Safeguarding
Marsh Hill Primary School is committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children and expects all staff and volunteers to share this commitment. The health and safety of all our children is paramount.
Sometimes we may need to share information and work in partnership with other agencies when there are concerns about a child’s welfare. We will ensure that concerns about our children are discussed with parents/carers first unless we have reason to believe that such a move will result in further harm to the child.
At Marsh Hill, Safeguarding is not just about protecting children from deliberate harm such as abuse or neglect, but preventing them from harm through the following:
Pupil health and safety
- Bullying; racist abuse; harassment and discrimination
- Meeting the needs of pupils with medical conditions
- Providing First Aid
- Safe educational visits
- Pastoral care
- Internet safety
- Gang activities
- School security
- E-safety
We ensure that children are growing up in a safe environment at home and school which enables them to have optimum life chances and enter adulthood successfully and happily.
| Safeguarding Level 3+ | Prevent | Safer Recruitment | Paediatric / First Aid | Team Teach | ||
| John Cusack | Head Teacher | ♦ | ♦ | ♦ | ♦ | |
| Rebecca Leavey | Deputy Head Teacher | ♦ | ♦ | ♦ | ♦ | |
| Nicola Clover | Assistant Head Teacher / Phase 2 Leader | ♦ | ♦ | ♦ | ♦ | |
| Mohammed Moheen | Assistant Head Teacher / SENDCo / Designated Teacher for CiC | ♦ | ♦ | ♦ | ||
| Cathy Lomas | Pastoral Leader / Designated Safeguarding Lead / SPOC / Attendance | ♦ | ♦ | ♦ | ♦ | ♦ |
| Julie Holmes | Class Teacher / Responsibility for pupils with medical conditions | ♦ | ♦ | ♦ | ♦ | |
| Stephanie Hunt | Class Teacher | ♦ | ♦ | ♦ | ♦ | |
| Chris Pritchard | Learning Mentor | ♦ | ♦ | ♦ | ♦ | |
| Sarah MacNulty | Safeguarding Governor | |||||
| Carissa Lewis | Safeguarding Governor | |||||
| Mark Farmer | Safeguarding Governor |
All adults in school, including Staff, Volunteers and Governors, undertake annual Level 1 safeguarding training. Additional opportunities for refresher training and case supervision for school-based staff are provided throughout the academic year. As per statutory requirements, all employees complete Prevent training annually. All school-based staff are required to have a working knowledge of Attendance procedures and reporting, together with an understanding of Online Safety measures taken in school.
Marsh Hill uses Link2ICT Smoothwall to monitor and filter all electronic devices in school to ensure the safety of its pupils whilst Online. The school is committed to Safer Recruitment practices. The SPOC is Cathy Lomas (Single Point of contact for Prevent and Online Safety). Rachel Cureton is responsible for the delivery of Online Safety within the curriculum.
All appropriate staff complete Team Teach training. In instances where Care and Control procedures are followed, details are recorded and the information is used to provide appropriate risk assessments and support measures for the children and families involved.
In addition to the aforementioned, all staff receive annual basic First Aid training including the use of inhalers and epi-pens. Helen Marshall is responsible for the first aid equipment used in school.
If you have any concerns about child protection or safeguarding and are unable to contact our school then please contact: C.A.S.S. – Children’s Advice and Support Service on 0121 303 1888. Click here for more information.
You can view our Safeguarding Policy in our Policies section of the website
Early Help Offer
What do we mean by Early Help?
Early Help means taking action to support a child, young person or their family early in the life of a problem, as soon as it emerges. It can be required at any stage in a child’s life from pre-birth to adulthood, and applies to any problem or need that the family cannot deal with or meet on their own. It also applies to all children and young people, with any form of need.
Early Help requires that agencies should work together as soon as a problem emerges or a need is identified to ensure the child gets the right response, and the right services, from the right people at the right time. Our aim is to meet need early and avoid a problem escalating or the need increasing.
If you are struggling, we are here to help you please contact the school office in the first instance and they will direct you to the appropriate person to assist you.
Or click on this link for your one stop directory for health and wellbeing services across Birmingham:
Prevent Duty for Schools
As part of Marsh Hill Primary School's ongoing safeguarding and child protection duties we are fully behind the government's Prevent Strategy. From 1 July 2015 all schools are subject to a duty under section 26 of the Counter-Terrorism and Security Act 2015, in the exercise of their functions, to have “due regard to the need to prevent people from being drawn into terrorism”. This duty is known as the Prevent Duty for Schools.
At Marsh Hill, we build pupils’ resilience to radicalisation by promoting fundamental British values and enabling our pupils to challenge extremist views.
The Department of Education advice refers to the importance of Prevent awareness training to equip staff to identify children at risk of being drawn into terrorism and to challenge extremist ideas. The Home Office has developed a core training product for this purpose – Workshop to Raise Awareness of Prevent (WRAP). All our staff have received WRAP training sessions to ensure their understanding of what Prevent is about and how to deal with any issues they may see inside or outside school. For more information click here.
View our Prevent Duty Risk Assessment
Operation Encompass
With effect from September 2021, Marsh Hill Primary School will be taking part in a joint operation involving Birmingham Children’s Trust, Birmingham City Council, and West Midlands Police. This will formally be known as Operation Encompass.
Operation Encompass has been established to help schools provide in-school support to children who have been present at, exposed to or involved in any domestic abuse incident. Click here to access further information.
For further information, please click here to access the following statutory guidance:
- Keeping Children Safe in Education
- Multi Agency Statutory Guidance on FGM
- Working Together to Safeguard Children
- Disqualification under the childcare act
- Promoting the educational achievement of looked after children
- Statutory Guidance on Court Orders and pre-proceedings
- Supervision of activity with children which is regulated activity when unsupervised
- Children Act Guidance 2015
