Safeguarding

Penwortham Girls’ High School is committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare and safety of all pupils and expects all staff and volunteers to share this commitment. We strive to ensure that consistent and effective safeguarding procedures are in place to support families, students and staff at school.

The Designated Safeguarding Lead is Catherine Arrowsmith.

Other staff trained in child protection are

Sharon Hall, Headteacher
Lindsay Scott, Deputy DSL and Senior Pastoral Worker
Alison Cattanach, Transition Manager and Backup DSL
Carol Woodhouse, SENCo and Backup DSL
Becky Holland, Deputy SENCO

Penwortham Girls’ High School has policies and procedures in place to deal effectively with child protection and safeguarding issues, which include tackling radicalisation and extremism, together with recording and monitoring processes.

To promote a safe environment for students, Penwortham Girls’ High School employs a strict selection and recruitment policy which includes all statutory checks on staff and regular volunteers including Enhanced DBS (disclosure and barring service) checks.

All staff are trained to a level appropriate to their safeguarding responsibilities including Level 1 and 2 safeguarding for all staff on an annual basis. Other safeguarding training is attended by relevant staff and governors. The training is monitored and comprehensive records kept by the DSL.

All concerns are passed through members of staff who are trained as ‘Designated Child Protection Officers’. Staff are required to report any causes of concern to the school safeguarding team. Referrals are logged and monitored to make sure that they are followed up appropriately.

Pupil attendance is monitored closely and concerns shared as appropriate with parents/care, Social Care and the school safeguarding team. Penwortham Girls’ High School works effectively with other agencies and parents/carers when necessary to safeguard young people.

If you have any serious concerns about your child, or a member of staff at Penwortham Girls’ High School please do not hesitate to contact the Designated Safeguarding Lead (DSL) who will be able to provide you with the best advice and help using the appropriate degree of confidentiality. If you have a concern about another child, please refer to the numbers below to report your concern.

You can report a safeguarding concern using the contact form on our school website. This form will be immediately sent to our Designated Safeguarding Lead (DSL), Mrs Catherine Arrowsmith.