At Downham Market Academy safeguarding our students is central to everything that we do and we fully recognise our responsibility under section 157 of the Education Act 2002 to have arrangements in place to safeguard and promote the welfare of children. We aim to establish and maintain an ethos where pupils feel secure, are encouraged to talk, are listened to and are safe. We regularly evaluate our approaches to safeguarding and staff receive training every half term on both local and national issues. Our full policy is available here
The Academy has a team of staff who are all trained to the same level of Designated Safeguarding Leads, each of whom has responsibility for a cohort of students as outlined in the table below. The named Designated Safeguarding Lead for Downham Market Academy is Mark Eastwood (Deputy Headteacher) who has oversight of all safeguarding at the Academy. We work closely with local partners at Children’s Services and in the police under the “Operation Encompass” system. We are also extremely lucky to be supported by PC Sarah Chandler for some days each week as part of the “Safer Schools” initiative.
Our safeguarding team has experience of supporting students and families due to all manner of concerns and we work proactively with a number of external partners. Please see below for links to organisations that offer support to young people and their families for various reasons:
