Bletchingley Village Primary School & Nursery Parent Portal

Safeguarding Update

Safeguarding Audit – A Positive Outcome for Our School

Before Christmas, our school underwent a full-day Safeguarding Audit conducted by an independent company. This was a rigorous and thorough process, and I am delighted to share the key findings with you.

The audit confirmed that safeguarding at our school is strong, proactive, and deeply embedded in our culture. Here are some of the highlights:

Strengths

Induction and Training

New staff benefit from a comprehensive induction programme, supporting reflection and growth.
Ongoing training is responsive and tailored to the needs of our school community, ensuring staff are confident and consistent in safeguarding practice.
Staff are highly attuned to children’s needs and respond proactively to concerns.

Ethos and Environment

Safeguarding is prioritised through regular training, meetings, and timely interventions.
Our Designated Safeguarding Leads (DSLs) demonstrate strong leadership and expertise.
Safeguarding is embedded across the curriculum and wider school life, with a safe, well-maintained environment that promotes wellbeing.
Classrooms are calm, inclusive, and nurturing, and provision for vulnerable pupils, including those with SEND, is exceptional.

Role of the DSL

DSLs show unwavering commitment to keeping children safe and happy.
Their deep knowledge of SEND, attendance, and pastoral care ensures vulnerable pupils are consistently supported.
Regular DSL meetings and daily communication enable collaborative planning and child-centred decision-making.

Support and Referrals

Staff know each child well, enabling personalised support.
Our Early Help offer is exemplary, combining school-led interventions with external support delivered discreetly.
Strong partnerships with external agencies ensure effective multi-agency collaboration.

Areas for Development

Policy Updates
We are reviewing some school policies to ensure they reflect our best practice.
Safer Recruitment & Record Keeping
Our recruitment processes are robust, but we are strengthening them further by updating policies, in conjunction with HR at the Trust.
Safeguarding Practice
Safeguarding records are of high quality, and we are working to make them even stronger by improving how we analyse safeguarding data to identify trends and support continuous improvement.

We are proud that the audit recognised our school as having a robust safeguarding culture, rooted in collective responsibility and care for every child.

Please see the new guide published by the children's commissioner,

Dame Rachel de Souza.

Dear Parents &Carers

I am writing to inform you that I have recently published a new guide, What I wish my parents or carers knew: A guide for parents on managing children’s digital lives.

Supporting children’s safety is a shared responsibility between families, schools and wider society. For parents and carers, this responsibility has become increasingly complex as children’s lives are now deeply intertwined with the digital world. Many parents face difficult decisions about how to balance protecting children from online harm with enabling access to spaces that are now central to learning, socialising and play.

The last time I published a guide like this, The things I wish my parents had known: Young people’s advice on talking to your child about online sexual harassment, in December 2021, it was to help parents and carers navigate difficult conversations about sexual harassment online. This guide is different in scope, in recognition of the complex, rapidly evolving landscape in which children – and parents – are navigating. It focusses on the challenge of managing children’s everyday online habits.

This guide was written with the direct involvement of children in England. It is a reflection of their views. My office visited schools to speak to teenagers, and spoke to my Youth Ambassadors and Youth Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND) Panel to get their expertise on what works and what doesn’t work between parents or carers and children in the 21st Century.

When I speak to children about what they would do differently when it comes to being online, with the benefit of hindsight, I ask them: would they give a smartphone to their own teenager? Almost unanimously, they tell me no. They want to be protected from it as long as possible.

As educators and leaders, you play a vital role in supporting parents and carers to navigate these challenges. Responses to my recent school survey show just how concerned school leaders are about their children’s safety online, despite most already taking steps to limit or ban devices from the classroom. Children are clear that they value firm, informed and protective boundaries when adults have concerns about the content they are accessing online.

As parents, carers, and educators, our job must begin and end with our children’s care and safety. It’s what they expect and what they want from you.

As one young person told me: “Don’t be afraid to be firm… If you are worried [that] your child is seeing harmful content and you don’t know what they’re watching and it’s affecting the behaviour, just take it that you know best – they don’t.”

I hope this guide will be a useful resource for your school community, and I encourage you to share it with staff and parents where appropriate.

Yours sincerely,