Toftwood Infant and Junior School federation is fully committed to safeguarding and promoting the safety and welfare of children at all times. We expect all staff, governors and volunteers to share this commitment, and training, monitoring and reporting procedures are in place to ensure this commitment is realised.
We aim to provide a safe environment that is conducive to learning. We also aim to identify children who are suffering or likely to suffer significant harm, and take appropriate to keep them safe in school and at home when required.
We have safer recruitment procedures in place, as well as a range of policies and procedures to ensure that your child is safe while at school. Our Safeguarding and Child Protection Policy can be found here.
We will take all appropriate measures to prevent unsuitable people working with the children; promoting safe practice (and challenging unsafe practice); identifying instances in which there are grounds for concern about a child’s welfare, taking appropriate action to keep them safe; and contributing to effective partnerships between all those involved with providing services for children.
We also ensure we take all possible safeguarding steps to ensure all volunteers are suitable as they work in a position of trust in our schools. All schools in the Dereham Cluster request that all prospective volunteers fill in a safeguarding declaration and will ask for verification from previous schools or places of employment that there are not concerns over a person’s suitability to volunteer in school. In addition to this our school takes additional steps, such as a confidentiality agreement for voluntary helpers.
We have six Designated Safeguarding Leads: Mrs Pedlow, Executive Headteacher, Mrs Bell, Executive Deputy Headteacher; Mrs Rudd, Assistant Headteacher (Infants), Miss Yeoman, Assistant Headteacher (Juniors), Mrs Feeke and Miss Morgans, Inclusion Lead. We also have a designated Safeguarding Governor who monitors our safeguarding and child protection processes alongside the governing body.
If you have any questions regarding the safety of a child during term time please contact one of the DSLs via either school office.
If you need assistance outside of school hours, at a weekend or during a school holiday you can contact the National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Chidlren (NSPCC) 24 hours a day. You can do this via their website at: www.nspcc.org.uk/what-you-can-do/report-abuse/ by telephone: 0808 800 5000, by text: 88858 or by email: help@nspcc.org.uk
If you think a child is in immediate danger do not delay: CALL 999 straight away.