Safeguarding

At Lord Deramore’s our aim is that every child feels safe and cared for at all times. 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 & Key Documents page, for more information. 

Key Contacts

Child Protection

Child protection is part of safeguarding and refers to the protection given to specific children who are suffering, or at risk of suffering, harm.

James Rourke is the designated teacher for Child Protection with Rachel Carr as designated deputy teachers. Sue Perutz is the designated governor for Child Protection. Eleanor Jones is the School Business Manager with responsibility for Health, Safety and Premises.

Safeguarding is the responsibility of all staff at Lord Deramore’s and all the teachers and teaching assistants 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 have completed a ‘Basic Awareness’ qualification in Safeguarding. Our latest annual update training took place in September 2023; this training also includes attendees reading and agreeing to the DfE’s Keeping Children Safe in Education (part 1), the school’s Staff Code of Conduct, and the Safeguarding & Child Protection Policy all of which can be found in the Safeguarding section on our Policies & Key Documents page.

Intimate Care

See the Safeguarding & Child Protection Policy, and the Intimate Care Policy, both on our Policies & Key Documents page.

Preventing Radicalisation

Prevent Strategy Information for Parents explains our responsibilities in protecting children from extremist and violent views. It also supports us in promoting and teaching important values such as tolerance, respect and the celebration of diversity.

You can read our Prevent Duty Information in the Safeguarding section of the Policies & Key Documents page.

Bullying

We work hard to ensure that any instances of bullying 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 give every child the best experience.

For more information see our Anti-Bullying Policy on our Policies page.

Internet Safety, Filtering and Monitoring

In our modern world, technology can pose certain risks that we want to protect our children against.

City of York Council schools internet provision currently utilises the Smoothwall filtering solution. This is a comprehensive filtering platform designed to protect schools from inappropriate on-line content, including new requirements around child safety/anti radicalisation, as well as meeting or exceeding the current compliance and recommended safeguarding children legislation. Detailed alerts and reporting are configured to alert the Authority helpdesk of an incident at a school, enabling a fast response to ensure children’s safety. 

Children at Lord Deramore’s do not have unsupervised access to the internet in school, and staff ensure children are appropriately monitored when using the internet. Online safety is explicitly taught in all year groups. Our aim is that all children at Lord Deramore’s will understand how to use the internet effectively and responsibly, and how to stay safe when accessing the internet, both at school and at home.

For more information see our  Safeguarding Policy and E-Safety Policy on our Policies page and our e-safety information page for parents and carers.

Whistleblowing

Should anybody have any concerns regarding the conduct of any adult within our school community, please refer to the school’s Safeguarding & Child Protection, Complaints and Whistleblowing policies which can all be found on out Policies page.

Operation Encompass

Our school has been given the opportunity to take part in a new project that will run jointly between all schools in York, City of York Council and North Yorkshire Police. See Operation Encompass for more information.