Safeguarding

Under the Education Act 2002 (Section 175) schools must make arrangements to safeguard and promote the welfare of children. Parents/carers should know that the law (Children Act 1989) requires all school staff to pass on information which gives rise to a concern about a child’s welfare, including risk from neglect, physical, emotional or sexual abuse.

Pontygwaith Primary School has as its priority, the protection and well being of all pupils in the school as outlined in the All Wales Child Protection Procedures.

In our school there are 4 Safeguarding Officers who have overall responsibility for child protection matters and act as a source of advice and support to other school staff.

These are:

Mrs R Scott:                       Headteacher

Miss Paula Chaffe:                 Deputy Headteacher

Mrs Lana Martin:                      SLT

Our school also has a nominated Child Protection Governor (Clr M. Adams) who has to ensure that the school has a child policy in place, which is consistent with the All Wales Child Protection Procedures (2008) and that all staff in the school must follow correct procedures where there are concerns or suspicions of child abuse.

If we receive information about a child which suggests that he/she has been abused or at risk of being abused, we have a duty to refer those concerns to the social services department of the police without delay.   The Headteacher has no discretion in this matter whatsoever.

Our first concerns as a school is your child’s welfare and where we have general concerns, these will be raised with you and we would want to work with you to remedy the situation.  However, there may be concerns, as listed above, where we have to talk to other agencies before we contact you.  Should this be necessary, we want to reassure you that any concerns we have about your child will then be fully discussed with you in a way which is consistent with your child’s best interests.