Safer Recruitment and Selection of School Staff  

The school has adopted robust recruitment and selection procedures that minimise the risk of employing people who might abuse children, or are otherwise unsuitable to work with them. We complete a full range of checks which are carried out to minimise the possibility of children and young people suffering harm from those they consider to be in positions of trust.

We ensure that all appropriate measures are applied in relation to everyone who works in the school, including volunteers and staff employed by contractors. This is an essential part of creating a safe environment for children and young people.   

Safer practice in recruitment means thinking about and including issues to do with child protection and safeguarding children at every stage of the process. This includes obtaining and scrutinising comprehensive information about applicants. For example, obtaining professional references, verifying academic or vocational qualifications, previous employment history, verifying health and physical capacity for the job as well as resolving any discrepancies or anomalies in references.  

It also includes ensuring that advertising, job descriptions, person specifications and interview processes includes safeguarding and right to work in England checks.

Everyone who works in the school, including volunteers will have appropriate Disclosure and Barring (DBS),  teacher status checks and disqualification by association checks. The school will ensure volunteers are appropriately supervised as outlined in statutory guidance on supervising the activities of workers and volunteers with children. See the school's Safer Recruitment, Volunteer and DBS Policies.

NQTs

We welcome NQT's at St Christophers Academy and we offer a very good induction programme and package of support for our Newly qualified teachers. All teachers are given a mentor to help them through their NQT year where they are provided with a bespoke CPD package. Collaborative working is encouraged at the Academy and staff will plan together and support one another.

CPD at St Christophers is tailored to the needs of the children and staff. We also work with other schools to provide training and support. Currently our staff are participating in Lesson Study where they plan lessons together and evaluate the learning of different groups of pupils. The Chiltern Teaching School Alliance provides our NQTs with a fantastic training package. All sessions are twilight sessions and teachers are able to meet each other and share good practice. 

St Christophers is a small school with a family atmosphere, children and staff alike are welcoming and to those who join. Very quickly you will find you have become part of the St Christophers family.