OUR E-SAFETY CHAMPIONS!

At Bourne Abbey we use National Online Safety to help keep our children safe online. National Online Safety is an independent online safety training provider. Their mission is to educate and empower trusted adults with the information they need to engage in meaningful dialogue between children and young people about the online world, their online activities and the ever-evolving risks that they are exposed to. They focus on both general online safety risks and platform specific risks to provide adults with easy to follow information which enables conversations between adults and children.

National Online Safety provides online CPD for parents/carers, staff and governors. Specific training relating to E-Safety is also available for Designated and Deputy Safeguarding leads and SENCOs. This training is provided annually.

National Online Safety also provides us with monthly webinars on trending topics to help keep staff up to date with online issues. We also receive weekly parental guides (Wake Up Wednesday) which we upload onto the school websites to help keep parents/carers up to date with online platforms, devices, apps and websites their child may be using.

National Online Safety responds to the current DfE statutory guidance around online safety including the revised ‘Keeping Children Safe in Education’ and links to ‘Education for a Connected World.’

Our E-Safety Curriculum is based on the ‘Education for a Connected World’ framework. This framework describes the skills and understanding that children and young people should have the opportunity to develop at different ages and stages. It highlights what a child should know in terms of current online technology, its influence on behaviour and development, and what skills they need to be able to navigate it safely.

Our Curriculum

Our e-safety curriculum was based upon planning from National Online Safety, the ‘Education for a Connected World’ framework, teaching online safely in schools guidance and RSE statutory guidance.

Our progressive planning is from National Online Safety and they use the ‘Education for a Connected World’ framework. This framework describes the skills and understanding that children and young people should have the opportunity to develop at different ages and stages. It highlights what a child should know in terms of current online technology, its influence on behaviour and development, and what skills they need to be able to navigate it safely.

We also use the DfE guidance of ‘Teaching online safety in schools’. We know that the online world develops and changes at great speed and that it is difficult for schools and parents/carers to stay up to date with the latest devices, platforms, apps, trends and related threats. It is therefore important to focus on the underpinning knowledge and behaviours that can help pupils to navigate the online world safely and confidently regardless of the device, platform or app.

Underpinning knowledge and behaviours include:

• How to evaluate what they see online
• How to recognise techniques used for persuasion
• Online behaviour (what is acceptable and unacceptable)
• How to identity risks
• How and when to seek support

These are covered through our curriculum and particularly during our managing online information, privacy and security and copyright and ownership strands. We also have ensured that our e-safety curriculum is in line with new RSE statutory guidance.Over the year we focus on each of the 8 different topics including:

• Self-image and identity (September)
• Health, well-being and lifestyle (October)
• Online Bullying (November)
• Online Relationships (January)
• Online Reputation (March)
• Managing Online Information (April/May)
• Privacy and Security (June)
• Copyright and ownership (July)

Each year we also take part in Safer Internet Day in February.