Child given money by "Vicar" at school

The child abuse. I’m not saying where it happened as it’s very outing for my friend. Presumably where either on church premises or choir parts of church, actually cathedral.

No need to go to Police at this stage (and possibly at all).

You are right to email the headteacher and school, they may be monitoring emails. Wait for them to gather the facts, annoyingly yes this might be after the holidays now.

I don’t know if anyone else has mentioned it but the other agency to consider is LADO who deal with Position of Trust issues and have some oversight. In my LA, they provide a good link between all agencies that have involvement in a concern and raise queries with the police directly over whether things reach criminal threshold or are purely conduct issues. Procedures may vary area to area.

On the face of it, and presuming the dd is being truthful, it sounds like it is a conduct issue that can be dealt with by school/church but further exploration around the circumstances and whether the individual has shown a pattern of behaviour or has history of previous warnings is definitely worthwhile.

I’ll speak to her. As I’ve said (didn’t mean to drip feed) this happened a long time ago when safeguarding was much more lax. In fact I know someone who worked in safeguarding in religion, had an issue there and was let go, got another job in safeguarding.

What happened and where?

Well, she really ought to! I know it requires courage, but she won't lose her job.
See @Daffodildahlia 's post about safeguarding.
Your friend would be doing the right thing, and saving children at risk.

This happened about 20 years ago, involved choristers. I believe my friend.,

To be honest, I’m not sure she has done, as she’s Catholic and suffered historic employment issues. I would whistleblow though.

Thank you, please note this, OP.

@Gonnagetgoingreturnsagain as a PS - if your friend has any evidence of any wrongdoing such as you have described, they have a duty to report it to the Safeguarding Officer at the church concerned.

The 2019 Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse (IICSA) made over 22 recommendations, one being to introduce a new “mandatory reporting régime” for child abuse in England and Wales, which the government are now seeking to enact.

https://www.churchofengland.org/safeguarding/safeguarding-e-manual/reporting-safeguarding-concerns-and-allegations

Agree with OP that it should be raised but can wait until school reopens. For those assuming schools were closed, the schools on my area only finished term on Thursday as well - and I am in the South west.

Of course! This is a huge, red flag and a safeguarding concern.

I find that hard to believe when there are now such strict safeguarding protocols in place.

Some are so strict, that it interferes with some activities that the children like eg:

One church I know about had a vicar who had a childrens' band in the church tower room on a Saturday morning (his eardrums had my sympathy !)
He played the guitar and was helping some children learn and he had parents' permission for that, This involved sitting behind the child on another chair and guiding their fingers into position on the fret.
After the new Safeguarding Rules came in to operation he cancelled the group because he was concerned that it might leave him open to unfounded allegations.
It was the kids that lost out.

Some of my friends were bellringers and taught children to ring bells.
To do this they needed a DBS certificate from the police. Unfortunately the Diocese required a certificate that covered them for each church tower they rang at. At a cost of £21.50 for a basic certificate and £49.50 for advanced one this was financially penalising.
They approached the Diocese to see if they could have a "mobile" one that would cover them for every tower in the area but this was refused as each church had it's own insurance.

So all they could do was just teach at their own tower. Again the kids lost out.

Not only that, but a Safeguarding rule came into place that said if people were transporting children to a church activity they needed to have an adult male and female, both with DBS checks, in the vehicle.
My friends used to go around the area collecting children and taking them to bellringing practice. Usually they carried 4 in a car. After this ruling came into play 1 child lost out in each car as they could only take 3, to make room for the extra adult.

All this is bureaucracy gone bonkers IMO

The school may be closed for lessons, but someone will be monitoring all safeguarding concerns, that doesn’t end in the holidays. The schools website should have clear instructions on raising a safeguarding issue.

Classic grooming behaviour. "Here, a fiver for sweets- keep it a secret". Then when he's sure she's able to keep secrets it will be more fivers and SA.
My DS is in a catholic secondary although we are not religious and I told him straight off that that there have been many scandals about catholic priests grooming young boys and to tell me immediately if something feels off from any adult or child (religious or not). He's been in this school for 2 years and has yet to meet a priest but I'm happy to have told him that there are predators out there, even targeting boys.

You have to report this OP! I would not trust the religious community to deal with it properly though because they have a history of covering things like this up so I would file a report with your local LA as well as school.

Well that suddenly makes sense why travel is more expensive right up until the end of April. I didn’t realise schools varied so wildly. A learning point! Thank you.

As for the dilemma - definitely drop the school an email. It’s a massive no-no.

Absolutely. They will have a protocol.

Keep it as a surprise until Mothering Sunday is fine

The church needs to deal with it too.

I hope your friend is whistleblowing.

What? You’re very mistaken

My best friend is a Catholic but has worked for an Anglican diocese. Let’s just say a lot goes on behind the scenes that the church wants to be kept quiet, even now. Priests and vicars and some other staff involved are still abusing children.

I don't think the OP has said it's a CofE school has she?

My DC attended a non-religious primary school but it had a local URC minister who took assembly on a Friday, plus visiting ministers and vicars from other local churches.

The OP needs to report this to the school as it happened at the school. They will know what steps to take.

So better to just ignore it then ? And possibly allow a predator to carry on working with children ? It’s grooming behaviour and needs investigation.

I think that’s a very wise move. I would not question your DD any more about this, but would tell her that you’ll have to speak to the school about it and possibly the school will have to contact the police because the ‘vicar’ has not behaved well. Meanwhile, write down everything you can remember about what she has told you.
It is possible that she is telling you the truth, but it’s also possible that she isn’t. She could have ‘found’ the money and have concocted a story to tell you. Whilst you mustn’t accuse her of lying, you should still keep an open mind about where this money came from. Some time ago, I taught a child who had a tendency to be light fingered, taking things like rubbers, pencils, someone else’s hair slides left in their bag. One day her mum brought her into school with a £10 note saying she’d brought it home having found it in my classroom. She had found it, that was true - in my bottom drawer where I had left a collection tin for a staff member who was leaving!

Tell the schoolASAP - classic grooming behaviour or at the least incredibly naive.
we had a school priest who did this kind of thing, to several children. Was at our the parish/school priest for several years. The one day said priest is gone overnight - were were told on a ‘mission’
Priest was convicted 25 years later for abusing boys. The ‘mission’ was the church moving him to another SCHOOL post in another country. They did this for years before he was actually arrested and charged.