It is every school’s statutory responsibility to safeguard and promote the welfare of children, as outlined by the DfE in its publication Keeping Children Safe in Education, updated for September 2025.

This means that a school must protect children from maltreatment, prevent impairment of children’s health or development, ensure that children grow up in circumstances consistent with the provision of safe and effective care, and take action to enable all children to achieve the best outcomes.

St Marie’s RC Primary School is committed to providing a safe and secure environment for all children, staff and visitors and promoting a climate where children and adults will feel confident about sharing any concerns which they may have about their own safety or the well-being of others.

What to do if you are Concerned

If you are concerned about a child’s wellbeing, please share your concern with Mr McRae, the Head teacher and Designated Safeguarding Lead, at the earliest opportunity. Contact the Headteacher on 0161 764 3204 or contact the school office: office@stmaries.stoccat.org.uk

If your concerns relate to the actions or behaviour of a member of staff or volunteer in school, then you should report this to the Headteacher who will consider what action to take and seek relevant advice.

If the concern relates to the Headteacher, please refer the matter to the Chair of Governors.

KCSIE 2025

Please click here to read ‘Keeping Children Safe in Education 2025’.

Safeguarding Policy

To view our Safeguarding Policy, please click here.

Operation Encompass

As part of our commitment to keeping children safe we have signed up to implement the principles and aims of the Encompass Model.

In signing up to Encompass the Governing Body and Senior Leadership Team:

  • Endorse the Encompass Model and support the Key Adults in our school to fulfil the requirements of the Bury Encompass Protocol.
  • Promote and implement Bury Encompass processes and use these in accordance with internal safeguarding children processes.
  • Recognise the sensitive nature of the information provided and ensure that this is retained in accordance with the principles of data protection.

Being part of Operation Encompass means our school will receive a notification from Greater Manchester Police before the start of the next school day when a child or young person has been involved in or exposed to a domestic abuse incident the previous day.  Operation Encompass aims to mitigate harm to children by enabling immediate support, so that all interactions from when the child first arrives at school the day after notification of an incident, are of a positive nature.

All information relating to Operation Encompass is given in strict confidence to the school’s Key Adults.

Online Safety

While there are huge benefits to being online in order to stay connected to friends and family, it’s important to have regular conversations with your children about staying safe online and encouraging them to talk to you if they see anything worrying.

What harms might my child experience online?

You may have concerns about specific harms that your children experience online including: abuse, criminal exploitation, exposure to radicalising content, consensual and non-consensual sharing of images/videos, cyber-bullying, exposure to age-inappropriate content and harmful content.

Where can I go for help?

These resources will support you to talk to your child about a range of online safety issues, set up home filtering in a child-friendly way and set up age-appropriate parental controls on digital devices:

NSPCC

The following are useful website if you are concerned at all about the safety of a child:

https://www.nspcc.org.uk/

https://www.childline.org.uk/

Prevent

The Prevent strategy is a key part of the UK government’s counter-terrorism strategy, CONTEST, and is focused on preventing individuals from being drawn into terrorism or extremist ideologies. In schools, the Prevent strategy is implemented as part of a broader duty of care, aiming to safeguard children from risks of radicalisation.

At St. Marie’s, all staff receive annual training so that they are able to recognise the signs of radicalisation or vulnerability to extremist views.

Staff have learned how to identify possible signs such as:

  • sudden changes in behaviour & attitudes
  • expressing extremist or divisive views
  • isolation from peers or withdrawal from school activities
  • accessing or sharing extremist material online

At St Marie’s Prevent principles are integrated into our curriculum, including:

  • Promoting British Values, including democracy, rule of law, individual liberty, and mutual respect for different faiths and beliefs.
  • Critical Thinking Skills: building resilience by encouraging debate, critical thinking, and understanding of different perspectives.
  • Online Safety – teaching our children about the risks of accessing harmful content and promoting safe internet use.

Early Help

At St Marie’s we recognise that early help and intervention is crucial in supporting families to be the best that they can be and to overcome any challenges that they may face.

Aims

  • To ensure the improvement of children’s learning as a clear and consistent goal
  • To ensure all children increase their attainment and reach their potential through the provision of targeted support
  • To support families where children’s learning is being impacted by factors within the family environment
  • To encourage parents and carers to engage with their child’s learning and to work in partnership with school and other services.

Outcomes:

  • Barriers to learning will be removed
  • Children will reach their full potential
  • Increase in attainment of children
  • Improvement in social and emotional well being of children and families
  • Improvement of parenting capacity and resilience

Early Help

Early Help Leaflet

Early Help Information