The phrases 'child protection' and 'safeguarding' are often used interchangeably, but safeguarding has a distinctive meaning.

The key statutory guidance 'Keeping Children Safe in Education' explains what safeguarding is:

• protecting children from maltreatment;
• preventing impairment of children's health or development;
• ensuring that children grow up in circumstances consistent with the provision of safe and effective care;
• taking action to enable all children to have the best outcomes.

Planning for safeguarding

Successful safeguarding does not happen by chance, but by careful planning.

Three elements include:

• a clear safeguarding ethos,
• a policy that sets out clear expectations and processes, and
• high quality training that ensures staff know what to do and do it consistently across the school.

Our safeguarding principles

As a staff team, we have developed out own set of safeguarding principles, based on the Keeping Children Safe in Education document. You can these on the Policies page.