Lakefield Church of England Primary and Nursery

Early Help for Children and Families at Lakefield

By providing early help for our children and families we aim to support them as soon as a problem emerges.  We aim to support the child and the family at the different stages of development and throughout their time here at Lakefield.

Staff and Governors are involved in the provision of early help including:

Governor for Safeguarding Lead: Mr Bob Roberts

Designated Safety Lead (Overall school and extended services): Mr Ian Williams

Deputy Designated Safety Lead: Mrs Laura Lee

Deputy Designated Safety Lead: Miss Michelle Beacham

Deputy Designated Safety Lead:  Mrs Amanda Ford

Deputy Designated Safety Lead (Nursery): Mrs Katherine Turner

Deputy Designated Safety Lead (Nursery): Mrs Clare Byard

SENDCO: Mrs Amanda Ford

We also have reciprocal arrangements with Mrs Lisa Hinkley (Headteacher Whitminster Church of England Primary school) if a DSL or DDSL is not available.

Staff meet to discuss issues including:

How the child presents	Behaviour	Additional needs
Attitudes to learning	Family issues	Friendships
Support service engagement	General progress	Relationships

This allows us to identify any children and families that would benefit from early help, it allows us to help them access to services in the school and beyond the school. From these meetings we create a list of our vulnerable pupils. 

At school all staff have completed Child Protection training and this is updated regurarly.

Prevent Training – Radicalisation.

The head teacher has received PREVENT training and has applied to the Home Office to become a Prevent Trainer.  The team at Lakefield will be trained to identify the early stages of radicalization using the Channel guidelines and training initiative.

We follow the mantra:

NOTICE
CHECK
SHARE

The school is writing their own policy which will reflect current practice.  All staff and governors are currently completing the Channel online training, certificates are filed in the Safeguarding folder, more information relating to the training can be found here:

http://course.ncalt.com/Channel_General_Awareness/01/index.html

Child Sexual Exploitation

All staff at Lakefield have been trained to identify early cases of child sexual exploitation. At school we use the Child Sexual Exploitation (CSE) Screening tool if we have concerns.

Female Genital Mutilation

All staff received training on FGM.  Teachers know how to identify if a child may be at risk. They are aware of the countries and places within this country where children may be taken to for this to happen. They know the signs to look for and most importantly how to refer, following the schools safeguarding procedures.
 
Meeting the needs of the children

Pupil Voice – our children are actively encouraged to speak about any concerns, in lessons children are taught to speak openly about their emotions through SEAL and the PSHCE curriculum. Our children know our staff take all their concerns very seriously and know they will act on the concerns.

• Pupil voice is monitored regurarly

• The GHLL online survey is completed by year 4 and 6 pupils

• Children’s questionnaires ascertain if they feel happy and safe at school – children who comment negatively on this have 1:1 briefings

• Children discuss E-Safety this helps to identify any issues. Parents are informed and training is offered

• We hold regular assemblies on E-Safety, stranger danger, water safety etc etither through the Police or other outside agencies

• We work with the NSPCC and the Police to provide pupils with the information on how to keep themselves safe

ATTENDANCE

Our school has high expectations of attendance. Attendance below 90% is addressed by meeting with the parents to look at reasons behind this.  The school, as does the DfE and Local Authority, expects the children to attend 100% of the time.  Holidays during term time are not authorised except in exceptional circumstances and failure to attend 100% of the time could result in prosecution by the Local Authority.

The school evaluates attendance on a termly basis and a report is provide as part of the Governing Body meetings.

The school operates an email, text and call system to check on the whereabouts of a child if there has been no notification of absence via email or on our telephone message service.

SAFEGUARDING

• All teachers and staff know precisely how to identify and report concerns.

• Staff record their concerns about any safeguarding issues on a school proforma and these are handed in to the DSL.

• Child protection files are kept by the head teacher, they build up a chronology.

• The school follows the 'Missing from Education' guidance.

• All new staff complete safeguarding inductions.

• The head teacher has signed up for GSCB alerts.

 We have evidence that staff have read:

• Keeping children safe in education

• Safer working practice

• SEND Policy
• Completion of disqualification by association.

Behaviour

Our behaviour policy is built around our Values. Our Values of Respect, Trust, Truthfulness, Perseverance, Courage, Friendship and Forgiveness (underpinning all others).  Children know how to identify what is bullying and what being unkind is. We have anti-bullying week and use our values to unpin the work.  We work with the NSPCC to help children understand further the consequences of bullying and to let them know how they can find help through projects such as Child Line if the need arises
 
How we support our pupils and families

SENDCO - works with children and families with additional needs and can signpost parents to many different agencies including for example, speech and language therapists, Educational Psychologists, health workers and occupational health services.
Designated Safeguarding Lead –ensure rigorous and robust systems in place within the school to ensure the safety of all of our children. We always act in the interest of the child without fear or favour.

We also liaise with other agencies and people within the local community:

Gloucestershire Early Help Hub:     www.gloucestershire.gov.uk/extra/Early-Help-Hubs
Community Social workers
Local Community Police Officer
Mental Health – Healthy Living and Learning:  GHLL
Family Information Service   www.gloucestershire.gov.uk/fis
Families First
 
At Lakefield Church of England Primary early assessments help identify the specific needs of our children and families, so that they can be assigned to the correct interventions for their educational, social and emotional needs.

Some interventions

• 1:1 support: support from a qualified professional
• Group interventions - support for small groups of children from a qualified professional
  Speech and Language Therapy: supporting across the curriculum directed by Speech Therapist
• Occupational Therapy: supporting across the curriculum directed by Occupational Therapy
• Pastoral activities: HLTA or TA - supporting across the curriculum
• Talk Boost - supporting across the curriculum
• Support for language development

More information on the graduated pathway can be found by following this link:

http://www.gloucestershire.gov.uk/schoolsnet/ehcp-video

Our policy on early help along with our policy on the prevent agenda can be found in the policies section of this website with SEND information located in the SEND section.