With screen time rising over the last year, it’s never been more important for schools to empower their entire community when it comes to online safety.
Recognising the importance of safeguarding their pupils online, Lincoln-based St Peter at Gowts Church of England Primary School have achieved not one, but two accreditations: through our respective Certified School and Safe Remote Education programmes.
Computing Lead, Emma Bradley, praised everyone’s collective efforts and thanked National Online Safety’s wealth of resources in the process.
Validation for all
First and foremost, Mrs Bradley says the children’s safety is always the priority, but to receive recognition for two excellent achievements is also a nice reward too.
She said: “It was hugely important for us.
“With the current situation, we knew that our children would be online a great deal more than usual (with remote learning) and wanted to raise the awareness for parents at home, particularly in the case of the older children, who perhaps in bedrooms completing online learning independently.
“So, it was about how we could keep our children safe online. For us, to have that recognition that it’s something which we do well, is a really lovely thing to have!
“It’s brilliant to be able to say that we’ve been recognised for that fact that we treat online safety as a priority in our school. Speaking from a personal perspective in terms of my own CPD and the courses etc which I’ve been able to access, it’s just been amazing!"
Ever-present protection
We were delighted to learn that the school haven’t had any online safeguarding issues, with Emma stating the importance of National Online Safety in accomplishing this.
“We haven’t had any safeguarding issues online and, all the things which are useful, are underpinned by your training, CPD for staff and resources,” she revealed.
“Thankfully, we’ve not had any triggers, but I think you just always need to keep it at the forefront of your mind."
Informative messages
Free to access for all, our weekly #WakeUpWednesday guides aim to provide teachers, parents and carers with handy, concise tips on the latest apps and games.
Rolling these out on a regular basis through Twitter, Mrs Bradley described the impact which they’ve had, particularly in relation to some of the biggest social media platforms out there, such as TikTok.
She explained: “We share the #WakeUpWednesday guides each week on Twitter, and they’ve been brilliant.
“Not so long ago we obviously had Safer Internet Day and we had a few things that were raised in certain classrooms about age restrictions for specific games.
“Therefore, we could then share those guides with parents and they’re great, especially over the past couple of years with things like TikTok, Instagram and all those popular social media sites."
