When asked about some of the important factors in ultimately choosing a CPD provider for online safety, St. Andrew’s C of E Primary School placed an emphasis on “engaging and interactive” training.
Through National Online Safety’s Certified School package, the Hull-based school have not only been able to both engage and inform, but empower too.
Teacher and SENCO, Lindsey Harrison has been delighted with the impact so far, and can’t wait to embed our training and resources moving forward.
Specific areas of CPD focus
For St Andrew’s, there were several areas of focus, with them wanting to make sure they were abreast of all the new developments in the online world.
She said: “It’s important for the training not to be too time consuming – staff’s time is very valuable. We want it to be engaging and interactive where possible, in order to get people involved in discussions and thinking about things which they wouldn’t normally think about.
“There are more children online now. There’s a whole range of devices which enable children to access different online content.
“There are new games and chatrooms which, perhaps when teachers were younger, they weren’t aware of. Also, young people are using new terminology too – so it’s really important that we’re clued up on that, so that we can listen in and pick up bits of a conversation which might be of concern.”
Starting out with National Online Safety
Lindsey initial experience with National Online Safety was an enlightening one, which left her with a desire to discover our platform further.
Ultimately, this led to the school joining our comprehensive Certified School package.
“I did your online safety course for SEND pupils and found it really interesting,” she explained.
“A member of the National Online Safety team then got in touch and I was then shown a demo, which included the lesson plans. The lesson plans were a big seller for me.”
A consistency throughout
Crucial for the school was a consistent approach to online safety and ensuring that those messages aligned right across the board – something which we’ve been able to make possible.
She stated: “The way which things are laid out on National Online Safety, with all the different units of work and subsequent progression through the school, it’s really good for showing consistency.
“The videos are really helpful too. We have three classes in each year group, so it’s really good that all the year 1’s are taught the same, by using those videos and resources.
“There’s a clear progression, right from reception and it’s done in a really child-friendly way, right up to year 6.”
