Keeping Children and Families Safe
At The Epiphany School we are committed to keeping all our children and family members safe. We recognise that the safety and protection of the members of our school community is everyone's responsibility and so the school makes every effort to help, support and signpost services available to children and parents.
If you have any concerns about the safety of our children, please contact our DSL or Deputy DSL in school immediately.
For out of hours concerns or as an alternative, you can report concerns directly to the Local Authority Children's Services on:
01202 735046
BCP Local Authority have a Family Information Directory detailing all of the local services available for families.
The link is here:
Designated Leads (DSLs)
Safeguarding Lead Professional: Louise Pankhurst
Safeguarding Deputy Lead Professional: Vanessa Webster
Safeguarding Deputy Lead Professional: Jo Hazel
Mental Health Lead: Louise Pankhurst
Anti-Bullying Champion: Zoe Seymour
E.Safety Champion: Emmy Boyland
PREVENT Lead Professional: Louise Pankhurst
PREVENT Deputy Lead Professional: Vanessa Webster
Safeguarding
Safeguarding at The Epiphany School, is everyone's business. All school staff are trained to safeguard children. The school's Designated Safeguarding Lead (DSL) and first point of contact if you have any safeguarding concerns is Mrs Pankhurst. If she is unavailable, then please speak to Miss V Webster (Headteacher) or Mrs J Hazel (Office Manager). They can all be contacted through the school office via e-mail: office@epiphany.bournemouth.sch.uk or telephone: 01202 530960.
Pan Dorset Children Safeguarding Partnership
The Pan-Dorset Safeguarding Children Partnership took over responsibility for leadership and co-ordination of safeguarding in BCP. The Epiphany School work with the partnership to achieve best practice in safeguarding the children at our school. For more information about their work or advice and guidance on child protection and safeguarding, go to:
Keeping Children Safe In Education
The school adhere to the Statutory Guidance within this document on safeguarding children and safer recruitment.
A link to the document is here:
Keeping children safe in education 2023 (publishing.service.gov.uk)
Please ask if you need this information in a different language.
Operation Encompass
Our school is part of Operation Encompass. This is a police and education partnership which supports children and young people who experience Domestic Abuse. The police will share information about Domestic Abuse incidents with our school soon after they have been reported. The school have trained key adults who receive this information and store it in line with all other confidential safeguarding and child protection information.
Domestic Abuse
If you have need any help or support with Domestic Abuse, please consider contacting the services below.
- National DV helpline : 0808 2000247
- Poole DA Outreach : 01202 710777
- Bournemouth DV Outreach : 01202 547755.
Additional support for children and young people affected by domestic abuse;
The school are keen to support victims of Domestic Abuse and will prioritise meeting with parents who may need advice and guidance. Please call or ask at the office to speak to Mrs Pankhurst, Miss Webster or Mrs Hazel.
Domestic Abuse Support Contacts
Domestic Abuse Drop In Service
Educate Against Hate - Prevent
The Epiphany School adheres to the following actions, which is known as the Prevent duty.
- The school identify lead staff: Louise Pankhurst Vanessa Webster.
- The school assesses risk of pupils being radicalised and drawn into terrorism.
- The school refers any concerns to the Prevent Team on 01202 229337 or PreventReferrals@Dorset.pnn.police.uk or through the Children’s Services First Response Hub. For an immediate response the school will call the Anti-terror hotline on 0800 789321.
- The school is dedicated to working in partnership with other agencies.
- The school aims to establish effective engagement with parents and families.
- The school train staff to raise awareness and keeping them up to date with local risks.
- The E-safety policy details processes of suitable filtering to ensure that children are safe from terrorist and extremist material when accessing the internet in school.
- The school promotes British values through the school curriculum and on the website.
- The school promotes The Educate Against Hate website to staff and parents
The school's Prevent Lead and first point of contact if you have any concerns is Mrs Pankhurst. If she is unavailable, then please speak to Miss Webster. All can be contacted through the school office via e-mail (office@epiphany.bournemouth.sch.uk) or telephone (01202 530960.)
For government advice and trusted resources for schools to safeguard students from radicalisation, build resilience to all types of extremism and promote shared values please see:
Educate Against Hate Booklet - Information for Parents
Online Safety Guidance
Information on Online Safety for children and parents is found:
home>parents>online safety
Anti-Bullying
At The Epiphany School, we take concerns around bullying very seriously. The school are proactive in teaching children about bullying and ensuring they know how to report their worries or concerns.
Children know that bullying is:
Bullying is intentional negative behaviour that typically occurs with repetitiveness.
- The bully has to have some sort of power over the victim, this may not always be apparent to others.
- Bullying is not an occasional fight or use of bad language, unkind words and fallouts between two pupils of equal strength/power.
If you are concerned or have any queries regarding bullying within school, do not hesitate to speak to your child's class teacher in the first instance.
If you feel that the matter has not been resolved, then please direct enquiries to Miss V. Webster (Headteacher) or Mrs L. Pankhurst (Deputy Headteacher).
The school guidance on Anti- Bullying is within the Behaviour policy which can be found on the school website under School information>Key Documents>Policies>Behaviour and Anti-bullying
For external advice and further information please look at the following links:
https://www.anti-bullyingalliance.org.uk/
Wellbeing and Mental Health
The school are committed to supporting children and their families to be happy and healthy.
Please do contact the school via the office if you need any guidance or signposting to external agencies who may be able to help you.
Here are some websites below which may also be useful:
5 ways to better wellbeing for your family : Mentally Healthy Schools
Samaritans | Every life lost to suicide is a tragedy | Here to listen
www.bournemouth.gov.uk/ChildrenEducation/Childcare/ChildrensInformationService
https://bcpaccesstofoodmap.v88.co.uk/#!/vizhome/AccesstoFoodMap/Introduction
If you need support to access any of the information or guidance on well-being and mental health, please speak to the school office who will find the right member to staff to work with you.