Everyone (staff, governors and volunteers) associated with Stretton CE Academy is committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children and young people. We believe that every child has a right to learn in a supportive, caring and safe environment and to be protected from all types of abuse. We prioritise safeguarding above everything else and will do all we can to protect and support the young people in our care.

Everyone who works or volunteers at the academy is subject to an enhanced DBS disclosure, which is revisited regularly.

Our safeguarding policies are available on our policies page here and the Multi Academy Trust Safeguarding principles are available on the MAT Policies page here.

We follow guidance on good practice on safeguarding from the Trust as well as guidance and updates from external agencies and local safeguarding boards:

Warwickshire - Safeguarding children

Coventry - Safeguarding children

If you have any questions or queries regarding any aspect of safeguarding, please do not hesitate to get in touch with one of our Designated Safeguarding Leads, Mrs Roberta Mainwaring, Mrs Leah Baddeley or Mrs Holly Inwards.

Collecting pupils from the Academy
Children will normally enter and leave the academy through their classroom door at the start and end of each day. If you need to arrive or collect your child at a different time, please use the main office entrance to ensure that your child's arrival or departure can be registered accurately. Please inform the Academy office in advance of collection if you need to arrange for someone other than yourself or your usual agreed contact to collect your child from the Academy. We are happy to agree safe words with parents/carers that can be used at collection times to ensure adults who may be unfamiliar to staff are the agreed contact collecting a child on an occasional basis.

Young Carers

A Young Carer is a young person who lives with someone who needs additional support due to illness, disability, mental health or other difficulties. Young carers may be taking on practical and/or emotional caring responsibilities that would not normally be expected from a child. Caring responsibilities may include providing physical care such as personal care, giving medication, helping someone get up, get dressed or get around, or it could mean providing emotional support such as listening to them if they’re upset and looking out for them. In addition, many young carers are also responsible for looking after younger siblings, and for other roles around the home such as cooking, shopping or cleaning. These can be challenging and tiring responsibilities for young people to maintain and it is important that children who are young carers are recognised and supported in school, as well as at home. 

If you think your child/children could be a young carer, please let us know.

You can also read more about how to support young carers by visiting these websites:
Coventry Young Carers or Warwickshire Young Carers

Local Safeguarding Children Partnerships

Local Safeguarding Children Partnerships have been established between local councils, police, the National Health Service (NHS) and other key partner agencies working together to safeguard children, young people and adults.

The Coventry Safeguarding Children Partnership (CSCP) can be contacted in the following ways:

Telephone:     02476 975477

e-mail:             CoventryCSCP@coventry.gov.uk

Twitter:           @covCSCPandCSAB

You can also sign up to receive the CSCP e-newsletter and you can access further safeguarding information here.

Please note that this team cannot take calls about individual children or families.

To discuss an individual or to get help with safeguarding advice, please call Coventry Children’s Social Care at the Multi Agency Safeguarding Hub (MASH) on 024 7678 8555.

Prevent
'Prevent' is part of the Government counter-terrorism strategy. Its aim is to reduce the threat to the UK from terrorism by preventing people from becoming terrorists or supporting terrorism. The Prevent Strategy has three key objectives:

• to respond to the ideological challenge of terrorism and that threat from those who promote it
• to prevent people from being drawn into terrorism and ensure that they are given appropriate advice and support
• to work with sectors and institutions where there are risks of radicalisation 

Terrorist groups often draw on extremist ideology, developed by extremist organisations. Some people who join terrorist groups have previously been members of extremist organisations and have been radicalised by them. The Government has defined extremism in the Prevent strategy as: “vocal or active opposition to fundamental British values, including democracy, the rule of law, individual liberty and mutual respect and tolerance of different faiths and beliefs..."

All schools (as well as other organisations) have a duty to safeguard children from radicalisation and extremism of all kinds. This means we have a responsibility to protect children from extremist and violent views, in the same way we protect them from drugs or gang violence. Importantly, we can provide a safe place for pupils to discuss these issues so they understand how to protect themselves. 
 
Many of the things we already do in schools to help children become positive, happy members of society also contribute to the Prevent strategy. These include:

• Exploring other cultures and religions to develop understanding and mutual respect
• Promotion of equality and diversity
• Challenging prejudices and racist comments
• Developing students' critical thinking skills and supporting them to develop a strong positive self-identity
• Promoting the spiritual, moral, social and cultural development of pupils, as well as promoting the British values of freedom, democracy, respect, tolerance and justice.

We will also protect children from the risk of radicalisation, for example by using filters on the internet to make sure they cannot access extremist and terrorist material, and by vetting visitors who come into school to work with pupils. All staff also receive at least annual training on Prevent to ensure that they are aware of the risks of radicalisation, can identify safeguarding risks appropriately, and can support students effectively when needed.

Further information about Prevent can be found here.