Safeguarding
Please see the updated Safeguarding policy
Safeguarding and CP policy 2023.pdf
Please see our Parent Safeguarding Leaflet below
Click for more information on how to keep your child safe on the Internet.
Please view the kids zone page to view more information about E - Safety.
The Designated Safeguard Lead is Mrs Rebecca Strange and the Deputy Designated Safeguard Lead is
Miss Michelle Bailey. Our Early Help Leader/Parent Support Worker is Mrs Megan Henderson
Look under policies for our Child Protection Policy.
As outlined in Section 11 of the Children’s Act 2004; there is a great emphasis and it places a responsibility on Ocker Hill Infant to safeguard and promote the welfare of our children. This responsibility complements the statutory requirements placed on the school under Section 157/175 of the Education Act 2002.
In order to meet these expectations the school will ensure that it will :
- · Have a Senior Management Team who are committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of our children at school and in the community
- · Have a team of staff, volunteers and governors who understand how to protect and safeguard our children and know how and when they must report concerns about their welfare. This is a continual rigorous process to our school.
- · Have a clear statement of its responsibility to safeguard our children as defined in safeguarding policies and any training undertaken with staff, volunteers and governors.
- · Have clear lines of accountability for staff, volunteers and governors in the school as defined in our child protection policy and other safeguarding policies
- · Ensures that our children are free to express their wishes and feelings throughout their experience and within a rich environment that Ocker Hill Infant and Nursery is a 'listening' school and all staff are committed to the ethos of 'A love of learning gives you wings'.
- · Ensure that staff, volunteers and governors access training in relation to the welfare and protection of our children within the expectations of local and national guidance
- · Have robust recruitment procedures which promote the welfare of our children as laid out in the schools recruitment policy and are in line with national guidance
- · Work in close partnership with parents/carers and other services concerned with the safeguarding of our children to meet both local and national expectations.
Online Safety
Filtering and Monitoring.
Parents can be reassured that at Ocker Hill Infant and Nursery School we employ quality filtering and monitoring systems to mitigate the risks of our children's online safety. The school uses DNSFilter, as its filtering system, employing a continuously updated series of watchwords to filter the content of the internet from any of the machines within the school system. Although no system is perfect, this has provided quality of control on internet provision in school.
All school devices, including Ipads and Laptops which may be used, are part of the school's Monitoring program. The system monitors keyboard entry and reports key words and watch words as they are typed on any child's keyboard. This provides real time and highly effective monitoring of all users on the school system. This should provide parents and carers with confidence that their children's experience of the online world is safe and backed up by a broad curriculum of online safety guidance.
Children will be asked to explore an increasingly wide range of websites and digital content and will be required to use search engines to develop their skills as a digital citizen - using these systems of filtering and monitoring we feel secure in exploring the online world, giving us opportunities to learn about online risks as we progress through school. Internet safety is a huge part of our school curriculum and we challenge children to think about the key themes of content, contact, conduct and contract which form the four main areas for online safety. We believe that this gives them the best preparation for digital citizenship of the future.
Please remember to apply appropriate settings to children's devices when they are using the internet at home or on mobile devices. Please refer to advice and guidance to ensure children's devices are appropriately managed.
What Is web filtering?
Web filtering is a technology stops users from viewing certain URLs or websites by preventing their browsers from loading pages from these sites. Web filters are made in different ways and deliver various solutions for individual, family, institutional or enterprise use.
In general, Web filters work in two distinct ways. They can block content as determined by quality of the site, by consulting known lists which document and categorize popular pages across all genres of content. Or, they can evaluate the content of the page live and block it accordingly. Many Web filter tools work off of a constantly updated URL database that shows which websites and domains are associated with hosting malware, phishing, viruses or other tools for harmful activities.
On the surface, web filtering is pretty simple, but like all things, as you start to learn more, everything becomes more complex. With close to a billion active websites on the internet, there’s is no way that every website can be included on a web filtering programs exclusion lists.
