Safeguarding
Statement
Goudhurst & Kilndown CEP School is a community and all those directly connected (staff, governors, parents, families and pupils) have an essential role to play in making it safe and secure. We recognises our moral and statutory responsibility to safeguard and promote the welfare of all children with their best interests at the centre of our work.
We recognise the importance of providing an ethos and environment within school that will help children to feel safe, secure and respected; encourage them to talk openly; and enable them to feel confident that they will be listened to. We are alert to the signs of abuse and neglect and follow our procedures to ensure that children receive effective support, protection and justice.
It is one of the school’s beliefs that children learn well and develop as individuals when they feel safe secure and happy and our safeguarding work is concerned with protecting all of our children from harm. The term safeguarding is wide-ranging in nature and extends from ensuring that we have health and safety policies in place within the school and the grounds and that we adhere to them responding to any issues promptly, to the recruitment of staff and volunteers and ensuring that they have been subject to a DBS check (Disclosure and Barring Services, formerly Criminal Records Bureau). Our safeguarding extends through the PSHE subject of the National Curriculum (Personal, Social, Health & Economic Education) where children are introduced to topics such as Drugs, Alcohol, Sex and Relationships, Stranger Danger, and Online Safety issues at age-appropriate times. Children are encouraged to explore and discuss these issues in their class environment with their peers. Crucially, safeguarding is also concerned with providing a school environment where children feel secure and are respected, where children are encouraged to talk and are listened to, to allow children to develop a feeling of trust and build the life skills that will keep them safe - for life.