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Services.Schools
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Technology.Parents are amazing at understanding the behaviour of their children. Fully conversant with mood changes and possible reasons, many parents challenge or open up to their offspring to identify and solve problems. When technology is involved it can serve to cloud what must be done. Issues stem from behaviour and unwise use of technology, not the tech itself. Time to talk.
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Behaviours.Behaviour has not changed with young people. What has changed is how that behaviour is reflected online. The scalability, duration and audience reach can impact on the wellbeing, self esteem and social development for all. Tackling the social issues.
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A tailored approachAs children and young people develop so do their online worlds. How a 7yr old uses the internet will be much different to a 14yr old. All ages need tailored consideration. Primary (gaming) to Secondary (Social networking) in senior school is important as is digital footprint, privacy, body image, sexual behaviours and access to adult content. All offer challenges in ensuring content is relevant to the audience. Audience relevance.
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UK Safer Internet Centre.A trimuvate formed under the banner of the UK Safer Internet Centre. Great resources for schools and parents and regularly updated and quality assessed.
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Valuable resources.Are a not-for-profit organisation that has a simple purpose – to help keep children safe in the digital world.
Backed by the UK’s most prominent internet industry players, BT, Sky, TalkTalk and Virgin Media, They are supported by leading child online safety experts, able to offer some of the best advice and information available on tackling e-safety issues. |
Responsibilities, Budgets, Online safety and tick boxes.Is it time for a fresh approach to online safeguarding?
The fast pace of change in today's world mean pressure to consider how we will fit in all the requirements of our job, especially so in the Public sector which has faced so many cuts and the challenges arising out of them. Designated Safeguarding leads will be looking at the new additions to Keeping Children Safe in Education – Sept 2019 and the upcoming SRE (Sex and Relationships Education) -guidance released Sept 2019 and compulsory in state schools from Sept 2020. In the online safety world add advice on ‘Sexting’, and ‘using external speakers to support online safety’ documents and the burden of keeping up to speed is increased. Prioritising budgets and school needs is a daily challenge to senior leadership and safeguarding although very important is one of many considerations. Within the safeguarding environment ‘online safety’ has often been a poor relation. The widely used 360safe tool from SWGfL demonstrates this as schools consistently self-assess staff training on online safety as ‘poor’ and have done so since the inception of the tool some 8 years ago https://bit.ly/2ZnwKa6 . So, against the background of demands from Govt and others how does online safeguarding get practiced in schools? It is no hyperbole to say that technology and its use has seeped into our everyday lives to such an extent that it just part of our fabric. What has changed however is the complexity of the many behaviours, tools, platforms and the connections we make, especially so for young people who have used and utilised the online platforms, often in engaging, imaginative, creative and inventive ways. Alongside this, those same platforms have provided an avenue for unscrupulous people to take advantage of this open online arena to steal, sexually target, bully, shame, coerce or threaten others. Behaviours have become more complex and the language we use to describe them often fails to differentiate between serious and less serious. Bullying can be one example – this could encompass – threats, coercion, sexual blackmail, self-esteem attacks, exclusion and a host of behavioural issues dependent on the attitude and knowledge of the person reporting/dealing simply calling it bullying can be very misleading and lead to it being wrongly reported and minimised. Against this background how are schools tackling the education of their students and staff to build resilience and provide reporting routes and support when issues arise? Sadly, in the world we live, this is often where budgets come into the equation. Although all agree the safety of children is paramount it is but one of many demands in a school. In answer to this a school may often attempt to ‘cover’ online safety by bringing in an outside speaker to talk to staff or students. This can, in all honesty, be a useful thing to do https://bit.ly/2AvY3nY . However how it is done has become more and more important given the complexity, already discussed, of the many issues young people and staff face around online behaviours. In schools within the UK there has been in the past, and sometimes presently a ‘tick box’ culture relating to online safety. This means spending precious budget on an external speaker. In order to make sure things are covered that speaker may be asked to speak to whole year groups, in a Secondary school this could be as many as 300 children, in an assembly. They may even be provided with a whole lesson period. Often, they are asked to cover ‘esafety’ or ‘online safety’ as if the whole issue could be wrapped up in one lesson with no feedback or engagement from the students. This is simply ineffective. Students feel unable in a large peer group to comment or engage. Often, they will lump this together with all the other warning lessons they receive around drugs, sex and alcohol etc. Many will simply switch off, even with the most engaging of speakers. Some say this is better than nothing, but I strongly disagree. If a job is worth doing………. I know of course I could lose work in this, but I am professionally happy to do so. Rather this than feel as if I have done a disservice, especially to young people. How then can schools engage with online safeguarding in a positive, honest and meaningful way without breaking a budget? An odd comparison but could the national Policing intelligence model help? Let’s take a couple of aspects out of the below list……
An example – You are the DSL in a Secondary school. There has been a rash of sexting incidents and a year 9 girl has been targeted and victim shamed. The girl has spent time off school and has started to self-harm. This is one of several incidents within the year 9 cohort. Counselling has been provided and you and others have spent some time talking to year 9’s and their parents. Looking at the model above what would be your strategic direction? It is probably not going to be productive to do assemblies across the school, but it may be useful to employ an outside speaker to talk to year 9 classes across the day about the realities of sexting, potential impacts, health, social, emotional and legal implications. This would hopefully include, with a quality speaker, the honest and open dialogue needed to encourage young people to consider all the aspects involved. This would fit points two and three in the model. Tactical plans in point 4 could involve the online safety group within the school which should include young people ( see www.360safe.org.uk ). This group could identify trends in the school and we go back to number 1 on the list. My apologies if this seems a long-winded way of saying that I think schools need to move away from tick boxing to a focused, prioritised and practical way to tackle online education and problems. A good example of tailored training can be found on the South West Grid for Learning website where some of the issues are highlighted. https://swgfl.org.uk/training/online-safety-training/
Of course none of this precludes preventative work in any organisation. Good online safety education across the whole school will undoubtedly reduce risky behaviours and potentially decrease the work of the DSL in dealing with incidents. I am sure we would all like a decrease in our daily workloads. 😊 Thanks for reading Alan Earl Alan Earl Consultancy Ltd alan@alanearlconsultancy.org 07477917771 |
References:
https://bit.ly/2J9uqwd Gov.uk New advice on Relationships and Sex Education in the curriculum Keeping Children Safe in Education (Draft) 2019 to be published Sept 2019 https://bit.ly/1G9MFrs |
Safer Internet Day, LFC Anfield 2018
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