At The Cottesloe School, we take our responsibilities in relation to safeguarding and child protection very seriously. We instil a strong culture of vigilance amongst all members of the school community and believe it is our shared responsibility to safeguard each other.

Safeguarding begins with ensuring that anybody who comes in contact with our young people is appropriately checked and cleared to ensure they are safe to work in our school. Access to the site is closely monitored. Our recruitment procedures follow “safer recruitment” guidelines that include steps to DETER, IDENTIFY and REJECT those applicants who are not safe to work with children. All staff undergo regular and approved training and updates on their obligations with regard to child protection and safeguarding. This includes training in areas such as misuse of the internet and social media, child sexual exploitation and the government’s 'Prevent' strategy, aimed at stopping young people from falling prey to radicalisation.

The school works closely with partner agencies such as, Social Care, Women’s Aid, Barnardo's, the Police and the Local Authority to ensure young people are kept safe.

The school follows the government guidance as set out in the following documents:

• www.gov.uk/working-together-to-safeguard-children
• www.gov.uk/government/publications/keeping-children-safe-in-education
• www.legislation.gov.uk/ - Children Act 1989
• www.legislation.gov.uk/ - Equalities Act 2010
• www.legislation.gov.uk/ - Terrorism Prevention and Investigation Measures
• www.legislation.gov.uk/ - Serious Crime Act 2015
• www.legislation.gov.uk/ - Female Genital Mutilation Act 2003

We also follow guidance from the Local Safeguarding Children Partnership and the Local Authority.

Operation Encompass

The Cottesloe School is part of Operation Encompass.

This initiative is a collaborative early intervention safeguarding partnership between the police and educational institutions, aimed at supporting children and young people affected by Domestic Abuse. Through Operation Encompass, the police will provide our school with information regarding Domestic Abuse incidents before the start of the next school day, whenever they respond to a domestic incident.

Our parents are fully informed that we are an Operation Encompass School. Information related to Operation Encompass is securely stored alongside other confidential safeguarding and child protection data.

The Designated Safeguarding Lead (DSL) has completed training on Operation Encompass on the prevalence of Domestic Abuse, and its effects on children. We have also explored ways to support our students following any notifications from Operation Encompass. We recognise the importance of ensuring that our actions do not put the child or the non-abusing adult at risk.