Support for Parents and Families
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Early Help, Strong Relationships, Shared Responsibility
At Kingsway, safeguarding works best when families and school work together.
We prioritise early help, believing that identifying and addressing concerns early:
- reduces risk
- strengthens wellbeing
- supports inclusion
- prevents escalation
Our relational, early help approach
Parents and carers are encouraged to talk to us early about:
- worries at home or school
- changes in circumstances
- attendance concerns
- emotional wellbeing
- behaviour or friendships
We listen with respect, empathy and professionalism.
Pastoral Support & Family Liaison
Miss Dunstan – Pastoral Lead is central to Kingsway’s safeguarding and wellbeing offer.
She works closely with:
- families
- children
- class teachers
- leadership
- external agencies
Support includes:
- emotional wellbeing support
- early help coordination
- attendance and engagement support
- family liaison
- referrals and multi‑agency working when needed
Families are supported, not judged.
Inclusion and safeguarding go together
We recognise that children who are:
- disadvantaged
- have SEND
- experience emotional or social vulnerability
- may face additional safeguarding risks.
Safeguarding at Kingsway always considers:
- context
- lived experience
- equity
- dignity
Early Help at Kingsway Primary & Nursery School
Support at the Right Time – Before Things Become Difficult
At Kingsway, we believe that early help makes the biggest difference for children and families.
Early Help is support offered as soon as a concern or difficulty is identified, rather than waiting for problems to become more serious. It is about working with families, not judging, blaming or labelling.
Early help can support families with things such as:
- children’s emotional wellbeing
- behaviour at home or school
- attendance or punctuality concerns
- friendships or social worries
- changes in family circumstances
- health, sleep or routines
- confidence, anxiety or regulation
Early help is voluntary, supportive and collaborative. Families remain central to decisions and are involved at every stage.
What Early Help looks like at Kingsway
At Kingsway, early help is rooted in strong relationships, inclusion and trust.
Support usually begins with:
- a conversation with school
- listening carefully to understand what is happening
- identifying strengths as well as concerns
- agreeing next steps together
Our aim is always to:
- reduce stress for children and families
- prevent concerns escalating
- promote wellbeing, safety and belonging
- help children thrive emotionally, socially and academically
Early help is not a sign that anything is “wrong” — it is a proactive, positive step.
Who leads Early Help in school?
At Kingsway, early help is coordinated through our pastoral and safeguarding team, with Miss Dunstan (Pastoral Lead) playing a key role in supporting families and liaising with services where appropriate.
Families are encouraged to speak to:
- Miss Dunstan, or
- the school office, who can help arrange a conversation
We are always happy to listen.
Please ask for help early
We know that asking for help can feel difficult. We want families to know:
You do not need to wait for things to become overwhelming.
You will be listened to, supported and treated with respect.
Early help works best when school and families work together — and we are always here to help.
Trafford Team Together (TTT)
Working Alongside Families and Schools
Trafford Team Together (TTT) is a Trafford Local Authority early help service that works in partnership with schools, families and communities to provide additional support when needed.
TTT does not replace school support — it works alongside schools, like Kingsway, to help families access the right help at the right time.
What does Trafford Team Together do?
TTT may support families with:
- emotional and mental wellbeing
- parenting support
- family relationships
- routines, boundaries and consistency
- attendance and engagement in school
- accessing community and specialist services
Support is strengths‑based, meaning it focuses on what families are doing well and builds from there.
How does TTT work with Kingsway?
At Kingsway:
- school staff work closely with TTT when extra support could help
- families are involved in all conversations and decisions
- support plans are co‑ordinated, not duplicated
- the focus is on early intervention and inclusion
TTT support is always discussed with families first — it is collaborative, not imposed.
A shared commitment to children and families
Kingsway Primary & Nursery School, Trafford Team Together and families all share the same goal:
To ensure children are safe, supported, happy and able to thrive.
If additional support would benefit a child or family, we work together with care, dignity and respect.
Talk to us – we are always here to help
If you think early help or additional support might be useful:
- speak to Miss Dunstan (Pastoral Lead)
- contact the school office
- or talk to a trusted member of staff
No concern is too small.
No question is unwelcome.
Asking for help is a strength — and we are always here to help.
We know that parenting can be hard at times and there are circumstances where you may feel you need some extra help. As well as the support available in school, please see some information pages below for additional support that you can access:
Protecting children from physical abuse | NSPCC Learning
Domestic abuse | Trafford Council
Keeping children safe online | NSPCC
Cost of living support: Overview - GOV.UK
Trafford Directory | Cost of living help and resources
SENDIASS – Special Educational Needs Support and Disabilities Information Advice and Support - Home
Support & advice for families | NSPCC
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What is abuse and neglect?
Physical Abuse may involve the following:
- Hitting
- Shaking
- Throwing
- Poisoning
- Burning
- Scalding
- Drowning
- Suffocating
Sexual Abuse is a child being made to watch or being subjected to acts of a sexual nature.
Emotional Abuse is defined as ‘Persistent emotional maltreatment of a child, such as to cause severe and persistent adverse effects on the child’s emotional development’. This may involve ‘Conveying to children that they are worthless, unloved, inadequate, or valued only in so far as they meet the needs of another person’.
- Age or developmentally inappropriate expectations
- Over protection, limitation of exploration and learning, preventing in the child participating in normal, social interaction
- The exploitation or corruption of children
- Seeing or hearing the ill-treatment of another
Neglect is the persistent failure to meet a child’s basic physical and/or psychological needs, likely to result in the serious impairment of the child’s health or development. School has a responsibility to report safeguarding concerns. This may be a child witnessing inappropriate actions or materials. If there are concerns raised about your child, where possible we will always endeavour to speak to the parents or carers first. However, in serious cases, the matter would be escalated to the appropriate agency without informing parents.
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Operation Encompass
Our school is part of a project, which is run between Trafford Local Authority, schools and Greater Manchester Police. The project, called Operation Encompass, has been designed to provide early reporting of any domestic abuse incidents that occur outside school, which might have an impact on a child in school. This is communicated through a secure email to school following an incident.
The project ensures that at least one member of the school staff, known as the Key Adult, is available to liaise with children’s services and the police and to use the information that has been shared, in confidence.
In this way, we aim to support each child who has been involved in, or witnessed, a domestic abuse incident.
The Key Adults for Kingsway Primary School are Miss Baskeyfield and Mrs Jones.
If Miss Baskeyfield or Mrs Jones receive an Encompass notification, they will make sure that a person that the child trusts is available to help – if the child needs this. Most of the time this support is silent; keeping a careful eye on him or her and making sure the child has a calm school day. The confidential information is ordinarily not shared with all staff, just an agreement on how to help, if needed.
All schools have a duty to share any information with other organisations if they feel a child is at risk of being hurt. The Key Adults may contact other organisations if this is deemed appropriate or necessary.
The sharing of information from the police allows the school to be ready to help your child straight away, and it means that parents are aware that the Key Adults know that something has happened. Parents can come and talk to our Key Adults. The Key Adults can point you towards other people that can help.
Our aim is to support children and their families - we are here to help.
If you wish to find out more, please click on the link below to take you to the Trafford safeguarding webpage.
Kingsway Primary School is proud to be part of the Operation Encompass intervention.
For more information click on the link below which will take you to their website:
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Prevent
As part of Kingsway’s commitment to safeguarding and child protection we fully support the government’s Prevent Strategy, and take guidance from Teaching Approaches to help build resilience to extremism.
The Prevent strategy is a government strategy designed to stop people becoming terrorists or supporting terrorism.
It:
- Responds to the ideological challenge we face from terrorism and aspects of extremism, and the threat we face from those who promote these views
- Provides practical help to prevent people from being drawn into terrorism and ensure they are given appropriate advice and support
- Works with a wide range of sectors (including education, criminal justice, faith, charities, online and health)
Please visit this link to view the official government document:
The Prevent duty: an introduction for those with safeguarding responsibilities - GOV.UK
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Child Sexual Exploitation
Child Sexual Exploitation, or CSE, is a form of sexual abuse which sees children/young people being manipulated or coerced into sexual activity for receiving ‘something’ such as; gifts, money, food, attention, somewhere to stay etc.
Technology is very often used to groom victims. This may occur through social networking sites and mobile phones with internet access.
CSE has gained a large amount of media attention over the last year as lots of services involved with children and young people have noticed a big rise in cases involving CSE.
Charities such as NSPCC and Barnardos have been campaigning to raise the profile of this form of child abuse. Information regarding CSE can be found here on their websites below:
Child Sexual Exploitation & How to Keep Your Child Safe | NSPCC
Child sexual abuse and exploitation: support for parents and carers | Barnardo's