The Academy is committed to our moral and statutory responsibility to safeguard and promote the welfare of all children. We believe that safeguarding is everybody’s responsibility, and we work hard to cultivate a safe and welcoming environment where children are respected and valued. We promote this through staff training, the curriculum and via our communication with families.
What is Safeguarding?
Safeguarding is the action that is taken to promote the welfare of children and protect them from harm. Safeguarding means:
- protecting children from abuse and maltreatment
- preventing harm to children’s health or development ensuring children grow up with the provision of safe and effective care
- taking action to enable all children and young people to have the best outcomes
What is Child Protection?
Child protection is part of the safeguarding process. It focuses on protecting individual children identified as suffering or likely to suffer significant harm. This includes child protection procedures which detail how to respond to concerns about a child.
What is abuse?
Any form of neglect, physical, emotional or sexual mistreatment or lack of care that leads to harm or injury. It can happen to any young person regardless of their age, gender, race or ability. People working in schools are uniquely placed to notice signs and symptoms of abuse and to support young people who are subject to abuse or living in abusive situations.
If you have any concerns regarding your child or another young person please do not hesitate to contact us on via our School Office email address on our Contact Us page or via the Academy Reception on 01963 350895. Your concerns will be directed to our Safeguarding Team:
The Designated Safeguarding Lead (DSL): Ms Fran Hirst, Deputy Headteacher
Deputy Designated Safeguarding Lead (DDSL): Mrs Leanne Sweetlove, Head of Behaviour Operations & Attendance and Mr Jake Higgins, Pastoral Support Lead
Urgent safeguarding concern?
If you have an urgent safeguarding concern about a student at Ansford or another young person, please contact one of the agencies below:-
Safeguarding via our School Office email address on our Contact Us page
Somerset Direct on 0300 123 2224
Police on 101
NSPCC on 0808 800 5000
What should I do if I have concerns about a member of school staff?
You should report such allegations to the Headteacher, Mr Karl Musson via our School Office email address on our Contact Us page. If the allegation is about the Headteacher, contact the Chair of Governors via the Clerk to Governors via our School Office email address on our Contact Us page.
Prevent: Preventing Radicalisation/Tackling Extremism
Keeping children safe in education is our priority. This school works in partnership with the wider school community to ensure children and their families are safeguarded from radicalisation and extremism. In line with the PREVENT duty we will ensure that all staff and governors are trained, informed, recognise vulnerability and mitigate the risks. We mitigate identified risks and ensure the curriculum embeds British Values, teaching our staff, children and visitors to be tolerant and have respect for all faiths within out multi-cultural society. This is underpinned by a range of other school policies including ‘e’ safety, curriculum, staffing and safer recruitment.