At Hillside Avenue Primary & Nursery School, we want our pupils to flourish. We are committed to working with parents, families and the wider community to help our children lead happy and successful lives. As part of this, safeguarding plays a key role in our school and underpins our work with children here. You can read more about our procedures in our safeguarding policy. 

Safeguarding our children is everyone's responsibility and all our staff are trained in safeguarding best practice when they join our team. We use a child-centred approach to ensure children are listened to, valued, respected and that their worries and concerns are taken seriously and acted upon. 

If you have any concerns about a child or young person in our school, you must share this information immediately with our Designated Safeguarding Lead (DSL) team.

Please contact via the school office (01603 433453):

Mrs Sam Wilkinson (Acting Deputy Head and KS2 Lead/Senior Designated Safeguarding Lead)

Miss Lizzy Pendleton (Acting Deputy Head and EYFS Lead)

Mr Drew Howard (Interim Headteacher / DSL)

Ms Rebecca Bishop (Mental Health Champion /TA/MSA/DSL)

If you are concerned about a child outside of school (in Norfolk) and want to speak to someone, contact Norfolk County Council on 0344 800 8020. If you consider the incident to be an emergency, call 999.

It is everyone’s responsibility to keep children safe and report concerns. We all need to play our part.  If you see something, or hear something that doesn’t feel right – say something.

All children and families may need extra support at different times. It's important that you can access the right help, at the right time and for as long as you need it. In addition to school, you can also access help from your G.P. and health visitor. Here are some places you can access further support:

Just One Norfolk: https://www.justonenorfolk.nhs.uk/ 

Early Childhood and Family Services: https://www.norfolk.gov.uk/children-and-families/early-childhood-and-family-service 

Family Information Service: https://www.norfolk.gov.uk/children-and-families/childcare-and-early-learning/family-information-service

Norfolk Assistance Scheme (financial hardship): https://www.norfolk.gov.uk/care-support-and-health/support-for-living-independently/money-and-benefits/norfolk-assistance-scheme

We support the work of the NSPCC and use their ‘Speak Out, Stay Safe’ Programme which teaches that:

• Every child has the right to speak out and stay safe
• Making a child feel scared or worried is never ok and is never their fault
• If they are worried about anything they should tell an adult they trust
• Whatever their worry they can always call Childline on 0800 1111 or visit childline.org.uk/kids

Support with Domestic Abuse

Ms Rebecca Bishop is our Domestic Abuse Champion. Part of this role involves working with families suffering from domestic abuse to signpost them to the many support agencies that can assist them. If you would like to speak to Ms Bishop in confidence, please contact her through the school office - you do not need to give a reason for requesting a meeting. 

The following link has lots of useful information about accessing support for victims and their families: https://www.norfolk.gov.uk/safety/domestic-abuse

Leeway is Norfolk's largest provider of specialist support for people suffering from domestic abuse. Find out more here: https://www.leewaysupport.org/

If you're concerned about a vulnerable adult, call Norfolk County Council on 0344 800 8020 or the police on 101. In an emergency, you should always ring 999.

Operation Encompass

At Hillside Avenue Primary and Nursery School we work in partnership with Norfolk Constabulary and Norfolk Children’s Services to identify and provide appropriate support to pupils who have experienced domestic violence in their household; this scheme is called Operation Encompass. In order to achieve this, Norfolk Multi-agency Safeguarding Hub will share police information of all domestic incidents where one of our pupils has been present with the Designated Safeguarding Lead(s). On receipt of any information, the Designated Safeguarding Lead will decide on the appropriate support the child requires, this could be silent or overt. All information sharing and resulting actions will be undertaken in accordance with the ‘Norfolk Joint Agency Protocol for Domestic Abuse – Notifications to Schools’. We will record this information and store this information in accordance with the record keeping procedures outlined in this policy.