Safeguarding children online What does ‘good’ look like?

Why do schools need to take action? Schools have a duty of care Protecting children whilst they are in our care and educating them for when they are not! e-safety is a child safety – not an ICT – issue!

Why do schools need to take action? Ofsted Evaluation Schedule from Sept 2009 includes : Inspectors should evaluate: …how safe pupils feel in school, including their understanding of issues relating to safety, such as bullying …the extent to which the pupils feel able to seek support from the school should they feel unsafe. …the effectiveness of the school’s arrangements, including links with key agencies, for ensuring the safety of its pupils. Inspectors should take into account: …the extent to which pupils are able to understand, assess and respond to risks, for example those associated with new technology, …the extent to which the school helps pupils to keep themselves safe, including encouraging pupils to adopt safe and responsible practices and deal sensibly with risk, for example: …..using the internet If the school is judged to be inadequate in this strand of the evaluation schedule, its overall effectiveness is likely to be judged to be inadequate.

Why do schools need to take action? The Byron Review “...in all schools action is taken at a whole-school level to ensure that e-safety is mainstreamed throughout the school’s teaching, learning and other practices. In particular I recommend that: Government should encourage schools to use Becta’s self-review framework to drive continual improvement in schools’ use of ICT including with regard to e-safety. 100% of schools should have AUPs that are regularly reviewed, monitored and agreed with parents and students. Guidance on this should be incorporated in Becta’s revised self-review framework.”

Snapshot showed… Ofsted conducted a small-scale study of 100 self-evaluation forms of schools that were being inspected in the summer term The study found considerable variation in how schools monitor and evaluate the effectiveness of their e-safety policies. A considerable proportion of schools do not indicate how they know whether their policies are effective or not in ensuring learners’ e-safety. the proportion of schools providing sufficient evidence of their strategies for ensuring e-safety was low, especially in primary schools. In secondary schools, the results were slightly better, with over a third offering a comprehensive and thoughtful response to the question. However, it was still the case that almost half made no comment at all. Byron recommended Ofsted provide the Government with a snapshot report on school responses to question 4b of the SEF (regarding e-safety) by summer 2008.

The importance of ICT: information and communication technology in primary and secondary schools 2005/8 [03/03/09 ] The very great majority of the schools visited taught their pupils and students about the risks associated with using the internet. However, very few of the schools evaluated the effectiveness of this teaching and very few had recorded the incidents they had dealt with where students’ safety had been compromised. The recommendations from the report are: All schools should: evaluate the effectiveness of their provision for teaching pupils and students how to keep themselves safe when online and record incidents where the safety of individuals may be compromised

Government response to Lord Laming Review 32. Ofsted have also designed the new school inspection framework which will apply from September 2009 so that it will have a stronger focus on safeguarding. The current inspection framework already includes a judgement about whether safeguarding arrangements in schools are satisfactory but this will be strengthened in the new framework with a grading on a scale from 1(outstanding) to 4(inadequate) for a school's safeguarding arrangements. Any school which receives a grade of 4 will also be likely to be awarded an inadequate grade for its overall performance and will need therefore to make urgent improvements. These arrangements will 'raise the bar' about the importance of safeguarding for schools and will also facilitate the identification and dissemination of best practice.

Safeguarding is not just about protecting children from deliberate harm. It includes issues for schools such as: pupil health and safety bullying racist abuse harassment and discrimination use of physical intervention meeting the needs of pupils with medical conditions providing first aid drug and substance misuse educational visits intimate care internet safety issues which may be specific to a local area or population, for example gang activity school security.

What should ‘good’ schools be doing?

What does acceptable use look like in your school? Does it… have end-user input? promote positive uses of new and emerging technologies? clearly outline what network monitoring will take place? clearly outline acceptable and unacceptable behaviours when using technology and network resources provided by the school both on or offsite, or when using personal technologies on school premises or networks? reflect your setting and cover all users?

What does acceptable use look like in your school? Is it… written in a tone and style that is appropriate to the end-user? regularly reviewed and updated? widely, & regularly, communicated to all stakeholder groups? Where can I find good examples? Look to your local authority and/or Regional Broadband Consortium for local policies. clear and concise?

“Children and young people need to be empowered to keep themselves safe – this isn’t just about a top-down approach. Children will be children – pushing boundaries and taking risks. At a public swimming pool we have gates, put up signs, have lifeguards and shallow ends, but we also teach children how to swim.” Dr Tanya Byron Safer children in a digital world: The report of the Byron Review The filtering debate

E-safety Thematic study Byron recommendation 25 That Ofsted undertake a thematic study on the teaching of e-safety and media literacy across what schools offer. Published, February 2010 – “The safe use of new technologies”

Question? Having read the Ofsted report, how would you help support schools that you are working with? What would be the key issues that you think they would need to be aware of?

Fisher-Price's Easy-Link Internet Launchpad, a keyboard-free console for the 3-and-older crowd. When toddlers stick a figurine into its appropriate console slot, they are whisked directly to the character's official website,

Schools must tackle media literacy: ‘Who wrote this and why?’

Data Protection

Reaching parents…….. One parent told me that she thought the whole issue of e- safety to be overblown and irrelevant. She went on to tell me that she has a teenage daughter who has a computer in her room. The mum said “I KNOW I have no e-safety problems in my home. I always check my daughter’s internet browsing history thingy [sic]. IT’s ALWAYS EMPTY”

‘AUPs in context: Establishing safe and responsible online behaviours’ This document provides a number of prompts and action points to help schools and other children’s settings develop effective AUPs within their local context and framework of wider e-safety measures. Available free to order or download from

Question? How does the content of the poster help to support your work with schools? How might you use it when judging schools for the ICT mark? What issues might you have to consider?

Is your school e-safe? Does your school… have a nominated e-safety co-ordinator? audit its e-safety measures? have a robust AUP? use a Becta accredited supplier for internet services? include e-safety measures in Section 4b of your SEF? keep an incident log and monitor your measures? handle cyberbullying issues well? raise awareness of the issues, e.g. through holding an assembly?

Is your school e-safe? Do all your staff… understand e-safety issues and risks? receive regular training and updates? know how to escalate an issue of concern? know how to keep data safe and secure? know how to protect themselves online know how to conduct themselves professionally online? know about the updated e-safety guidance for QTS standard Q21: Health and well-being?

Is your school e-safe? Do your learners… understand what safe and responsible online behaviour means? receive e-safety education at appropriate places across the curriculum? get the opportunity to improve their digital literacy skills? know the SMART rules? know how to report any concerns they may have?

Is your school e-safe? Do your parents and governors… understand e-safety issues and risks? understand their roles and responsibilities? receive regular training and updates? understand how to protect their children in the home? If not, why not! Take action now

Questions to consider What does good look like? What would you expect to see (or not to see) in terms of e-safety when judging for the ICT mark?

Contact… Ruth Hammond Becta Millburn Hill Road Science Park Coventry CV4 7JJ T+44 (0) F+44 (0)