Safeguarding

Our culture of safeguarding

• children and young people spend a large proportion of their lives in school. Reach is uniquely placed to play a central role in ensuring that students are protected from harm
• the school’s primary responsibility is to facilitate learning and children are more likely to engage in the learning process and achieve their potential if they are safe and well
• children who feel supported, listened to and valued at home and in school will welcome the educational opportunities provided for them
• Reach will cater for children of different backgrounds, religions, cultures and abilities.

Our ability to safeguard will be evident on three levels

Universal Safeguarding – this is our aim to keep all students safe by creating safe environments. This includes excellent site safety, safer recruitment of staff, strong school rules and codes of conduct and good safety awareness taught across the curriculum.

Targeted Safeguarding – this is our aim to focus on groups of students whose personal, social or economic circumstances may result in an increased risk to their safety. For example looked after children, students with special educational needs, children subjected to racism etc

Responsive Safeguarding –this is our aim to respond quickly and appropriately to situations where students may be or have suffered harm. This is our support through our strong child protection procedures.

Our aim and philosophy will be to be leading practitioners in

• child protection
• anti-bullying
• behaviour and attendance
• special educational needs
• physical contact / positive handling
• intimate and nurture care
• children looked after
• staff recruitment
• CPD
• PSHE
• Healthy Schools.

Safeguarding for Parents:

If you are concerned about the safety or welfare of your child, or a child you know, you should act without delay.

In School you can contact;

• Our Executive Headteacher is Mr D Gurney
• Our Headteacher is Mrs A Quinn
• Our designated safeguarding lead is Mrs K d'Avoine
• Our deputy designated safeguarding lead is Miss J Melia

These members of staff can be contacted on the following;

0113 245 2793

safeguarding@cockburnreach.org

Coming into school and requesting to speak them.

You can also ask for advice or report your concern to;

Children's Social Care - 0113 378 0644

Police - emergency - 999

Police - to report a crime that isn't an emergency - 111

NSPCC child protection helpline - variety of support and also to report and remove a nude image shared online - 0808 800 5000 - help@NSPCC.or.uk

Leeds Prevent - support for people at risk of radicalisation - 0113 535 0810 - prevent@leeds.gov.uk

What we will do if we have a concern about your child:

1. If we are concerned that your child may be at risk of harm we must follow the procedures in our child protection and safeguarding policy. You can find this on our website. If any member of staff has a concern about a child they will log it as a “cause for concern” on our electronic system, CPOMs.  Any child protection records on your child are kept separate from your child’s normal school file.
2. The Child Protection and Safeguarding team will decide what action to take. Usually this will result in a conversation with the child.
3. In almost all circumstances we will speak to you about our concerns and we will inform you if we feel we must refer our concerns to children’s social care.

How the school monitors adults through the issue of DBS checks and the Single Central Register?

All members of staff and any regular visitors (once a week) must be subject to a DBS check and have their details recorded on our single central register (SCR). All staff on the SCR are allowed to work with pupils. All other visitors to the school will not be allowed unattended access to pupils at any-time during their time on site.

How the school monitors security at the school entrance?

We have a secure vehicle and pedestrian entrance to the site. All staff on the SCR will have access to school via a swipe card. All visitors to the school will be required to provide photo ID and then sign in and wear a visitors badge at all times whilst on site

What should you as a parent/carer do if you have concerns about an adult working with children?

If you have any concerns about your child or any other child in the school we encourage you to contact us at the earliest opportunity. You should ask to speak to the head of School, Mrs Quinn. You could also request to speak to our Police Officer (Safer Schools Officer) or call the Police directly.

What you should do if you feel you need help with any aspect of bringing up your child/children?

If you do require any help or advice please do not hesitate to contact us at school, alternatively you could contact Social Care directly.

Online Safety

Please follow the links below for useful guides for parents and carers to enable their children to use technology safely. 

They contains plenty of helpful information such as:

• A practical guide for parents on how to keep children safe online, including useful summaries of popular internet apps as well as the types of threats children, could be exposed to online.
• Safety tips for using apps such as Instagram, TikTok (which has gathered 1 billion users in only two years), YouTube, Snapchat, Twitter, and Whatsapp. We also cover advice and safety tips for children playing online multiplayer video games.
• Other online safety topics and advice such as sharing personal information, socialising online, cyberbullying, harmful content, influencers, body image, and mental health for teens online.
• Links to additional internet safety resources for parents from well-respected sources such as the NSPCC and the UK government’s own guidelines. 

https://www.nspcc.org.uk/keeping-children-safe/online-safety/

https://saferinternet.org.uk/blog/staying-safe-online-in-the-summer-holidays-advice-for-parents-and-carers

Please see link to Shore Space

https://shorespace.org.uk

Shore was launched in 2023 to provide a safe and anonymous place for young people to get help and support. The aim of this website is to prevent harmful sexual behaviours among young people.

It’s for anyone who:

• has questions about healthy sexual relationships
• wants to change their own behaviour
• is looking for reliable information to help them respond to someone else’s behaviour

Alert!

• If your child has any Spy Dog, Spy Cat or Spy Pups books at home, please check the back for website links and make sure they do not try to visit the sites.
• It is safe for children to continue reading the stories themselves — the concern is only with the outdated link.
• We recommend talking with your child about the importance of not following web addresses in books without checking with an adult first.