As you know the safety and well-being of the children here at St Matthew’s is our first priority. This is called safeguarding.
Safeguarding children and young people means protecting them from abuse or neglect and getting the right support in place as early as possible. We want our children and young people to feel safe, healthy and thrive. Keeping children safe at St Matthew’s is everybody’s responsibility and you might be surprised to hear that this also includes you – our school family and community!
If for any reason, such as coronavirus restrictions, school is closed to the majority of children, we will have limited contact with them and will need your help to keep all our children safe.
If a child is in immediate danger, call the police on 999 straight away.
If you’re worried a child is being abused or neglected
It’s not always easy to know if a child or young person is being abused or neglect. You might’ve noticed bruises but aren’t sure if they’re from playing or from being physically abused. Or you might be worried a child is being neglected because you often hear them crying in distress.
Knowing the signs of abuse can help. But it’s important to remember that every child is different. The NSPCC’s support and advice can help you decide what to do if you’re worried about a child.
If you are worried about a child and they are NOT in immediate danger, there are a few things you can do:
Contact Trafford Children’s First Response
Trafford Children’s First Response is Trafford’s single point of contact for all professionals and members of the public to report concerns, request advice and share information about a child and/or family. If you are a member of the public who has a concern about a child, and they are not at immediate risk of harm, you should call Trafford Children’s First Response:
0161 912 5125 during office hours (Mon – Fri, 8:30am – 4:30pm)
0161 912 2020 out of hours (emergency duty team).
Contact the NSPCC
NSPCC telephone lines are open Monday to Friday 8am – 10pm and 9am – 6pm at the weekend. You can contact them online 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. Call 0808 800 5000 or email help@nspcc.org.uk.
St Matthew’s contact information
At St Matthew’s we have two members of staff who are the Designated Safeguarding Leads:
| Miss S Lynton | Headteacher and Safeguarding Lead |
| Miss E Tyrer | Deputy Headteacher and Deputy Safeguarding Lead |
| Mrs K Cronin | Assistant Headteacher and Deputy Safeguarding Lead |
You can contact school with any concerns you may have about a child on 0161 865 1284 or email admin@stmatthewsce.co.uk or worried@stmatthewsce.co.uk
Useful documents
(Safeguarding related policies can be found on our Policies page)
Useful Links
During the holidays or evenings your children might be more worried or anxious. We know that you will be exploring these feelings with your children, but as they would usually have another way to share them at school, we have included some safe ways that children can share their worries on this page.
Children can talk to ChildLine about anything. No problem is too big or too small. Call ChildLine free on 0800 1111 or get in touch online. However children choose to contact ChildLine, they’re in control. It’s confidential and they don’t have to give their name if they don’t want to.
ChildLine have created a page with information to support you in reducing children’s anxiety around the subject.
Kooth is an online mental wellbeing community that provide free, safe and anonymous support for children aged 11+. Parents can find out more information here.
For more information and ideas, please visit our webpage Keeping Safe and Happy.
Encompass
Our school is part of a project, which is run between Trafford Local Authority, schools and Greater Manchester Police. The project, called Operation Encompass, has been designed to provide early reporting of any domestic abuse incidents that occur outside school, which might have an impact on a child in school. This is communicated through a secure email to school following an incident.
The project ensures that at least one member of the school staff, known as the Key Adult, is available to liaise with children’s services and the police and to use the information that has been shared, in confidence.
In this way, we aim to support each child who has been involved in, or witnessed, a domestic abuse incident.
The Key Adult for St Matthews CofE Primary School is Miss S Lynton.
If Miss S Lynton receives an Encompass notification, she will make sure that a person the child trusts is available to help – if the child needs this. Most of the time this support is silent; keeping a careful eye on the child and making sure they have a calm school day. The confidential information is ordinarily not shared with all staff, just an agreement on how to help, if needed.
All schools have a duty to share any information with other organisations if they feel a child is at risk of being hurt. The Key Adult may contact other organisations.
The sharing of information from the police allows the school to be ready to help your child straight away, and it means that parents are aware that the Key Adult knows that something has happened. Parents can come and talk to our Key Adult. The Key Adult can point you towards other people that can help.
Our overall aim is to support children and their families.