'Safeguarding is Everyone's Responsibility'

Safeguarding is of paramount importance at Wincanton Primary School.

If you have a concern about a child's welfare or worries that they are at risk of harm, please contact one of the safeguarding team listed below via the school office on 01963 32132 or by emailing safeguarding@wincantonprimaryschool.co.uk. 

For Out of Hours contact you can call the School Safeguarding Line : 07955 701549

Alternatively,  you can call Somerset Direct, anytime on : 0300 123 2224

You can also ring 999 if a child is in immediate danger.

If you have any doubts the matter has not been dealt with in an appropriate manner, please contact the Local Area Designated Officers (LADOs) - Anthony Goble or Stacey Davis on 0300 123 2224

Our Safeguarding Team:

SAFEGUARDING OUR CHILDREN

Wincanton Primary School is committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of all children and young people and expects all staff, volunteers and visitors to share this commitment. This means that we ensure that everyone working in our school has successfully completed the necessary clearances to enable them to work with children. 
 
It also means that we have staff members who are specifically trained and nominated as the Designated Safeguarding Lead (DSL) and deputies within our school. Part of our legal duty to safeguard our children, may also include us needing to consult specifically with and take advice from, the Police or Children's Social Care, should the need arise.

By working closely together with you, our staff and our partner agencies, we firmly believe that we will continue to offer a safe learning environment for all our children.
 

CEOP

This is short for - Child Exploitation and Online Protection

CEOP is here to keep children safe from sexual abuse and grooming online.

You can make a report directly to the CEOP Safety Centre by clicking on the Click CEOP button (pictured above) if something has happened online which has made you feel unsafe, scared or worried. This might be from someone you know in real life, or someone you have only ever met online. CEOP take all reports seriously and we will do everything we can to keep you safe.

As well as making a report to the CEOP Safety Centre, the CEOP Education website has information and advice to help you if something has happened to you online.

Are you being bullied?

CEOP are unable to respond to reports about bullying but if you’re being bullied and would like to talk to someone in confidence right now you can speak to Childline on 0800 1111 or talk to them online – no worry is too big or too small.

Please click on the internal link below.  This will take you directly to the Policies page where you will be able to find the Policies regarding Safeguarding.

Useful Links and Contacts

• Childline 0800 1111
• NSPCC https://www.nspcc.org.uk/ 0808 800 5000
• West Country Crimestoppers on 0800 555 111

WELL-BEING

At Wincanton Primary

At Wincanton Primary School, we are committed to improving and nourishing the well-being of all our children.

With guidance from The Somerset Wellbeing Framework, (https://www.cypsomersethealth.org/) we are implementing regular and consistent good practice to assist our children in emotional awareness and healthy practices. We aim to provide a whole school approach that support children to have:

• Kindness and gratitude
• Resilience
• Emotional literacy
• Self esteem
• Social skills
• Good health and self-care awareness
• Tolerance and Respect

What happens in school?

In school, we teach all children about what it means to have good mental health and wellbeing, throughout our curriculum and daily practice. We aim to help them understand that everyone has Mental Health, and, like our physical health, it is sometimes good, sometimes bad, and sometimes just OK. We aim to help them understand that this is usual for everyone.

Our PSHE curriculum focuses specifically on developing children’s social and emotional skills which can prevent poor mental health from developing and help all children to cope effectively with setbacks. It is about helping children to understand and manage their thoughts, feelings and behaviour, building skills and resilience that helps them to thrive. This is supported and supplemented by our ELSA and SEMH team.

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Who can I talk to if I have concerns?

If you have concerns about your child's mental health and well-being then there are a range of people you can speak to. We currently have a well-being action group running in our school constructed of a range of staff members, parents and ELSA practitioners.

Please see below:

Children for Children:

Well-being Ambassadors have been selected across school, they welcome children on the gate each morning, whilst our Playground Buddies ensure that children are included and treated well by all at lunchtimes. We also have a few Peer Mentors from upper KS2 who spend some lunchtimes with specific KS1 children helping them to develop social skills on the playground, and ensuring they can access and enjoy playtimes alongside their peers. Our wellbeing ambassadors, peer mentors and playground buddies aim to represent our children’s voices in all matters of well-being.

The PSHE Curriculum also emphasises the importance of good mental health and class teachers work closely with the ELSA lead to support all our pupil’s well-being.

Books around the school are read together and chosen carefully to support pupil’s well-being:        

Our values contribute to the development of our community and well-being. Our values are:

• Team work
• Independence
• Creativity
• Challenge

That incorporate other values such as

• Kindness, Tolerance and Respect
• Courage and Resilience
• Pride and Aspire

These ensure that we live well together and contribute to our warm and inclusive school community.

Supporting your child:

If you are concerned about the well-being of your child, please let us know in school as there are many ways we can support. For children who need a little extra support with their emotional development, we utilise the Somerset Graduate Response Tool and respond accordingly. Support we can offer depends on the needs of the child and can range from additional in-class PSHE sessions to time spent with our ELSA, support staff team or Parent and Family Support Advisor (PFSA.) 

Parents and families can also access a range of helpful sites for at+-home support:

https://www.youngminds.org.uk/parent/

https://www.nspcc.org.uk/keeping-children-safe/support-for-parents/mental-health-parenting/

https://www.nhs.uk/nhs-services/mental-health-services/

https://www.cypsomersethealth.org/parent_and_carer_toolkit

https://www.mindedforfamilies.org.uk/young-people

https://www.mentalhealth.org.uk/explore-mental-health/publications

We have also subscribed to FACE Family Advice – for parents to access, free of charge, professional guidance and support. You can access any of their discussion videos or book to attend a face-to-face online session to discuss any                                          issues you may have. https://www.facefamilyadvice.co.uk/

Parents:

It’s really important to look after yourselves. It is perfectly normal for us all to struggle at times.

Make sure you reach out and speak to someone. For further support, contact your GP.

You may find some of these contacts of interest or helpful:

Healthy Early Years - http://www.healthyearlyyears.co.uk/wellbeing.html

Five ways to manage your wellbeing: https://www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/articles/zrmhscw

Mindline Somerset  - Call: 01823 276 892

Open 24 hours a day, seven-days a week, Mindline is open to people of all ages who need urgent mental health support. The helpline is the first port of call for mental health help – it is operated by people in your local area who will know how best to support you.

Shout  - https://giveusashout.org/get-help/  Text SHOUT to 85258 to start the conversation

Shout 85258 is a free, confidential, anonymous text support service. It is open 24/7 for those needing to talk about mental health difficulties.

Kooth - https://www.kooth.com/?scrlybrkr=ab505ccb

Free, safe and anonymous online signposting and support for whatever you are feeling.

Samaritans  - https://www.samaritans.org/  Call: 116 123

Provides confidential, non-judgemental emotional support for people experiencing feelings of distress or despair, including those that could lead to suicide. You can phone, email, write a letter or in most cases talk to someone face to face.

Learn  For Love

As part of the initiative Somerset Connect there is a new online link for parents/grandparents/carers/teens. It’s called LearnForLove and provides online learning/advice/articles/help around health, wellbeing, pregnancy, bonding and other things. The resources are free (worth about £100 per person) and available to every resident in Somerset.  Please click on the link below for more information.

LearnForLove - Somerset Connect

Wellbeing helps us grow

Thinkuknow is an education programme from the National Crime Agency’s CEOP Command.