Safeguarding

Are you worried about the welfare of a child?

If you or a child is in immediate danger, call the police on 999.

If you are concerned about the welfare of a child who lives in Kingston or Richmond or you need support, you can contact the Single Point of Access: 

• From 8am to 5.15pm, Monday to Thursday, and 8am to 5pm on Friday call 020 8547 5008 

• Out of hours, phone 020 8770 5000

Safety at home

The NSPCC have a helpful guide to support you in deciding what level of independence your child is ready for. If you would like support in thinking through this, you can download their guide here. 

Safety at School - Photography

One part of our wider safeguarding responsibilities is to ensure appropriate use of photography at school. Details of how we do this are within our safeguarding policy (linked above) and are summarised below:

The vast majority of people who take or view photographs or videos of children do so for entirely innocent, understandable and acceptable reasons. Sadly, some people abuse children through taking or using images, so we must ensure that we have some safeguards in place. 

To protect pupils we will:

• seek their consent and parental consent for photographs to be taken or published (for example, on our website or in newspapers or publications)

• use only the pupil’s first name with an image

• ensure that pupils are appropriately dressed

• encourage pupils to tell us if they are worried about any photographs that are taken of them

• ensure that pupils do not take photographs or video images of other students without their express permission and the permission of a member of staff

Staff are permitted to make media recordings to support educational aims but must follow our policies in respect of sharing, distribution and publication. Media images should be taken, edited, stored or archived on to school systems using school equipment. If a personal device is used, it must be immediately added to the school’s shared Google Drive and deleted from the device.

Parents are permitted to take photos or videos of their children during school performances such as class assemblies or music productions. It is reiterated at all such events that these images are not to be shared on social media including messaging apps such as Whatsapp.

Why such an approach to photography at school events?

We understand the joy that reliving memories of our children taking part in sports day or a school performance can bring.  However, the school has a policy in place with regards to the taking and use of images that families must follow. 

Images including other people (children or adults) must not be distributed or put anywhere online unless consent has been sought in advance.  This includes social media platforms such as WhatsApp.  The sharing of photographs and videos on social media is now commonplace but we must ensure we protect and safeguard all children and staff, including those who do not want to have their images stored online.

Parents should be mindful that:

a) Once posted and shared online any image or video can be copied and will stay online forever.

b) Some children are at risk and MUST NOT have their image put online.  Not all members of the community will know who these children are.

c)  Some people do not want their images online for personal or religious reasons.

d) Some children and staff may have a complex family background which means that sharing their image online can have unforeseen consequences.

e) Therefore in order to keep all members of the community safe, we do not post images of school events online unless express permission has been sought.

We thank you for working in collaboration with us to keep our community safe.