We in Ballymoney Nursery School have a Primary responsibility for the care, welfare and safety of the children in our care. We have policies and risk assessments in place to ensure the safeguarding of your child during their time at Ballymoney Nursery School.

All the staff and volunteers have been subject to appropriate background checks such as Access NI and guidelines have been drawn up to guide their behaviour towards the children. It may be necessary for the staff to change your child if they have had an accident but this will not be done without your permission, which we have already asked for on the Parental Permission form.

Our school safeguarding team comprises of Mrs Trimmings (Designated teacher on Mondays-Wednesdays) Mrs Muller (Deputy Designated teacher on Mondays-Wednesdays and Designated teacher on Thursdays-Fridays), Mrs Jarvis (Deputy Designated teacher on Thursdays-Fridays) and Mrs Sharon Martin, our Governor for Safeguarding.

If you have a concern about your own or another child you should follow these procedures:

• I can talk to the class teacher
• If I am still concerned, I can talk to the Principal
• I can contact Northern Gateway Single Point of Entry Team on: 0300 1234 333

We also participate in 'Operation Encompass".

Operation Encompass is a partnership between the Police Service of Northern Ireland, the Education Authority and schools aimed at supporting children who witness domestic violence or abuse in the home. Whilst schools have protocols and procedures in place for processing any information disclosed to them in relation to safeguarding, Operation Encompass is a new initiative focusing on the routine sharing of information relating to domestic violence or abuse in line with The Domestic Abuse Information-sharing with Schools etc. Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2022.