At Downham Market Academy safeguarding our students is central to everything that we do, and we fully recognise our responsibility under section 157 of the Education Act 2002 to have arrangements in place to safeguard and promote the welfare of children.
We aim to establish and maintain an ethos where pupils feel secure, are encouraged to talk, are listened to and are safe. We regularly evaluate our approaches to safeguarding and staff receive training every half term on both local and national issues. Our full policy is available in our Policy Bank.
The Academy has a team of staff who are all trained to the same level of Designated Safeguarding Leads, each of whom has responsibility for a cohort of students as outlined in the table below. The named Designated Safeguarding Lead for Downham Market Academy is Sue Campbell Assistant Headteacher – Pastoral who has oversight of all safeguarding at the Academy. We work closely with local partners at Children’s Services and in the police under the “Operation Encompass” system. We are also extremely lucky to be supported by PC Sarah Rowland for some days each week as part of the “Safer Schools” initiative.
At Downham Market Academy we take every report of Peer-on-Peer Abuse seriously and considering the publication of DfE’s Keeping Children Safe in Education 2021 we have implemented a process whereby we can ensure that all incidents are acted upon alongside a zero-tolerance approach. All staff are trained to identify, react, and report any incidences of peer-on peer abuse to the DSLs in school. All incidents are dealt with as both safeguarding and behaviour concerns.
If you would like to report any concerns you have with the welfare or safety of one of our students, please do get in touch with one of the safeguarding team directly or using the email
Safeguarding Team

Sue Campbell
Assistant Headteacher
Lead Designated Safeguarding Lead (DSL)

Natalie Paine
Deputy Headteacher
Deputy Lead DSL
Responsibility for Looked After Children (LAC)

Mark Eastwood
Head of School
DSL
Responsibility for Safer Recruitment and Single Central Record

Rolf Purvis
Executive Headteacher
Deputy DDSL

Sue Hudson
Designated Safeguarding Lead

Bev Ireland
Designated Safeguarding Lead

Lewis Swatman
Designated Safeguarding Lead

Karen Lonsdale
Designated Safeguarding Lead

Kirsty Ward
Designated Safeguarding Lead