Safeguarding

Safeguarding is protecting children from maltreatment; preventing impairment of their health or development; ensuring that they grow up in circumstances consistent with the provision of safe and effective care; and taking action to enable all children and young people to have the best life chances and to enter adulthood successfully.

Some of the ways we safeguard students are as follows:

• The school works with the Oxfordshire Safeguarding Children Board to ensure its practices and processes are in line with new legislation and initiatives around the safeguarding of young people.
• All staff are trained to recognise the signs of a child whose wellbeing is being compromised by physical or emotional abuse and/or neglect.  They are also trained in how to manage disclosures from young people, and they also receive regular updates on safeguarding issues.
• Two members of the school’s leadership team, Tammy Beedles-Clark and Liz Watkins, have a specific responsibility for safeguarding and have been trained to become Designated Leads for Safeguarding.
• All adults who work in school have been subject to a Disclosure and Barring Service check (DBS), which means the school has checked to ensure that any adult working at Larkmead in any capacity is an appropriate person to work with children and young people.  This will include a criminal records check.
• The school ensures all its IT systems are secure and user histories are monitored.
• A school safeguarding policy is reviewed and updated annually with the support of governors, who closely monitor the schools safeguarding actions.
• Through assemblies and PDC lessons students are made aware of the risks associated with being on line and using social media; as well as what is a healthy relationship and appropriate behaviour.
• Both adults and students also have access to electronic reporting methods to allow them to report any safeguarding or wellbeing concerns they have about themselves or others. Students are also introduced to websites which can also offer them some support e.g. OXME

Further details of the schools safeguarding practices can be found on the school here. If you have any concerns regarding the safeguarding of any young person, you can contact the school and ask to speak to the Designated Safeguarding Officer.

Alternatively you can contact Schools Safeguarding Team at LADO.safeguardingchildren@oxfordshire.gov.uk or telephone them on 01865 810603

All schools hold information on its students, which is held for internal use only and is not shared with 3rd parties. However from time to time schools are obliged to share information with partner agencies such as the Police and Health and Social Care. Requests for information from these agencies happens very rarely, but where they do occur Larkmead School will provide any information that it feels is relevant, and is in the best interest of a student’s wellbeing. Information is also shared between schools when a student moves between institutions, for example when a student moves from primary to secondary or from one secondary school to another. In all instances student files are kept in a secure system accessed only by appropriate individuals.