Safeguarding and Child Protection

St. John’s (CE) Primary Academy recognises the important role that the whole community plays in promoting the health, safety and well being of all children. In view of our special relationships with children and their families, staff need to be particularly alert to any signs of possible abuse or neglect and have a legal duty to pass on any concerns to the Designated Teachers for Child Protection. These concerns must be reported to the Children's Social Care within the Children and Young People's Services Directorate who work with other agencies such as the Calderdale Primary Care Trust and the police to protect children from physical, emotional and sexual abuse. The academy does not have any role to play in the investigation of child protection issues but must co-operate with other agencies in any investigation or monitoring as necessary. The academy is also required to follow procedures set out by the Calderdale Children Safeguarding Partnership for child protection and to have clear internal procedures and guidance for staff. Staff receive regular training. The academy continues to develop effective working relationships with all agencies concerned with the welfare of children.

St John's has a policy for Protecting and Safeguarding Children - click here to read it. The Governing Body has adopted the Calderdale Safeguarding Policy and Child Protection Procedures.

If you are worried about a vulnerable child or adult, it is important that your report your concerns to the appropriate people as soon as possible. This will help to ensure the safety and wellbeing of the individual is put first.

If any parent has a concern about the welfare of any child in the academy they should speak to the Designated Safeguarding Leads or contact Calderdale's Multi-Agency Screening Team -MAST.

The academy's Designated Safeguarding Lead is:

Principal - Mrs R. Townsend,

The academy's Deputy Designated Safeguarding Lead are:

Vice-Principal - Miss S. Crozier,
Senior Teacher - Mr K. Roberts,
SENDCO - Mrs N. Flear,

The designated Safeguarding Governor is Mrs L. Taylor - Chair of Governors

To contact Calderdale Multi Agency Screening Team - MAST:

Telephone: 01422 393336
Normal working hours

When MAST are unavailable out of hours, you can call the Out of Hours Duty Team

Telephone: 01422 288000
Out of hours Service

For further details related to Reporting Concerns click here to access Calderdale Safeguarding Children Partnership

The Children Act (2004) and the DfE guidance document: ‘Working Together to Safeguard Children’ (2023), focus on safeguarding and promoting children’s welfare and can be summarised as:

protecting children from maltreatment;
preventing impairment of children’s health or development;
ensuring that children are growing up in circumstances consistent with the provision of safe and effective care;
undertaking that role so as to enable those children to have optimum life chances and to enter adulthood successfully.

School Health Service

Our academy nurse, is based at Brighouse Health Centre, Lawson Road, Brighouse (Tel. 712515). She visits the academy regularly to see children and their parents/carers for general health, vision and hearing tests. Parents/carers are informed of anything which might require attention.

During the reception year, parents are informed that the nurse will be in the academy to carry out their child's medical. As part of Calderdale Primary Care Trust’s on-going work to improve health and well-being of children, weight and height of children are monitored in Reception and Year 6. Permission for monitoring is sought from parents.

Routine hair inspections are no longer undertaken. Good grooming requires the daily use of a comb, ensuring that contact is made with the scalp and all hair strands—this disturbs the environment of the head lice. Parents are requested to check their children's hair every Friday using a detection comb and if lice are detected to go to the local pharmacy for an effective treatment.

Parents/carers are welcome to visit the academy to see the nurse to discuss, in confidence, any worries they may have regarding their child(ren). This can be arranged by telephoning the academy or by contacting the Health Centre, where messages can be left in their absence.

Videoing/Photographing Concerts

It has always been the academy’s policy to allow parents/carers to take videos/photographs of their child/ren’s involvement in the academy concerts, for their own personal/private use. These videos must not be offered for sale under any circumstances, or displayed in any public area such as the internet or television. If parents have any objections to this policy they should contact the Principal.