Updates to Weaverthorpe Child Protection Policy and Practice:

Weaverthorpe School has firm regard to the September 2020 statutory safeguarding guidance, keeping children safe in education.  

Led by Rachel Ray, HT/ Designated Safeguarding Lead, at Weaverthorpe we have revised our child protection policy to safeguard and reflect the needs for the return of pupils in the autumn term 2020

During the first weeks of term Mrs Ray, Designated safeguarding lead has provided support to staff and children regarding current requirements and to address any new safeguarding and welfare concerns, including the handling of referrals to children’s social care and other agencies where these are appropriate, allowing agencies and services to work together to actively look for signs of harm.     Where any aspect of child welfare is a concern, communication with key partnership agencies (police, social services and health) is swiftly implemented.   Links with these key agencies are recognised by staff and governors as important for safeguarding and supporting well-being, as these professionals should have provided continued support to any at-risk pupils who have not been in school.

Contingency plans:  For individuals or groups of self-isolating pupils, remote education plans are being established. These will meet the same expectations as those for any pupils who cannot yet attend school at all due to coronavirus (COVID-19).

See section on remote education support.

Requirements: In local areas, where restrictions have been implemented for certain sectors (from national direction), we anticipate that schools will usually remain fully open to all.

There is an additional requirement that face coverings should be worn by staff, in schools and colleges, outside classrooms when moving around communal areas where social distancing cannot easily be maintained.

However, there may be exceptional circumstances in which some level of restriction to attendance at schools is required in a local area. The Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) has updated their contain framework to include an overview of the tiers of intervention for schools and colleges when managing local outbreaks and implementing restrictions.

Weaverthorpe’s contingency planning for remote education: the process for local outbreaks, contingency plans and remote education.

We have taken due notice of the Government’s now published  temporary continuity direction which makes it clear that schools have a duty to provide remote education for state-funded, school-age children unable to attend school due to coronavirus (COVID-19). We are fully aware that this will come into effect from 22 October 2020. 
We understand that the direction poses no additional expectations on the quality of remote education expected of schools beyond those set out in this guidance.

Remote education expectations:

Where a class, group or a small number of pupils need to self-isolate, or local restrictions require pupils to remain at home, Weaverthorpe is establishing capacity to offer immediate remote education.   We are considering how to continue to improve the quality of our existing curriculum, for example through technology, and to have a strong contingency plan in place for remote education provision by the middle of October. This planning will be particularly important if a large proportion of our pupils are required to remain at home.

In developing these contingency plans, Weaverthorpe is working to ensure that we:

• use a curriculum sequence that allows access to high-quality online and offline resources and teaching videos and that are linked to the school’s curriculum expectations
• give access to high quality remote education resources
• select the online tools that will be consistently used across the school in order to allow interaction, assessment and feedback and make sure staff are trained in their use
• provide printed resources, such as textbooks and workbooks, for pupils who do not have suitable online access
• recognise that younger pupils and some pupils with SEND may not be able to access remote education without adult support and so schools should work with families to deliver a broad and ambitious curriculum

When teaching pupils remotely, we shall:

• set assignments so that pupils have meaningful and ambitious work each day in a number of different subjects
• teach a planned and well-sequenced curriculum so that knowledge and skills are built incrementally, with a good level of clarity about what is intended to be taught and practised in each subject
• provide frequent, clear explanations of new content, delivered by a teacher in the school or through high-quality curriculum resources or videos
• gauge how well pupils are progressing through the curriculum, using questions and other suitable tasks and set a clear expectation on how regularly teachers will check work
• enable teachers to adjust the pace or difficulty of what is being taught in response to questions or assessments, including, where necessary, revising material or simplifying explanations to ensure pupils’ understanding
• plan a programme that is of equivalent length to the core teaching pupils would receive in school, ideally including daily contact with teachers
• tailor and adapt these expectations in relation to the pupils’ age, stage of development or special educational needs, for example where this would place significant demands on parents’ help or support.
• avoid an over-reliance on long-term projects or internet research activities.

Special educational needs:                                                                                              

For those pupils at Weaverthorpe with SEND, our teachers are well-placed to know how each pupil’s needs can be most effectively met to ensure they continue to make progress, even if they are not able to be in school due to self-isolating.  We are fully committed to using our best endeavours to secure that the special educational provision, needed by pupils’ special educational needs, remains in place.

At Weaverthorpe we have plans in place to work collaboratively with families, putting in place reasonable adjustments as necessary, so that pupils with SEND can successfully access remote education alongside their peers.

Where a pupil has provision specified within their EHC plan, we understand that it remains the duty of the local authority and any health bodies to secure or arrange the delivery of this in the setting that the EHC plan names. 

We realise that there may be times when it becomes very difficult to do this fully. In this situation, decisions on how provision can be delivered will be informed by relevant considerations including, for example, the types of services that the pupil can access remotely, for example, online teaching and remote sessions with different types of therapists. These decisions will be considered on a case by case basis, avoiding a one size fits all approach.                                                                       

Vulnerable children:                                                                                                      

Where any pupil who is self-isolating comes within our definition of vulnerable, we are ready with systems so we can keep in contact with them.

Should a vulnerable child have to self-isolate, we shall notify their named social worker (if they have one). Our DSL will then agree with the social worker the best way to maintain contact and offer support to the vulnerable child.

At Weaverthorpe we have in place procedures to check if a vulnerable child is able to access remote education support, to support them to access it (as far as possible) and to regularly check if they are doing so.

Delivering remote education safely:

Keeping children safe online is essential. The statutory guidance keeping children safe in education provides schools with information on what we should be doing to protect their pupils online. At Weaverthorpe we follow all statutory guidance.

We have taken advice and followed the support on delivering online remote education safely from:

• safe remote learning, published by SWGfL
• online safety and safeguarding, published by LGfL, which covers safe remote learning
• the National Cyber Security Centre, which includes which video conference service is right for you and using video conferencing services securely
• safeguarding and remote education during coronavirus (COVID-19)
• annex C of keeping children safe in education

Remote education- support for Weaverthorpe:

We are able to access support from - get help with remote education - that provides links to a range of support for schools.

This support will be developed to include a range of school-led webinars and resources intended to share good practice.  We shall use this resource is in addition to the video lessons offered by the sector-led Oak National Academy and other providers of quality education resources.

We are aware that available support includes peer-to-peer advice and training through the EdTech Demonstrator programme, as well as guidance on how schools can order devices and get help with technology for remote education.

Health and safety risk assessment: Coronavirus (COVID-19) specific

At Weaverthorpe we continue to assess and to seek to manage the risks from coronavirus (COVID-19). We understand that we are required by law to think about the risks the staff and pupils face and do everything reasonably practicable to minimise them, whilst recognising the risk of coronavirus (COVID-19) cannot be eliminated.

At Weaverthorpe we have undertaken a risk assessment to identify the measures needed to reduce the risks from coronavirus (COVID-19) and to make the school COVID-secure, so far as is reasonably practicable.  In doing this we have accessed advice and information on how to make the school COVID-secure. We have utilised the  HSE guidance on working safely  including how to approach a coronavirus (COVID-19) risk assessment:

‘Schools should undertake a coronavirus (COVID-19) risk assessment by considering the measures in this guidance to inform their decisions and control measures. A risk assessment is not about creating huge amounts of paperwork, but rather about identifying sensible measures to control the risks in the workplace, and the role of others in supporting that. The risk assessment will help school leaders and employers decide whether they have done everything they need to. Employers have a legal duty to consult their employees on health and safety in good time. It also makes good sense to involve pupils (where applicable) and parents in discussions . Employers can do this by listening and talking to them about how the school will manage risks from coronavirus (COVID-19) and make the school COVID-secure. The people who do the work are often the best people to understand the risks in the workplace and will have a view on how to work safely.’

Sharing our risk assessment: We are preparing to share the main features of our safety routines and the results of our risk assessment by publishing it on our website to provide transparency to parents, carers and pupils of our care and our approach. 

Monitoring and review of risk controls: We are involving staff, pupils and parents in the decisions being made around health and safety routines to help everyone understand the reasons for the measures being put in place, because the school takes their health and safety seriously.  We regularly are monitoring and reviewing our procedures and risk controls,  to ensure the measures are working, and so we can quickly take any required action to address any shortfalls.

Roles and responsibilities:  All employers are required by law to protect their employees, and others, from harm. Under the Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1999, the minimum employers must do is:

1. Identify what could cause injury or illness in the organisation (hazards).
2. Decide how likely it is that someone could be harmed and how seriously (the risk).
3. Take action to eliminate the hazard, or if this isn’t possible, control the risk.

We are aware of the  DfE Health and safety: responsibilities and duties for schools guidance about the roles and responsibilities for health and safety in schools.  As the employer, the local authority is accountable for the health and safety of school staff and pupils, although the day-to-day running of the school is usually delegated to the headteacher and the school management team, to see that risks are managed effectively. This includes health and safety matters.

NOTE: Schools must appoint a competent person to ensure they meet their health and safety duties. The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) provides more information on the role of headteachers and employers in the guidance The role of school leaders - who does what and a simple guide to who the employer is in each type of school setting in its FAQs section, under ‘Who is accountable for health and safety within a school?’.References to actions by employers in this guidance may in practice be carried out by headteachers in schools, but the employer will need to assure themselves that they have been carried out, as they retain the accountability for health and safety. If not already done, employers should ensure that a coronavirus (COVID-19) risk assessment for their school is undertaken as soon as possible. As some pupils are already attending school, the employer is likely to have gone through a lot of this thinking already. We recommend that those employers use this document to identify any further