Safeguarding
What is Safeguarding?
Safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children is defined as:
- Protecting children from maltreatment
- Preventing impairment of children's and learner's health or development
- Ensuring children are growing up in circumstances consistent with the provision of safe and effective care
- Taking action to enable all children to have the best outcomes
At Woodlands Primary School, we are committed to creating and maintaining a safe learning environment for children and young people, identifying where there are child welfare concerns and taking action to address them, in partnership with families and other agencies. As a school, our safeguarding policy is compliant with the 2026 updated Keeping Children Safe in Education DFE statutory guidance, which can be found by clicking on the link below:
Our Headteacher, Victoria Carr, meets with the senior leadership team regularly to discuss any issues with safeguarding, school has half termly safeguarding supervision meetings with the Cheshire West Safeguarding Children Partnership (SCP) and we have a named governor.
We are proactive about our safeguarding procedures and as such educate our pupils to be safe and this is done through school assemblies, SEAL, inviting in external agencies such as NSPCC/Childline to do workshops as well as providing children with safety literature.
Prevent Duty
Woodlands Primary School has due regard to the need to prevent people from being drawn into terrorism, in accordance with the Counter-Terrorism and Security Act 2015 and the statutory Prevent duty guidance: England and Wales (2023).
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/prevent-duty-guidance
Current statutory guidance: Prevent duty guidance: England and Wales (2023)
DfE guidance for education settings: The Prevent duty: safeguarding learners susceptible to radicalisation (updated October 2026).
We work in line with the policies of the SCP and further detail can be found by clicking on the following link: http://cheshirewestlscb.org.uk/ or you can view our school safeguarding policy at the bottom of this page or on the policies section of the website.
How to report a concern?
If you have a concern regarding a child at Woodlands Primary School, in the first instance please report your concern to Mrs Alice Morphet, SENDCo, (Designated Lead Safeguarding Officer), or Mrs Clare Cotton (Deputy Safeguarding Lead).
If you think a child is in immediate danger, you should contact the police on 999 or the iART for Cheshire West on 0300 123 7047.
NSPCC Underwear Rule
The NSPCC's successful 'Underwear Rule' encourages parents of 5 to 11-year-olds to talk to their children about keeping safe from sexual abuse.
External Support
There are a number of charitable organisations children or parents can speak with in confidence who can offer advice and support and they are listed below.
NSPCC - http://www.nspcc.org.uk/ or Tel: 0808 800 5000
Childline - http://www.child line.org.uk/ or Tel: 0800 1111
This link will provide you with useful information to keep your children safe online https://www.nspcc.org.uk/what-we-do/about-us/partners/nspcc-o2-online-safety-partnership/
Stand up to hate - short video on extremism
