Safeguarding

We are committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare
of the children in our care and expect all staff, volunteers, visitors,
parents, carers and children to share this commitment. 

Keeping Children Safe

• We believe that Swaffield School should provide a caring, positive, safe, and stimulating environment that promotes the social, physical, spiritual, and moral development of the individual child; enabling all children to thrive.
• We recognise the importance of providing an environment within our school that will help children feel safe and respected. We recognise the importance of enabling children to talk openly and to feel confident that they will be listened to.
• We recognise that both mental and physical health are relevant to safeguarding and the welfare of children.
• We recognise that all adults within the school, including permanent, supply staff, temporary staff, volunteers, parents, and governors, have a full and active part to play in protecting our pupils from harm.
• We will work pro-actively with parents to build a solid understanding of the school’s responsibilities to ensure the welfare of all children, including the need for referrals to other agencies in some situations.

Safeguarding Roles 

Our school is a community and all those directly connected, staff members, governors, parents, families, and pupils, have an essential role to play in making it safe and secure for all. 

The school’s Designated Safeguarding Lead (DSL) with overall designated responsibility for safeguarding is Julia Hamilton (Head Teacher).  We also have four deputy designated safeguarding leads (see below).

The school has a nominated governor, Leah Gwynne (Co-chair of Governors), responsible for safeguarding to champion good practice, to liaise with the Head Teacher, Julia Hamilton, and to provide information and reports to the Governing Body. 

If you are concerned about a child at Swaffield School:

In an emergency: please call 999 to contact the police.

Designated Safeguarding Leads:

Supporting Children 

The wellbeing of the children in our care is of paramount importance.

Whilst safeguarding is the responsibility of every adult working in and connected with our school, we signpost to children some of our key members of staff as people who are available for children to talk to.

In addition to regular reminders from teachers and staff who work with in class, and in assemblies, we display this poster all around the school to remind children who to talk to about any worries or concerns that they may have.

Mental Health and Wellbeing

Through PSHE, RHSE and other curriculum contexts, pupils are encouraged to talk about feelings and deal assertively with pressures, are listened to, and know to whom they can turn to for help and advice.

We have two additional professionals at school who work with us to ensure we are able to give as much support with mental health and wellbeing as possible to our children and their families.
They are: School Counsellor, David Fraser, and school-based social worker, Sarah Elmehdawi. 

Children have easy access to a "Talk Box" to discreetly flag up something that's worrying them.

These are actioned by Ms Thakore (ELSA / Learning Mentor) and Mr Butcher (ELSA) who will meet with the children to work with them to resolve any worries that they have. 

We regularly offer workshops to parents and carers who want some support and we also share regular information about similar support that is available locally. 

Swaffield's Safeguarding Policy and Procedure (see below) gives full details of the wide range of agencies with whom we work to safeguard our children and families; this includes working, where appropriate, with CAMHS (Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services). 

Training

All staff have received safeguarding training and understand what they should do if they have concerns about any child. This training is updated regularly. 

Policies

Swaffield's Safeguarding Policy and Procedure is available to read on screen below. You can download a copy of our Safeguarding Policy and Procedure by clicking here.

Need a translation? Please contact the School Office if you need a translated version of our Safeguarding Policy and we will do our best to accommodate your request. 

By email: at swaffield@swaffield.wandsworth.sch.uk or by phone: via the School Office on 020 8874 2825

Other Related Policies

A number of other policies also support safeguarding. These include the Online safety policy, Health & Safety policy, 

Read Swaffield's Safeguarding Policy and Procedure below. 

1 safeguarding policy and procedure 2023 2024.pdf