Safeguarding
Meet our Designated Safeguarding Lead, Mrs Draper...
Mrs Draper
Associate Principal - Designated Safeguarding Lead. Overall academy safeguarding responsibility
Hi, I am Mrs Draper, Associate Principal. My main responsibility is for Safeguarding across the academy. As Designated Safeguarding Lead I lead a team of Senior Staff (Deputy Safeguarding Leads) who are based across both our campuses.
Safeguarding is our number one priority, and we take pride in ensuring our academy is a safe place for all.
We see ourselves as champions for every single Oxley Parker. To support us in this, we have excellent professional relationships with a wide range of services and other professionals. Working together, we always ensure we do our absolute best for every child in our care.
I hope this webpage gives you an overview of our safeguarding provision along with key contact details and important information you may need if you have a concern. Please never hesitate to contact me or any member of the Oxley team if you have a worry or need some support.
Together, we will always work to keep our children safe.
Meet our Designated Safeguarding Team...
Mr Springett-McHugh
Executive Principal - Designated Safeguarding Lead
Mrs Frayne-Johnson
Assistant Principal - Deputy Safeguarding Lead
Mrs Phillips
Assistant Principal - Deputy Safeguarding Lead
Mr Bolton
Assistant Principal - Deputy Safeguarding Lead
Overall Aims
Everyone in the education service shares an objective to help keep children and young people safe by:
- Providing a safe environment for children and young people to learn in education settings.
- 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.
Our Commitment
Oxley Park Academy is committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of all its pupils. It is the responsibility of all school staff, governors and volunteers to keep children safe.
Oxley Park Academy will therefore:
- Establish and maintain an environment where children feel secure and are encouraged to talk and are listened to.
- Ensure that staff can identify welfare concerns and take appropriate action to address their concerns
- Ensure children know that there are adults in the school whom they can approach if they are worried
- Include opportunities in PHSE curriculum for children to develop the skills they need to recognise and stay safe from abuse
- Recognise that each pupil’s welfare is of paramount importance and that some children may be especially vulnerable to abuse e.g. those with special educational needs, those living in adverse circumstances or those who witness violence.
All staff at Oxley Park Academy receive annual safeguarding training as well as receiving regular video snippets which ensure that we all stay fully updated and alert.
Safeguarding is everyone’s business!
Making safeguarding accessible and understood by the children for the children
Our Safeguarding Umbrella PODs
Our Umbrella Pods are situated across both our Oxley Park and Shenley Wood campuses. As you can see from the image above, they are bright, colourful and inviting for all children. Here children can see pictures of the people that are key adults they can go to, as well as knowing any adult in our academy is a safe adult. They will also meet one of our Oxley friends - members of the Elephant family, who live under the umbrellas. If a child is upset or worried, they can sit under the umbrella and, while hugging a member of the elephant family, they can place their name in the little box. These are checked regularly throughout the day by our Sanctuary Pastoral Team who then check in with any child whose name is inside. The Sanctuary Team will then make sure the child gets whatever support they require.
The Umbrella PODs are also the destination for children to share their own knowledge of safeguarding and also a way of them keeping each other safe. You will find lots of children's work around key areas such as anti-bullying, internet safety, games safety, road safety and stranger danger just to name a few!
WHAT TO DO IF YOU HAVE A SAFEGUARDING CONCERN
During the school day please contact Mrs Draper
Designated Safeguarding Lead
Telephone : 01908 503870
Email: office@oxleyparkacademy.com
OUT OF SCHOOL HOURS
Please contact the Multi Assessment Safeguarding Hub (MASH)
Telephone: 01908 253169
Online Safety
Online Safety is an integral part of a child's OPA learning journey and is one that we take very seriously. Being online is, more than ever, a regular part of children’s lives.
The opportunities and skills that are available online for both educational and social reasons are immense - we ensure that these skills are achieved safely through PSHCE and computing lessons. Children are taught how to take advantage of these opportunities whilst staying safe. We use resources such as CEOP - The Child Exploitation and Online Protection Centre – to explore the dangers with children and teach them key rules to avoid such dangers when online. Our staff regularly share and impart Online Safety knowledge to all children.
Top Ten Tips to Keep Safe Online
1. Don’t post any personal information online – like your address, email address or mobile number.
2. Think carefully before posting pictures or videos of yourself. Once you’ve put a picture of yourself online, most people can see it and may be able to download it, it’s not just yours anymore.
3. Keep your privacy settings as high as possible.
4. Never give out your passwords.
5. Don’t befriend people you don’t know.
6. Don’t meet up with people you’ve met online. Speak to your parent or carer about people who are suggesting you do.
7. Remember that not everyone online is who they say they are.
8. Think carefully about what you say before you post something online.
9. Respect other people’s views. Even if you don’t agree with someone else’s views, it doesn’t mean you need to be rude.
10. If you see something online that makes you feel uncomfortable, unsafe or worried, leave the website, turn off your computer, if you want to and tell a trusted adult immediately.
Please click here for advice from CEOP about keeping your children safe online.
Please click here for the NSPCC top tips for online safety.
Please click here for National Online Safety guides to WhatsApp
NSPCC - The Pants Rule
Please click on the links below for more information about keeping children aware and safe
Prevent Strategy
As part of Oxley Park Academy’s ongoing safeguarding and child protection duties, we are fully behind the Government's Prevent Strategy.
From 1 July 2015 all schools are subject to a duty under section 26 of the Counter-Terrorism and Security Act 2015, in the exercise of their functions, to have “due regard to the need to prevent people from being drawn into terrorism”. This duty is known as the ‘Prevent Duty for Schools’.
At Oxley Park Academy we build pupils’ resilience to radicalisation by promoting fundamental British Values and enabling our pupils to challenge extremist views. You can read about what we do to promote British Values in the relevant section of our website.
The statutory guidance refers to the importance of Prevent awareness training to equip staff to identify children at risk of being drawn into terrorism and to challenge extremist ideas. All staff have also completed online training on the Prevent Strategy.