Child given money by "Vicar" at school

Every school in our MAT has, plus the adjoining MATs. It's recognised procedure.

In the website there should be a safeguarding email which will be monitored over the holidays. Having said that, if it isn’t an emergency then you could send the message through the normal channels and it’ll be picked up when they’re back. Put safeguarding concern in the subject line.

In an ideal world, maybe. In reality, not the case

She's reported it.

There is always someone to pick up the emails in relation to child protection and safeguarding. If not the safeguarding lead, then a designated deputy.

How is that going to help, if there's noone there to pick up the emails?

You need to report this to the school, it sounds like grooming. Make sure you tell your daughter she is not in trouble and has done the right thing in telling you.

I would report to the LADO at your local authority. I know lots of people are saying the DSL is always contactable even during the holidays but that is not necessarily true. The DSL from my school is in South America right now and I know she will not be accessing emails. The DSL email is not shown on our website as it gets abused - the local authority does know it. I CAN check the general school inbox but I too am overseas and it isn’t easy to get through all the security with only a phone so I won’t be checking until I am back in the UK (not to mention that I don’t get paid to work over Easter - I get paid for 40 weeks plus pro rata holiday only so my HT always tells me that I shouldn’t be checking the inbox on holiday).
I DO think what OP reports is a concern and it SHOULD be reported.

@Reallyneedsaholiday @Plumnora

OP said on Saturday that she’d already emailed the school.

I can understand your hesitation in escalating the situation, however, as you cannot contact anyone at the school for 2 weeks, I think you really should. Pop into your local police station and have a conversation with them. Tell them what you've told us. There may well be other children that have been given money by this "vicar" that could be at risk, before 20th.

Er, YES!!! Absolutely you need to tell school. And the police. In fact I'd be speaking to the police first. This is grooming. Even if it turns out to be a huge error of judgment on his part but I'm very, very sceptical saying that on this day and age with so much awareness being fed to anyone in a position of authority- it needs flagging up.
Well done for raising a daughter who felt able to tell you.
Please, please escalate this. And good luck.

I agree that this can happen, and it's absolutely terrible when it does.

However, I think in this case OP needs to at least give the school chance to look into it first.

I am not sure the curate has done enough so far for the police to investigate a charge of grooming. Unless OP has reason to suspect more may have happened than the £5 incident.

Your school will have a designated safe guarding lead (DSL) who is available to contact at all times, including over school holidays.

The school website ought to make it obvious how to contact this person.

Sometimes they have an online system of reporting concerns, for example, which will be monitored.

Have a look at the website, it should show you the best way to contact someone. Then make sure you include your details, your child's name, everything she has said about the incident, and the best way that they can contact you. Make it clear that you would like some kind of follow up so that you know this has been actioned.

If you don't hear anything for a couple of days, at that point I would consider taking it further, and contacting local authority safeguarding (again, you can Google this).

Best case scenario, either your daughter has got the wrong end of the stick, or the curate is still early in his training and hasn't yet grasped what is and is not an appropriate way to conduct himself in schools. In that case, it's important to flag it, as there is a clear training need here at the very least.

Worst case, there is something more sinister going on.

Does your daughter attend church or a church youth group, OP? I was wondering if there are any other ways this guy could have access to her that you need to be careful about.

I hope the days of schools ignoring things like this are over - followed up
with them in what has been done.

No. The school will have to act, @Pinklightning Believe me.

Our school closed ranks when our priest was accused of child sexual abuse. Against a member of his own family years before he came to our country. Stories in the paper back home etc. The priest was terminally ill when this came to light and was never prosecuted but school and a lot of parents and the church community stood by the priest and refused to believe it. The diocese did nothing and refused to engage with his accuser. When no further action was taken against him the school newsletter stated how wonderful this was and the priest was celebrated.
He was creepy. Lots of people didn’t like him and his views on some things but the school and governors would have anyone believe he was a saint.
He married me and my now ex husband and made sexist jokes at the ceremony which put me off him before all this came to light.
My point is that I’d be wary of expecting school to do anything except deny this happened and if it were me I’d be going to the police. It’s not like it’s rare in the church for clergy to be deviants.
I’m sorry this happened to your daughter.

I don’t even have the phone numbers of my teen charges - everything and I mean EVERYTHING goes through the parents - much to some parents frustration sometimes. ‘Can’t you just text and ask where they are?’ No, I can’t. They’re late, you’re the parent, you need to call them and ask them where they are as the match is about to start and they aren’t here! And no, they haven’t told me they’re going to be late because they do t have my phone number either, because they’re under 18.
And no it’s not ‘ elf and safety’ gone mad as one dad told me. It’s there for the protection of YOUR child. Emotional, mental as well as physical.

As a female sports coach I can tell you that the very basic safeguarding anyone is told when working with children is to NOT single out children or a child for ‘special’ treatment. In anyway. As for speaking to them an saying is a ‘secret’ or giving them gifts and saying it’s a ‘secret’ it should be common sense to any adult not to do this with a child - let alone one you have no relation to.
Massive RED FLAG for any adult that thinks this behaviour is okay in this setting.

It can't be deemed Maundy Money - that is special coins given to the elderly in a special service. It's very odd behaviour, definitely needs to be reported to the school - staff should be aware and able to fill in any gaps about what happened / what they observed at the time.

Please report to the LADO at the council, I'd be worried school or church would not follow up sufficiently and nobody will be gathering a picture if other similar reports have been made

This is extremely worrying. OP you’ve definitely done the right thing by contacting the school.
I hope you’ve written a word for word account on paper of what your daughter has said at the time, dated. Plus anything else she says later.
Put the £5 in a sealed ziplock bag. It
could later, god forbid, be evidence.
Please ensure the school are doing what they should be. A school DSL and HT should be investigating this fully, contacting LADO (& I think Ofsted) not just ringing Vicar Fred to ask.

And hopefully it was all a misunderstanding, and a parable about money that got misconstrued.

I hope you’ve had a response from the school.

Not nice

The Vicar would not necessarily be escorting the curate around. My husband was more or less completely autonomous a fee weeks in 😀

I say this as a woman married to a Cof E Vicar always in school working with little people and teens and loves it. He is WELL aware of risks, is never alone with one child, will always buy the entire group he's working with a treat never just one and never money eg. he bought the school worship team kids mini eggs for helping with school assembly over Holy Week. He will high five rather than hug. He also would never have done this as a curate.
For your own information I'd check properly who she means as my husband has two church volunteers who go out with him into local schools who aren't vicars but people often refer to them as such. So if she can remember the name or description, this sounds wildly inappropriate and needs reporting. If they don't respond your local diocese also have safeguarding procedures in place. C of E and Catholic have different diocese too.

Yes you did well to email the school. Its a safeguarding issue.