At Stockton on the Forest School we have worked hard to establish a culture of safeguarding. Our children know that our priority is for them to feel safe and happy so we know we have created an environment where they can thrive and learn. 

We recognise that:

• The welfare of the child is paramount
• All children regardless of age, disability, gender, racial heritage, religious belief, sexual orientation or identity, have the right to equal protection from all types of harm and abuse.
• Working in partnership with children, young people and their parents, carers and other agencies, is essential in promoting young people’s welfare.

We work under the guidance of the Department for Education. Please see ‘Keeping Children Safe in Education – Statutory Guidance for Schools and Colleges Part One‘ and the school’s Safeguarding & Child Protection Policy, available on our Policies page. 

The DSL Designated Safeguarding Lead for school is the headteacher, Lorraine Atkinson. 

The DDSL Deputy Designated Safeguarding Lead for school is the senior teacher and SENCO for school, Jo Collins. 

Both the DSL and DDSL can be contacted via the school office - in person, by telephone 01904 400366 or via the school email address: stocktononforest.primary@york.gov.uk

Safeguarding is the responsibility of all staff at Stockton on the Forest Primary School. Whilst school is a safe place to be, all staff remain vigilant and operate a policy of 'it could happen here' as part of our robust safeguarding culture. All staff, including staff from external agencies and volunteers undergo regular training in Safeguarding, including (but not limited to): Child Protection, Safer Recruitment, First Aid, Prevent (the name given to the training which aims to prevent young children becoming radicalised) and Identifying Children at Risk of FGM and other safeguarding risks.

All staff and governors complete an annual ‘Basic Awareness’ qualification in Safeguarding. Annual Safeguarding training also includes staff and governors reading and agreeing to the DFE guidelines ‘Keeping Children Safe in Education (Part 1)’, the school’s Code of Conduct and Safeguarding policy documents which can be found in the policy section of this website. 

Bullying

We work hard to ensure that the children at Stockton on the Forest School are not subject to bullying. Any instances of negative behaviour are dealt with quickly and followed up over time. We care about all the children at our school and work closely with children and families to maintain our school's 'caring family feel' and to prevent instances of bullying occurring. We do this through instilling the importance of our school values of kindness, respect and resilience. We use 'Zones of Regulation' daily with all pupils and staff alongside our School Behaviour policy and our pupil behaviour traffic light system. 

For more information see our Behaviour Policy (available on Our Policies page).

Preventing Radicalisation

 All staff and governors complete Prevent training in order to understand our responsibilities in protecting children from extremist and violent views. This training also supports us in promoting and teaching important values such as tolerance, respect and the celebration of diversity.

Operation Encompass

Our school is part of Operation Encompass which is a national scheme that operates jointly between schools and police forces.

Operation Encompass is the reporting to schools, prior to the start of the next school day, when a child or young person has experienced domestic abuse.

Our headteacher, Lorraine Atkinson (Designated Safeguarding Lead) known as a Key Adult, has been trained in the Operation Encompass procedures allowing us to then use the information that has been shared, in confidence, to support the child/ren in our care. 

The Domestic Abuse Act 2021 identifies children who experience domestic abuse as victims of domestic abuse in their own right.

We are keen to offer the best support possible to all our pupils and we believe this will be extremely beneficial for all those involved.

Online Safety

In our modern world, technology helps us to learn and interact with one another, but, it also poses certain risks that we want to protect our children against.

For more information see our Online Safety Policy (available on Our Policies page) and the Online Safety section in our Parents tab as well as the Safety section in the Children's tab. 

External organisations

Multi-Agency Safeguarding Hub (MASH) (formally known as Children’s Front Door Service)

Independent Domestic Abuse Services