Safeguarding
Designated Safeguarding Leaders
Safeguarding at Elms Farm Primary School
At Elms Farm, safeguarding is at the heart of everything that we do, acting at the golden thread connecting every aspect of school life. We are committed to ensuring that every child feels safe, valued and respected and that their welfare is promoted at all times. Our culture of vigilance, openness and trust underpins our curriculum, relationships and decision-making, ensuring that all pupils can learn and flourish in a safe, caring and nurturing environment.
At Elms Farm we work proactively to identify and reduce risks, taking swift and appropriate action to protect our children from harm, neglect and exploitation.
Through a strong safeguarding culture, robust systems and procedures, and effective, ongoing staff training, we ensure that all adults understand their responsibilities and always act in the best interest of their pupils, demonstrating professional curiosity and confidence to challenge unsafe practices.
Our safeguarding practice is continuously reviewed and evaluated to ensure that it meets the highest standards; we adopt a whole-school approach to safeguarding, with effective partnerships between leaders, staff, parents/carers, governors and external agencies; this ensures that pupils receive timely, appropriate and effective support.
Safeguarding is everyone's responsibility and at Elms Farm we cultivate a community where all feel empowered to speak up with confidence. We have embedded a secure curriculum that promotes awareness and understanding, so all children know how to keep themselves safe, including while online and in the wider environment.
Pupil voice is an integral part of our school's ethos. Our use of bounce-together surveys, enables all children to share their opinions, all children can confidently articulate what to do if something worries them and can verbalise who there is at school to help them.
Through this unwavering commitment, we have created a safe, inclusive and respectful community where safeguarding is embedded in every aspect of school life, and where every child can thrive.
At Elms Farm, we have a dedicated team of Designated Safeguarding Leads (DSLs) who ensure that our safeguarding procedures are well implemented, and that staff receive regular, up-to-date training. Our DSLs keep up to date with local safeguarding issues to support our practice and offer the right help within our school community.
Our team works with a variety of outside services, such as the Police, Social Care and Health services and offer families support through 'Right Help, Right Time'.
As part of our school value of 'Community', we educate our pupils about local issues to help to keep them safe outside of school. We also work with parents & carers to help with e-safety.
Safeguarding Across the Curriculum
We foster a strong ethos of safeguarding throughout the school by ensuring that safeguarding themes are taught across the curriculum, events and assemblies. It is important to us that our pupils understand how to be safe and raise concerns. This supports our pupils in preparation for life outside and beyond school.
Support for Parents:
Early Help: We believe in taking action early to provide support where problems are emerging for children, young people and their families. Early help support may be provided at any point. At Elms Farm Primary, we want to invest in our young people and families, so we are here to support our families during the early help process.
Getting support at the right time from the right place is vital. If you feel like you would like to discuss these options or gain more information, please contact Mrs Johnson (Lead DSL) at Elms Farm Primary or your local children's centre.
E-Safety: E-Safety is an important part of our children's education and is integrated into every part of our daily lives. At Elms Farm, we recognise that technology will play an integral part in our children's lives as they grow and develop; we want both our pupils and our parents to have a secure understanding of E-Safety so that they can learn how to use the internet and all digital media in a safe and secure way. We do this through a combination of direct teaching, assemblies and parent meetings.
Other Safeguarding Agencies:
CASS (Children's Advice and Support Services) 0121 303 1888
LADO (Local Area Designated Officer) 0121 464 2612
Operation Encompass: Operation Encompass is a unique police and education early intervention and is an integral component in child safeguarding and protection. Operation Encompass will ensure that designated safeguarding leads will be trained to liaise with police and use the information that has been shared, in confidence, to ensure the well-being of our children and their families.
EduSafe: Information for parents & carers about a range of topics around safeguarding
The Waiting Room: Birmingham & Solihull Health & Wellbeing Services