School Safeguarding Statement

At St. Michael’s we are acutely aware of the importance of ‘Keeping Children Safe In Education’ and take notice of, and adhere to all the national and local policies and guidance in regard to Safeguarding Children and Young People. We also extend this to staff and visitors to our school.

The Governors and staff of St. Michael’s CE School fully recognise their statutory responsibilities and duties placed upon them to have arrangements in place to safeguard and promote the welfare of all pupils at the school. We recognise that all staff, including volunteers, have a full and active part to play in protecting pupils from harm. We believe that our school should provide a safe, caring, positive, and stimulating environment in which pupils can learn and which promotes the social, physical and emotional wellbeing of each individual pupil. This also extends to educational visits / school journey and any events that might have an impact upon the safety of our community.

This very important tab outlines the ‘School Procedures’ we have in place in the event of an emergency.   This page will be updated as/when information changes.

School Emergency Procedures

Keeping Children Safe in Education remains at the forefront of all that we do and at St. Michael’s CE School we put the safety of our children, staff and families first. We have the following procedures in place to support our school community and as a self evaluative and reflective school we carry out reviews of the systems and procedures as outlined below.

The Senior Leadership Team (SLT) and the Health & Safety Governor review our site, fire, emergency evacuation and lockdown procedures on a half termly basis as part of our health and safety / safeguarding review. The Premises Manager carries out a daily walk around the site review and a weekly full site review each week and this includes the testing of the emergency alarms. 

The following procedures are in place at school: In the event of an emergency occurring, the Main Office will communicate with parents and the primary channel of communication will be through:

• A whole school email giving specific details;

• A short whole school text message asking parents to refer to this tab;

• Individual texts copied to class reps to be forwarded via the class ‘WhatsApp’ group;

• Updating this tab on the school website with key announcements.

Please Note: It is vital that all pupil records are kept up to date  so that in the event of an emergency occurring, we can make contact.  Please ensure all mobile/work numbers and emails are up to date.

In the event of phone lines being down, we will regularly update this tab on our school website to keep everyone informed. If the Internet is down, please be reassured that all children will remain at school and we will implement the school ‘ emergency lock down procedures’ / emergency procedures until communication resumes and we are able to give out information again.

Educational Trips / School Journey Emergency Procedures

As a school we always carry out risk assessments before a trip / educational visit takes place.  One aspect of the assessment is always to include an alternative safe place and alternative travel arrangements. In the event of an incident / event occurring whilst children are out on a trip the group leader will liaise with Senior Leadership from the school. Emergency procedures will then be put in place and the staff, with the children, will make appropriate arrangements to keep the group of children they are with safe. The group leader will liaise with Senior Leaders from the school about how to return to school safely. We will always take advice from the Local Authority and police. 

Whilst we appreciate the concern and anxiety caused, it is important for parents not to panic in this situation and to follow our procedures. Furthermore, it is also advised that parents come directly to school and not to go to the venue. We will again communicate with all parents via the channel of communication outlined above. Throughout this process the Local Authority, police and Chair of the Board of Governors are always kept informed.

Please refer to the Educational Visits tab outlining the risk assessments in place and also educational visit termly reviews.

Emergency Lockdown Localised Incident Procedures

In the event of an emergency lockdown localised incident occurring and there is a danger, we will implement the emergency lockdown localised procedures. We will secure the school gates and lock the school. At this point communication with parents via the methods above will be carried out. We will be liaising with the police and the Local Authority to take advice on when to re-open the school. We will only do this when the local area is deemed safe again.

Again, whilst we appreciate the concern and anxiety caused, it is important for parents not to panic in this situation and to follow our procedures. We will communicate with parents at all times to keep everyone up to date with the situation and follow the advice of the Local Authority and police.

Evacuation of School Site in an Emergency

In the event of the need to evacuate the school site to an alternative safe place  we will evacuate to our agreed local safe evacuation points – St. Michael’s Church at the junction of Granville Road / Wimbledon Park Road or Saint Cecilia’s CE School on Sutherland Grove.  These are published and agreed places of safe evacuation.

If an emergency occurs and parents cannot get easy access to the school to collect them, we will keep the children on site until parents arrive.

Once again we would like to reiterate that correct channels of communication are vital in the success during this period.