ROUNDTABLE: PRIMARY AND SECONDARY
Contributors: C armel Glassb rook ,
H elp line Practitioner, Professionals O nline Safety H elp line
Do you think most teaching and non-teaching staff can now recognise and are aware of e-safety issues?
W ill Gard ner,
C E O of C h ild net, Director of th e
U K Safer I nternet C entre
Carmel Glassbrook: The Professionals Online Safety Helpline supports professionals working with children with all online issues. We hear from many teachers and schools, and feel that over the years e-safety awareness has risen and staff are recognising these issues as important. Pupils, however, oſten only seek help from teachers once they are at crisis point and they feel they have exhausted all options. It would be good to see more non-teaching professionals becoming e-safety aware: for example, a child may feel happier telling a sports coach what has happened before it gets worse.
Mh airi H ill, eSafety
C oord inator, Dep u ty Designated T each er for
C h ild Protection,
B allyclare H igh Sch ool
Will Gardner: Childnet turns 20 this year and in that time we’ve seen levels of awareness about e-safety issues among school staff improve dramatically. The majority of schools now have policies in place to prevent and respond to e-safety concerns, and most will cover e-safety awareness too. It’s great that e-safety is now part of the computing curriculum for primary and secondary schools. However, technology is constantly changing, and it can be challenging for schools to stay on top of the latest trends. While staff may be aware of (and may have been affected by) e-safety issues, they may need support to have the practical knowledge to respond to these issues and to talk to pupils about their use of technology – particularly when it comes to challenging topics like sexting and pornography. This is why training for all staff is so important, though we know it is consistently one of the weakest areas for schools.
T ony A nscomb e, Senior Secu rity E v angelist, A V G T ech nologies
Stev e B aines, I nternational
B u siness Dev elop ment Manager, Grou p call
Mhairi Hill: Effective e-safety provision requires consideration of practice and policy in equal measure, and for successful implementation, whole-school buy-in is essential. Where school leaders have not identified e-safety as a priority, their staff are inadequately protected from the risks attached to the social web. An excellent way to identify areas in which e-safety awareness can be nurtured is through use of a self- review tool, such as the NAACE or 360 Degree Safe.
Tony Anscombe: Teachers are largely aware of the increasingly prevalent role of the internet in children’s lives, observing first-hand how it has revolutionised the classroom and learning techniques. They’re also aware of the associated threats, with the UK’s anti-bullying alliance revealing that more than half of kids surveyed saw cyberbullying as a part of everyday life. That said, AVG research has shown that nearly two
Dr Mik e B ev erley,
H ead , W ash ington Sch ool, Su nd erland
thirds (63%) of teachers have not received any formal training to teach internet safety, with many feeling ‘insufficiently equipped’ when approached by students for advice on such issues. While e-safety is a recognised priority, more certainly needs to be done to ensure staff are as prepared as possible when it comes to e-safety.
Daley R ob inson,
H ead of Mark eting, Stone Grou p
Steve Baines: I believe the majority of teaching and non- teaching staff are aware that e-safety is a major concern and that it needs to be taught in school, but I feel that there is still a lack of awareness around recognising issues
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www.edtechnology.co.uk | @Educ_Technology
of e-safety and measures that could be put in place to minimise risk to children. With children’s ever increasing use of mobile technology, the risks increase too. It is easy to view a child’s smartphone as just that – a phone. However, it is actually a very powerful piece of
technology that enables the user to communicate with others, access the internet, download apps, games, films etc. It is also a small device, that is easily concealed, but also very easy to use to share whatever has been downloaded or viewed with others. Staff in schools need to have sufficient training to both understand the issues around e-safety but also to be able to identify potential dangers and take action to minimise the risks to all involved.
Mike Beverley: Yes, certainly, our staff are well aware of e-safety issues. The school has invested a great deal in raising awareness, explicitly linking it to the anti- bullying policy. Our anti-bullying group is very active and crucially student led. What they focus upon is largely decided by students across the school; discussions and decisions are subsequently reviewed with staff. This has certainly conveyed the messaged to staff that our students take the issue of e-safety very seriously indeed. Regarding emerging e-safety issues, obviously we’ve
got more to do. Formulating strategies for dealing with new e-safety risk areas is an ongoing thing. For example, at the moment for a relatively small number of
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