At St James' we believe that safeguarding children is the responsibility of all members of our community.  All St James' staff are trained in safeguarding and know and understand what to do if there is a safeguarding issue that needs to be addressed.

Safeguarding Curriculum Statement

At St James', safeguarding is always at the forefront of all that we do around the care, nurture, teaching and learning of all our children. Safeguarding is taught through different aspects of the curriculum. 

Online safety is taught through the computing curriculum, following a progression of age-appropriate teaching units.

Safeguarding relating to relationships with peers, families and other adults is delivered through the PSHCE curriculum, mapped for all year groups. Areas covered include friendships; family and close positive relationships; hurtful behaviour and bullying; safe relationships - on and offline.

Security

As you will appreciate, security is a high priority in all schools. For the safety of the children, we take the following precautions:
Between the hours of 8:30 a.m. and 3.30 p.m. all the gates to the main playground are locked.
Visitors may gain access via the main school entrance and are asked to report to the office and sign a visitors’ book, whereupon they are given a visitor’s badge to wear. They are required to sign out on leaving the building. No visitor is allowed to be unaccompanied in school without a full DBS. 
No child will be allowed to leave the school premises with anyone other than a pre-determined person unless notification is given to the office, by the parent or person in charge of the child.

Operation Encompass

At St James' we are working in partnership with Bedford Borough Council and Bedfordshire Police to identify and provide appropriate support to pupils who have experienced domestic abuse in their household; nationally and locally, this scheme is called Operation Encompass. In order to achieve this, the police will share information with the Nominated SPOC of all domestic incidents where one of the pupils in the school has been affected. On receipt of any information, the Nominated SPOC will decide on the appropriate support the child requires.

‘Operation Encompass guidance for schools’.