Here at St James, it is our main priority to ensure children are always safe. Our school will support all children by:

• Promoting a caring, safe and positive environment
• Encouraging self-esteem and self-assertiveness
• Effectively tackling bullying and harassment.

We recognise that some children may be the victims of neglect, physical, sexual or emotional abuse and that staff working with children are well placed to identify such abuse. Any concerns around a child’s safety must be reported immediately to a Designated Safeguarding Lead (DSL)

Hello - my name is Mrs Jayne Pritchard and I am the Deputy Head Teacher at St James and one of the DSLs.  I work with children and families as my brief is safeguarding and pastoral care.

If you or your child has a problem at school or with school, then I am your point of contact. I will happily meet with you to discuss problems and hopefully get it to a happy conclusion. I also work with class teachers and may have to get in touch with you to talk about issues. I will happily e-mail families, phone or write letters; I try to keep in touch with you in the way that is best for you.

I work closely with Social Care and Health on Child Protection issues. This is an area that we find difficult, because sometimes parents feel that we are interfering in things that do not concern us. However, once your child is at school, we act in loco parentis; this means that we act in the place of the parents having the child’s best interest at the front of our thoughts.  Sometimes this will mean that we have to step in to make sure that a child is absolutely safe.   There are times when I have to explore incidents with Social Services. These incidents can be anything from slapping your child to abuse or neglect.

I am passionate about ensuring families of St James are supported thoroughly and I may work with families through something called an Early Help Assessment to ensure that any support that is needed is put in place and school and home can work in partnership to have positive outcomes for all concerned and remembering that if children are happy at St James, then they will feel safe and secure and their learning will be strong.