by all staff.