Safeguarding

At Faringdon Infant School we are strongly committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children and we expect all staff and volunteers to share this commitment.

All staff have a professional duty to take such steps as are reasonable to promote safe practice and to protect children from harm, abuse and exploitation. We have a number of policies and procedures in place that contribute to our safeguarding commitment, including our Safeguarding and Child Protection Policy which can be viewed in the Policies section of our website or by following the link below.

Sometimes we may need to share information and work in partnership with other agencies when there are concerns about a child's welfare. We will ensure that our concerns about our pupils are discussed with his/her parents/carers first unless we have reason to believe that such a move would be contrary to the child's welfare. The procedure  and policies which we follow have been laid down by the Oxfordshire Safeguarding Children's Board (OSCB).

We actively support the Government's Prevent Agenda to counter radicalism and extremism.

Our designated safeguarding lead (DSL) is Mrs Sally Robins. Our Deputy DSLs are Mr Bryn Jones and Ms Laura Wright. Other DSL trained staff are; Miss Kirsty McAleer, Mrs Jo Baird and Mrs Kate Morris.

Our Nominated Safeguarding governor is Mr Robert Devereux and our Chair of Governors is Mrs Pauline Forbes.

Extremism and Radicalisation

It is vital that staff and parents are aware of the possible danger of extremism and radicalisation of children, predominantly but not solely through online activities. We are committed to supporting parents and pupils to be aware of these dangers. The document below provides further information on this and more support can be found on our e-safety page. Many of our staff have recently attended training in relation to the Counter Terrorism and Security act in order to understand how best to support and protect children against extremism and radicalisation according to Prevent Duty guidelines. Whole school staff training is carried out annually.

You can follow the link below to read the Channel Duty Guidance

https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/425189/Channel_Duty_Guidance_April_2015.pdf

PREVENT

Prevent is about safeguarding people and communities from the threat of terrorism. Prevent is 1 of the 4 elements of CONTEST, the Government’s counter-terrorism strategy. It aims to stop people becoming terrorists or supporting terrorism.

The Prevent strategy:

• Responds to the ideological challenge we face from terrorism and aspects of extremism, and the threat we face from those who promote these views;
• Provides practical help to prevent people from being drawn into terrorism and ensure they are given appropriate advice and support; and
• Works with a wide range of sectors (including education, criminal justice, faith, charities, online and health) where there are risks of radicalisation that we need to deal with.