Safeguarding in our Curriculum
Safeguarding and the promotion of British Values is central to our work at Pebsham Primary Academy. We plan to constantly challenge children to think deeply about safeguarding matters and their own personal physical and mental wellbeing.
Priority on identifying opportunities in the structured and unstructured curriculum for children to learn about safeguarding is core to our school.
Our unique curriculum and values give pupils opportunities to experience life in all its diversity, to acquire resilience, knowledge, understanding and skills that significantly impact on personal development, behaviour, welfare and safety and equips every child with the knowledge and skills required for personal safeguarding.
Our outdoor learning offers a unique opportunity to learn about safety in our locality including understanding risks.
Our PSHE curriculum covers many different areas of Safeguarding including RSE (Relationships and Sex Education), drugs and alcohol education, anti-bullying, healthy relationships, citizenship and health education. We are sensitive in our teaching and recognise that some more sensitive subjects need to be taught at an age appropriate level, or at a small group or 1:1 level where a more urgent need arises.
Safeguarding opportunities are planned into the curriculum, for example:
Road and beach safety (including school visits, bikeability, work with police officers in the community)
Poolside and water safety through swimming lessons
Fire awareness (including visits to and from the local fire service)
Visits to school from medical staff
Visitors from charities such as NSPCC
Work from local voluntary sector services particularly around safe transition to Secondary school
Online safety and the use of social media
Online Safety
It is really important that we keep our staff, pupils and families safe online. Every class is taught about online safety and we regularly hold events to further raise awareness. We run workshops for parents to update them about how to keep children safe online and send leaflets and ideas home to further support our families. We also run Online Safety assemblies for our pupils and take part in national events and days such as 'Safer Internet day'.
At Pebsham Primary Academy we use the Safer Schools App. Safer Schools supports our staff, pupils and school community, providing up-to-date online safety safeguarding information. It is designed to support and protect children by educating and empowering them both at school and at home. Through the logins, pupils can receive information that is relevant to them and parents will receive tips and advice on how to keep children safer online.
Here are some tips for:
Staying safe online:
Don’t post any personal information online – like your address, email address or mobile number
Think carefully before posting pictures or videos of yourself. Once you’ve put a picture of yourself online people can see it and download it, it’s not just yours anymore
Keep your privacy settings as high as possible
Never give out your passwords
Don’t befriend people you don’t know
Don’t meet up with people you’ve met online. Speak to a trusted adult about people suggesting you do
Remember that not everyone online is who they say they are
Think carefully about what you say before you post something online
Respect other people’s views, even if you don’t agree with someone else’s views doesn’t mean you need to be rude
If you see something online that makes you feel uncomfortable, unsafe or worried: leave the website, and tell a trusted adult immediately
Staying safe on your mobile
Don’t reply to any nasty messages you receive – tell an adult about them instead
Don’t reply to a text from someone you don’t know
Keep the messages you have been sent so you can show them to a trusted adult and make a note of the time and date of the
messages or calls you receive
Don’t answer calls from withheld numbers or numbers you don’t recognise, let it go to voicemail
Don’t give your mobile number to someone you don’t know
Don’t send pictures to someone you don’t know and be very careful about sending pictures to anyone on your phone
What to do if you're being bullied online?
Tell an adult you trust if you are being cyberbullied
Don’t respond or retaliate to bullying messages – it could make things worse
Block users who send you nasty messages
Save abusive emails or messages (or texts) you receive and show an adult
Don’t pass on any cyberbullying videos or messages – this is cyberbullying
You can talk to someone at ChildLine or get online safety advice here: https://www.childline.org.uk/info-advice/bullying-abuse-safety/online-mobile-safety/