Safeguarding

We are committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of all students by protecting children from maltreatment, preventing the impairment of health or development and by ensuring that children grow up in circumstances consistent with the provision of safe and effective care.

Our school is committed to meeting its moral and statutory responsibility, ensuring that robust procedures are in place, outlining the actions that it will take to prevent harm, to promote well-being, to create safe environments and to respond to specific issues and vulnerabilities.

Safeguarding determines the actions taken to keep children safe and protect them from harm in all aspects of their school life to ensure that they have the best outcomes. This is underpinned by a culture of openness where both children and adults feel secure, able to talk, and believe that they are being listened to.

We maintain an attitude of ‘it could happen here’ and expects that all staff and volunteers share and demonstrate their commitment to protecting children.

We have a team of Designated Safeguarding Leads (DSLs). The team ensure that we are fully compliant and at all times we are protecting, to the best of our ability the children in our school.

Designated Safeguarding Leads

• Mrs Edwards - Designated Safeguard Lead
• Mr Scarth - Designated Safeguarding Deputy
• Mrs Williams - Designated Safeguard Deputy
• Ms Anderson - Designated Safeguard Deputy

Keeping Children Safe in Education - Part 1 translated into community languages (LGfL)

The London Grid for Learning (LGfL) have translated KCSIE 2024 Part 1 into a number of community languages as part of their commitment to helping schools keep children safe.

The translations were carried out by professional linguists with secondary proofing. However, the original English version should be treated as the official source of statutory school staff duties. Translations available are:

• English (original)
• Arabic
• Bengali
• Cantonese
• Gujarati
• Mandarin
• Polish
• Portuguese
• Punjabi
• Spanish
• Urdu
• Somali

The translated documents can be found here.

What to do if you have a safeguarding concern

If you are worried or concerned about the way a child is being treated and think they may be at risk of harm, abuse or neglect please report it.

The School's Safeguarding Team are always available during term time. If your concern is during holiday time or is related to a child that does not attend Colley Lane please contact:

• Children’s services referral and advice service (MASH) on 0300 555 0050 (Mon-Fri 9am to 5pm)
• Emergency duty team on 0300 555 8574 (Out of office hours)
• Or in an emergency call 999
• Alternatively, you can call Childline on 0800 1111 or visit their website
• Request for Help and Support website

Operation Encompass

Our school part of the Operation Encompass project which runs alongside The West Midlands Police.

Operation Encompass reports to schools, prior to the start of the next school day, when a child or young person has been exposed to or involved in, any domestic incident.

Operation Encompass will ensure that a member of the school staff, known as a Key Adult, is trained to allow them to liaise with the police and to use the information that has been shared, in confidence, while ensuring that the school is able to make provision for possible difficulties experienced by children, or their families, who have been involved in or exposed to, a domestic incident. 

Dudley’s Early Help Strategy

Providing early help is more effective in promoting the welfare of children than reacting later.

Early help means providing support as soon as a problem emerges, at any point in a child’s life. Early help can also prevent further problems from arising.

Effective early help relies upon local organisations and agencies working together to identify children and families who would benefit from early help and to undertake an assessment of the need for early help.

For more information on Early Help please view the Dudley Early Help page, or speak to a Designated Safeguarding Lead.

Password System

Parents/carers will be required to set up a password when the child enrols. Passwords are held with the class teacher and the school office.

As part of our ongoing commitment to ensure the safety of the children we operate a system whereby a password will be required to be given before your child can be collected by someone other than the usual person.

Should this occur the person collecting must give the password to the teacher. We will not allow children to go home with an unfamiliar person without a password.

Children Walking to and from School

There is no set legal age that children can walk to and from school independently or be left on their own. It is an offence, however, to leave a child alone if it places them at risk and therefore schools have a continual obligation to alert relevant authorities if they believe this is the case.

Should you, as parent/carers, feel your child is mature enough to cope with the responsibility of walking to and from school could you please complete and return the form below, giving permission for your child to do so.

Permission form

It is recommended that only year 6 children are allowed to walk to and from school alone. However, individual cases will be discussed if requested. No child will be able to walk home alone without prior consent from a parent or guardian.

A register of children with permission will be held with the school office team.

Collection and Dropping off Children Before and After School

It is the parent/carer’s responsibility to ensure that the child is dropped off and collected by a responsible person if it is not safe for the child to walk home unsupervised. There is no minimum age set in law when a young person is allowed to remain in charge of another child. However, it is an offence to leave a child alone if it places them at risk and this can include the care of a sibling.

We recommend, as advised by the NSPCC, that only a young person aged 16 years or above should be permitted to drop off or collect children from school.

Safeguarding Information, Help and Advice

We work tirelessly to ensure our pupils are safe, happy and supported in fulfilling their potential, both academically and personally. Below are some helpful policies should you require more information:

Educate Against Hate

An educate against hate website was launched by Nicky Morgan, whilst she was England’s Education Secretary, as part of a renewed drive against extremism. At Colley Lane, we are committed to safeguarding and protecting pupils from potential risk and have added the link to our website which parents may find useful or interesting.