Safeguarding at Norton
If you have a concern about a child outside of school, or are having difficulty in managing your own child, you can ring Somerset Direct on:
0300 123 2224
We take child protection extremely seriously at our school. If you have a concern, you can speak to any of the school’s designated safeguarding team
.
All members of staff are vetted against national safeguarding procedures before being allowed to work in school. At least one member of every interview panel has undertaken safer recruitment training to ensure that best practices and all necessary checks are carried out.

I know that a lot of you will know me, but I thought that I better introduce myself and explain my new role within Norton. As some of you will know, I have been working at Norton for almost 10 years with a brief gap of 18 months. I have always loved Norton and the community that you become part of here. I have previously been classroom based or working as a Thrive Practitioner, but as of September this year, I am now the Safeguarding and Child Protection Coordinator. It sounds like a very official title, but what this means is that I am your first point of contact, should you have any safeguarding concerns, need to share any information with us or need any support. I will try and make myself as present as I can in the mornings on the various playgrounds, so please do say hello, but I will also be contactable by phone, in school.
The term ‘Safeguarding’ sounds official, but part of my role is to build relationship between families and school so if you should get a call from me, it doesn’t mean that there is anything to worry about, it is more about offering and providing support should you need it.
As part of my role, I will also be working some days during the holidays and will be contactable by phone, should need any support during these times. If the phone is off, please know that I will get back to you within the week. Please note, this Safeguarding phone will only be used during the school holidays. The number for this is; 07591 567813 and we are in the process of setting up a direct safeguarding email. I will let you know when this is activated.
Please also note, that I work as part of a Safeguarding Team, so please feel free to contact anyone in the Team as we work closely together to support our families here at Norton.
Safeguarding policy:
- Talk about the time they spend online - understand what they are doing and discuss it with them.
- Screen time - Set a good example when using your own device in front of your children.
- Agree an appropriate length of time that they can be on a device - put in place a family agreement .
- Agree to whole family 'screen free time' at home.
- Find sites and apps you think are suitable and check them out with your child before they use them - Net Aware is a good place to start - please see the link below for this website. Contact someone in school if you would like some support with this.
- Have discussions about what your child is seeing on the internet and set boundaries and limits.
- Sort out parental controls and privacy settings - if you go into any phone shop they have an expert who will do this for you on any tablet or phone free of charge.
Here are some useful links for you
http://educateagainsthate.com/parents/ - this is the parents page of the 'Prevent website (all schools should have something on their website raising parents awareness of Radicalisation)
http://vodafonedigitalparenting.co.uk - a really useful termly guide to help parentskeep their children safe on the internet