After achieving their Certified School status last year, Thomas Gray Primary School were keen to further enhance what already is an excellent online safety provision.
Through our ‘Safe Remote Education’ accreditation, they’ve been able to do just that, and are delighted to now have two awards under their arm.
Computing Lead, Year 4 Teacher and Designated Safeguarding Lead Chris Davies spoke of a pride throughout the school, upon hearing of the latest accomplishment.
A validation for all
Mr Davies revealed that the school wanted to work quickly in order to complete the certification, and this approach has led to praise from local authority bodies too.
He said: “One of the biggest things for us was the fact that we’ve just had a local authority undertake a remote learning inspection. They really liked the fact that we had a remote learning accreditation.
“What really supported us throughout lockdown was that staff members who were working from home could complete courses online.
“We actually got the accreditation quite quick and, that was all with everyone who was involved, really getting onboard with it.
“It definitely supported us within our remote learning inspection, but also it has benefitted us as a school – it really benefited staff with their CPD.”
Timely responses
Furthermore, the training also gave another thread of knowledge when it came to safeguarding remotely, so that real-time responses could be actioned should an incident arise.
“We had a few little online safety issues while the children were on Zoom, with an example being that we had one instance where the child wasn’t dressed appropriately,” he revealed.
“There was actually a remote learning part which looked at what to do in certain scenarios, which was really good.”
A continuation of already crucial work
For the Bootle-based school, being able to sit this latest accreditation alongside their pre-existing Certified award just emphasises a real collective togetherness when it comes to ensuring all pupils are protected whilst online.
He declared: “A lot of the feedback we’ve had from parents is that they’re really quite proud of the fact that we’ve achieved the accreditation.
“It was a bit of cherry on top of the cake if you like, because we’ve really pushed remote learning and that gives us that topping off so that we can move forward.
“I like the way that you get the accreditation, because staff are actually doing the courses and training, and it’s a lot more of a whole school approach.”
