Guiding Principles

We in Saint Malachy’s have a primary responsibility for the care, welfare and safety of the boys in our charge. We will carry this duty through our pastoral care policy, which aims to provide a Christian, caring, supportive and safe environment, valuing individuals for their unique talents and abilities. We want all of our pupils to learn and develop to their full potential.

 All our staff and volunteers have been subject to appropriate background checks. The staff of our school have adopted a code of practice for our behaviour towards pupils.

 The purpose of the following procedures on Child Protection is to protect our pupils by ensuring that everyone who works in our school- teachers, non-teaching staff and volunteers- has clear guidance on the action which is required where abuse or neglect of a child is suspected. The overriding concern of all caring adults must be the care, welfare and safety of the child. The problem of child abuse will not be ignored by anyone who works in our school, and we know that some forms of child abuse are also a criminal offence.

DEFINITION OF ABUSE

We use the following definition:

Neglect – the persistent or significant neglect of a young person, or the failure to protect a child from exposure to any kind of danger, including cold or starvation, or persistent failure to carry out important aspects of care, resulting in the significant impairment of the child’s health or development, including non-organic failure to thrive.

Physical – physical injury to a young person, whether deliberately inflicted or knowingly not prevented.

Sexual – the sexual exploitation of a  young person for an adult’s or another young person’s sexual gratification; the involvement of young people in sexual activities of any kind which they do not understand, to which they are unable to give informed consent or that violate normal family roles.

Emotional – persistent or significant emotional ill-treatment or rejection, resulting in severe adverse effects on the emotional, physical and/or behavioural development of a young person.