Safeguarding

At Dr Challoner’s Grammar School the health, safety and well-being of every child are our paramount concern. We want to work in partnership with parents to help all our students achieve their full potential and flourish both in and out of school.

To promote a safe environment for students, our selection and recruitment policy includes checks on staff and volunteers’ suitability, including DBS checks as recommended by Buckinghamshire County Council in accordance with current legislation.

In accordance with our responsibilities under section 175/157 of the Education Act 2002, and in line with Keeping Children Safe in Education 2024, we have an Acting Designated Safeguarding Lead for Child Protection (Mrs Stephanie Rodgers) who is a member of the Senior Leadership Team, and has received appropriate training for this role. It is their responsibility to ensure all staff in contact with students receive child protection awareness training on a regular basis. We believe safeguarding and promoting our students welfare is everyone’s responsibility and we work together as a team to achieve this. We listen to our students and take seriously what they tell us. A number of other staff are trained as additional Designated Safeguarding Leads to ensure there are sufficient staff to undertake this work.

There are occasions that our concern about a child may mean that we have to consult other agencies. Whilst we would always aim to work in partnership with parents, there may be exceptions to this when concerns are raised for the protection of a child.

On very rare occasions Social Care, whilst undertaking an investigation under S47 of the Children Act 1989, may want to speak to the child without the knowledge of the parent(s). This would be a decision made in collaboration with partner agencies and would only be done in situations where a child might be at immediate risk of harm. To gain consent at this point may increase the level of risk to the child or cause evidence of a crime to be lost.

The procedures which we follow have been laid down by Statutory Guidance and the Local Safeguarding Children’s Board, and the school has adopted a Child Protection Policy in line with this for the safety of all. If you want to know more about our procedures, please speak to the Headteacher or the Designated Safeguarding Lead. Our Child Protection Policy can be found on our school website.

If you have a Safeguarding concern and want to speak to the school, please contact Mrs Rodgers: 01494 787500 or email dsl@challoners.org.

You can also call the Buckinghamshire Social Care First Response Team on 08454 600001 or if a child is at immediate risk of significant harm call 999.