Safeguarding Information

Ar West Newcastle Academy, Safeguarding is everyone's responsibility. Safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children is defined as:

• Providing help and support to meet the needs of children as soon as problems emerge
• protecting children from maltreatment, whether that is within or outside the home, including online
• preventing the impairment of children’s mental and physical health or development
• ensuring that children grow up in circumstances consistent with the provision of safe and effective care
• taking action to enable all children to have the best outcomes

 Keeping children safe in education 2025

Child protection is part of safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children and is defined as activity that is undertaken to protect specific children who are suspected to be suffering, or likely to suffer, significant harm. This includes harm that occurs inside or outside the home, including online.

"Effective safeguarding means practitioners should understand and be sensitive to factors,

including economic and social circumstances and ethnicity, which can impact children and

families’ lives."

Working Together to Safeguard Children 2023

Safeguarding at West Newcastle Academy

• Our team meet every fortnight for a specific Safeguarding briefing to discuss children from Nursery to Year 6
• Our Safeguarding Governor is Jen Vidrine
• Our Safeguarding Consultant is Tracey Welsh from Clennell Education Solutions

• This is our contact to the Local Authority's Initial Response Team where we would report a concern about a child in school

Reporting a concern

Empowering our children

We discuss Safeguarding with all our children each and every week. Often, we use the phrase, "Give me 5 ways to stay safe..." 

In addition, all of our children are encouraged to name 2 Trusted Adults in school whom they can talk to; this does not have to be their class teacher.

In addition, we receive support from external providers such as the NSPCC related to specific topics such as Talk Pants. Since 2013, Pantosaurus has helped over six million parents to Talk PANTS and help keep children safe from sexual abuse.

Developed with children, parents, carers and teachers, Talk PANTS is here to help children understand that their body belongs to them, and they should tell a safe adult they trust if anything makes them feel upset or worried.

If they are worried, all children can talk to a trained adult on Childline.

Phone Childline

Operation Encompass 

Operation Encompass operates in all police forces across England. It helps police and schools work together to provide emotional and practical help to children. The system ensures that when police are called to an incident of domestic abuse, where there are children in the household who have experienced the domestic incident, the police should inform the key adult (usually the designated safeguarding lead) in school before the child or children arrive at school the following day. This ensures that the school has up to date relevant information about the child’s circumstances and can enable immediate support to be put in place, according to the child’s needs.