The purpose of this newsletter will be to highlight resources and organisations that can help to keep children safe.

As we start the year, I would like to remind you all that at Southwark Park Primary School, safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children is everyone’s responsibility and our top priority. Everyone who comes in to contact with the children and families who comprise our community has a role to play.

Everything that we do has the children at its centre. Their well-being, their safety, their achievement, their happiness underpins every decision we make. Often when safeguarding is mentioned, the immediate thought is about child protection – when a child is suffering harm, or is in danger of suffering harm. However, safeguarding is much more complex than this and encompasses a very wide range of areas. At Southwark Park, we ensure that all of our staff are well trained in all aspects of safeguarding and this training is regularly updated and frequently revisited throughout the year. We also ensure that our curriculum provides the children with age-appropriate opportunities to learn how to keep themselves healthy and safe.

With this in mind I will continue to send out a half-termly newsletter informing you of any recent safeguarding updates as well as providing you with key information around a range of safeguarding issues. This issue will introduce you to the school’s Designated Safeguarding Team, the DfE document ‘Keeping Children Safe in Education’ 2024 and the importance of attendance and punctuality.

Mrs Foreman, DSL

A member of the Safeguarding Team is always available to have a chat with about any concerns you have.

Each school must have an appropriate senior member of staff to take lead responsibility for child protection.

Key aspects of the ‘Designated Safeguarding Lead’ role include:

➢ Ensuring that all staff are aware of the processes for raising safeguarding concerns

➢ Ensuring all staff understand the signs of child abuse and neglect

➢ Talking to parents and guardians about concerns

➢ Referring any significant concerns to Social Care

➢ Monitoring children who are the subject of Child Protection and CiN (Child in Need) Plans

➢ Maintaining accurate and secure child protection records

➢ Raising awareness of the school’s safeguarding policies and procedures, and ensuring these are implemented and reviewed regularly.

‘Keeping Children Safe in Education 2024’ is a statutory Department for Education document that all schools are required to follow when carrying out their duties to safeguard and promote the welfare of children. It covers many aspects of safeguarding, including different forms of abuse, early help processes, safer-recruitment, how concerns must be reported and the role of the Designated Safeguarding Leads.

Safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children is defined as:

➢ Protecting children from maltreatment

➢ Preventing impairment of children’s mental and physical 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

Click here for the full document: Keeping Children Safe in Education, 2024

We are sure that, like us, you as parents and carers realise the importance of attendance and punctuality. At Southwark Park, we continue to work hard to maintain our excellent attendance levels and to reduce incidences of lateness.

Attendance facts:

• All schools must report their termly attendance percentages to the local authority.

• Everyday, our attendance information is shared with the local authority and the Department for Education.

• It is a parents responsibility to inform the school (phone call, Arbor message, text message) if your child is ill or has an appointment (proof to be provided to the school office).

• Parents have a legal responsibility to ensure that their child receives a full-time education.

• Parents can be issued with a fixed penalty notice for failing to ensure their child attends school regularly – this includes taking a child out of school on holiday.

• The local authority has the power to prosecute parents in the magistrate’s court for the offence of failing to ensure their child attends school regularly.

There is much evidence to show that good attendance plays a vital role in helping your child to achieve their potential. We also know that poor attendance can lead to other problems for children. Children who do not attend school regularly are more likely to:

• Fall behind in their school work

• Find it difficult to make and keep friends

• Be unhappy at school

• Misbehave so that others cannot see that they are finding the work difficult

• Learn poor attendance habits that follow through to secondary school and future employment

Poor punctuality can also disadvantage children in many ways:

• Being frequently late adds up to lost learning. For example, arriving 15 minutes late every day is the same as being absent for 2 weeks of the year

• When children are late they find it harder to settle in to the routine of the day

• When children arrive late they often miss key messages and teaching which continues to have an effect on their learning for the rest of the lesson or day

• Poor punctuality disrupts the class and is embarrassing for the child

• Your child being late disturbs the learning of the whole class

If your child arrives after 9.30am we are required to mark them as having an unauthorised absence for the whole morning – arriving after 9.30am once in a week brings their attendance down to 90% for that week.

Getting here on time every day really is important in helping your child to become a happy and successful

✓ Talk to your child about school

✓ Take a positive interest in your child’s work, including their homework

✓ Make sure your child understands why school is important

✓ Show your child that you are interested in what they have done at school

✓ Get everything ready for school the night before

✓ Arrange appointments before or after school or during the school holidays wherever possible

✓ If an appointment must be taken during the school day, wherever possible bring your child to school before and after that time

✓ Take holidays during school holidays and not during term time

✓ Set your alarm and an alarm for your child – see who can beat the clock!

✓ If your child is just slightly under the weather, still send them in to school. Children often feel better as the day goes on and they get busy. If school is worried, we will call!

✓ Children can attend school if they are taking medication – speak to the staff in the school office.

✓ We can give children certain medications with your permission.

Remember to checkout our school calendar on our webpage to see all the upcoming events and special dates for children. Please let a member of staff know if you have any questions!