Safeguarding and Child Protection

Vernham Dean Gillum’s Church of England Primary School is committed to safeguarding and promoting the safety and welfare of children and expects all staff, Governors and volunteers to share this commitment. We are fully committed to ensuring that consistent, effective safeguarding procedures are in place to support families, children and staff at school.

The school follows procedures set out by Hampshire Education, and the Hampshire Safeguarding Children Board alongside taking guidance from the Department of Education.

Safeguarding Team

Designated Safeguarding Lead: Holly Bulpitt
Deputy Designated Safeguarding Lead: Helen Silver, Fliss Davis, Flo Nicoll, Kirsty Walker and Sharon Pole
Safeguarding Governor: Paul Nicoll

Online Safety Governor: Kate Taylor

Cause for Concern

Our first priority is of course your child’s welfare and the school is required to take any reasonable action to ensure the safety of its pupils at all times. However there may be occasions when the school has reasons to be concerned that a child may be subject to ill-treatment, neglect or other forms of abuse. We will ensure that our concerns about a child are discussed with his/her parents/carers first, unless we have reason to believe that such a move would be contrary to the child’s welfare. In this case school is obliged to follow the Child Protection procedures established by Hampshire County Council Children’s Services and inform them of the concern.

If you are worried about a child’s safety please do not hesitate to contact  Miss Pole, Mrs Bulpitt, Mrs Silver, Mrs Davis or Miss Nicoll straight away on 01264 737241. If you feel a child is at immediate harm please call 101 or Hampshire Children's Services on 0300 555 1384 or Wiltshire Children's Services on 0300 456 0108.

Young people and adults can contact the NSPCC helpline, Report Abuse in Education on 0800 136 663 or email help@nspcc.org.uk

Select the link below, which takes you to the E-Safety section on the parents area of our website.

CLEVER NEVER GOES has been developed to replace the out-dated ‘stranger danger’ approach.

Whilst child abduction is relatively uncommon, it’s important that children can recognise the potential signs of danger. Teaching children simply to avoid strangers doesn’t work. Most strangers will help rather than harm children. Conversely, it is often people known to children that pose the greatest threat.

Clever Never Goes moves the focus away from strangers and instead teaches children to recognise when someone (anyone) is asking them to go with them. We call this ‘Go Spotting’. In doing so, the programme aims to give children practical safety skills which they can use as they get older and become more independent.

It’s about safety – but it’s also about building children’s abilities to engage with the outside world, and giving parents the confidence to let them.