Playground at Exning Primary School

Safeguarding and Wellbeing

At Exning Primary School, we’re proud of the support we offer to children with Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND), helping every child reach their full potential.

At Exning, we recognise the moral and statutory responsibility placed on all staff to safeguard and promote the welfare of all children.

We aim to provide a safe and welcoming environment, underpinned by a culture of openness where both children and adults feel secure to raise concerns, believe they are being listened to, and that appropriate action will be taken to keep them safe. 

We also ensure that safeguarding is embedded across our curriculum.  It is important that children know how to be safe and what to do if they are worried about their safety.

Our policy applies to all staff, parents, governors, volunteers, visitors and pupils. Our safeguarding policy is available to read here.  A hardcopy may be obtained on request from the school office. Our policies reflect Keeping children safe in education (gov.uk)

If you have a concern about safeguarding or would like to chat, please contact Exning Primary School as the first port of call and email: ExningSafeguarding@easterneducationgroup.ac.uk

Go to our Safeguarding Policy

Safeguarding leads
View safeguarding leads for Exning Primary School

If you have any concerns about safeguarding please contact one of our safeguarding leads. Emails for each staff members will be firstname.surname@easterneducationgroup.ac.uk

One of our Safeguarding Leads is always available to discuss safeguarding concerns.

However, if you are concerned about an immediate risk to the safety of a child please call Customer First on 0808 800 4005.  You can also report a child a risk of harm, abuse or neglect (safeguarding referral) via the Suffolk Children and Young People’s Portal.

In an emergency, call the Police on 999.

Early Help

What is early help?

Early Help means taking action to support a child, young person or their family early in the life of a problem, as soon as it emerges.  Being a parent is one of the most important jobs there is – it is also one of the hardest.  At Exning, we want to support parents when things are tough.

Our early help offer

We pride ourselves in knowing our children well: we are alert to the welfare of our children, and are vigilant regarding any situation in which we can provide support.  We have a number of systems in place to identify unmet needs, and we seek at all times to work in collaboration with families, with openness, integrity and understanding.  The needs of the child is always at the centre of all we do.

If you are having difficulties, or struggling with anything at home, please come and talk to us.  We have what we call an ‘offer of early help’. There are many ways in which we can help.


Early Help is everyone’s responsibility. As such, you can speak with any member of the school team who would be happy to work with you, or pass your concerns on to one of the Safeguarding Leads. Usually, class teachers or staff working in the Office are the first contact for the child or the family.

Listed below is our school offer:

  • Taking the time to listen to families. Sometimes, you might need to share information or have a difficult situation you need to make us aware of. We will listen. We have families too!
  • Taking the time to listen to children’s concerns. Each class has at least one named class teaching assistant, as well as the class teacher, who are available to chat to pupils when they feel they have a problem they would like to share.  We also have several staff trained in different child-centred interventions, including ‘Drawing and Talking’, Thrive etc.
  • Nurture club
  • Family Support Practitioner – we have a qualified FSP in-school, that can offer support to families
  • We have an effective PSHE curriculum which supports children and develops key skills, not only for school but for life.
  • We run parenting courses. These aren’t sessions to tell you how to do it, but an opportunity to share what works and sometimes what doesn’t!
  • There are a number of support agencies out there who we can access, refer to, or signpost you to e.g. The Parent Hub, Suffolk The Emotional Wellbeing Hub, School Nursing Team, Newmarket Open Door Foodbank,  .

There are also agencies which you can contact independently should you wish to do so, who might be able to help and provide the support for your family.

Advice and support from other agencies 

Early Help Service

The Early Help Service is a way of working with families who are struggling and puts their needs at the heart of decisions made about how they get help.

Early Help Service
Early Help Assessment

The Parent Hub

A single place for Suffolk parents or carers to find parenting advice and support to help their child’s development.

The Parent Hub
Other support for parents
Support for parents
Support for pupils
Guided relaxation and stories
Online safety
Peer mediation

Support for pupils

Contact details for Childline
Worried face emoji

If you are worried, it is always good to talk to someone you trust, whether that is at home or at school. It’s important to share what’s troubling you.

You can always talk to the adults in school, or contact your teachers via Google Classroom or email.  If you’re in KS1, you can tell the Worry Monster in your class your worries. If you’re in KS2, you can use ‘I wish my Teacher knew’ Google Form.

How to ask for help

There are lots of ways to ask an adult to help you. Here are some ideas:

“Nan, I’m feeling scared. Can I talk to you?…”

“Ms Smith, can I talk to you? I’m worried about something…”

“Dad, something happened when I was gaming. Can you help me?…”

Tell them about how you are feeling and explain what has happened. The adult should listen and help you.

How does the school provide accessibility arrangements for my child?

Here are some other sources of support:

Childline – Get help and advice about a wide range of issues, call them on 0800 1111, talk to a counsellor online, send Childline an email or post on the message boards.

Mind Information and Support for Young People – Information for young people who are worried about coronavirus and want to know how to cope with changes to their lives.

Thinkuknow – Explore one of the six Thinkuknow websites for advice about staying safe when you’re on a phone, tablet or computer.

How you can look after your health and wellbeing

Activities to spread happiness at home – At the moment it’s more important than ever to continue to spread happiness and positivity with those around us and to look after our mental health.  Activities include, creating your own top trumps, making a gratitude wall and a how to be happy scrapbook.

Active Breaks – fun physical activities to do throughout the day as a way to get active, have fun as a family and break up the day. Examples include, hide and seek, den or fort building and ‘hot potato’ ball games.

Childline Calm Zone – There are lots of way to feel calmer. It’s about finding what works for you. Try some of our breathing exercises, activities, games and videos to help let go of stress.

The Happy Newspaper – The Happy News resource pack is a downloadable PDF full of happy news stories, activities and ideas to inspire you to look for the good. We hope it will encourage you all to look for your own happy news and acts of kindness in your schools and communities.

Practise mindfulness with Go Noodle

Pupil playing at Exning Primary School

Guided relaxation

Stories about dealing with different feelings and worries

A Vaccination Book

A story book for younger children, explaining what happens when you need to have a vaccination.

Read ‘Getting my Vaccination’

Online safety

If you have any concerns or would like some support or advice regarding online safety, please see: Mrs Natasha Warren (Online Safety Lead) and Emma Hardy (Computing Lead).

Useful resources to keep children safe online

LGfL ParentSafe – Excellent information for parents – top tips, setting parental controls & settings, ‘What’s that app?’ and much, much more. Our number one go-to for support for parents.

CEOP Education – Helping you to better protect your children online

CEOP Safety Centre – CEOP is dedicated to keeping children safe from sexual abuse and sexual grooming online. They are there to help and advise you. If you feel your child is in immediate danger, please call 999. You can report to CEOP if you are concerned that your child is being sexually abused or sexually groomed online. This might be from someone they know or someone they have only ever met online. If you are worried about your child, CEOP is there to help you.

Common Sense – Common Sense Media offer a library of independent age-based and educational ratings and reviews for movies, games, apps, TV shows, websites, books and music. There is also the Parent Concerns and Parent Blog to help families navigate the issues of raising children in the digital age.

Parent Zone – Providing expert information to families.

Parental control resources
Pupils playing at Exning Primary School

Peer mediation

Peer mediation is a process of resolving conflict between students. It is run by pupils, for pupils.  The benefits for the peer mediators include: developing their listening, leadership, problem solving and communication skills; learning how to express feelings and needs and a growth in their confidence and self-esteem. The process of peer mediation also empowers the children because they are able to take responsibility for their own actions. 

How did our peer meditation service start?

A team of 10 Year 5 children applied to be peer mediators in June 2023 and had 4 days of professional training from Calm Mediation Centre. The training involved discussions around what conflict is, what mediation is and lots of role-play.  They began their peer mediator roles in September 2023, overseen by Miss Herzog.  Miss Herzog has now undertaken ‘Train the Trainer’ training, so that she can train our future cohorts of peer mediators.  Calm Mediation continue to support us and visit our peer mediators.

What does peer mediation look like at Exning?

The children mediate in the ‘Mediation Hut’ during lunchtimes. Two children are ‘on shift’ at a time, and mediate between the children that are having a disagreement. The peer mediators have blue sashes and badges so the other children know who the mediators are.  Children that are having a disagreement voluntarily choose to seek support from the peer mediators. 

There are three simple ground rules during the mediation that the children have to follow:

1) Respect each other

2) Anyone can stop the session at any time

3) No interrupting.

So far, the peer mediation scheme has been a great success! The mediators are really enjoying their new roles and the pupils of Exning Primary School have loved being able to resolve their disputes with their peers. The staff have also been highly positive, commenting on the maturity of the peer mediation team. 

Spreading the word about peer mediation in primary schools

We were very lucky to have nine researchers from Nazarbayev University in Astana, Kazakhstan and the University of Cambridge to visit in October 2023. The researchers were keen to find out how the scheme is going as they are interested in bringing peer mediation into schools in Kazakhstan.

It is a very exciting scheme and we are keen for other schools to get in touch that would like to start their own mediation service.

Newmarkewt Journal article about peer mediation