Blog – Latest stories tagged 'e-safety_support'

A reminder of the e-safety related events and activities held throughout the year

In addition to these standard dates, schools are also encouraged to look at including awareness days into the school calendar to focus on issues which relate to the social and emotional well-being of children and young people.

In terms of e-safety, the standard days are Safer Internet Day (February) and Anti-Bullying Week (November). However, there are many other occasions in the academic year where schools can promote e-safety related issues. National Hate Crime Awareness Week (October) can highlight ways in which schools can inform students of the legal consequences of promoting race hate on the internet. In addition, Data Protection Day (January) is another occasion to ensure that pupils and parents keep their personal data safe when using the internet.

The benefit for schools in engaging in these days is that the organisations who organise these events often have resources such as lesson plans, so that teachers don’t have to start from scratch when putting together lessons. Also, it is a good way of evidencing ways that you promote e-safety to others e.g. parents which can be included in any self-reviews or information for OFSTED.

In addition, awareness days often generate publicity from local or national media, so stakeholders may be more interested in attending events or receiving literature which relate to them. Also, many organisations offer speakers and who can come into school and offer an additional perspective when talking about these subject areas.

Whilst schools may not be able to cover all awareness days that relate to e-safety, it is important to pick out a couple, and establish them in the school calendar. Here are some suggestions:

January
BETT - 24th - 27th January 2018
Data Protection Day - 28th January

February
Safer Internet Day - 6th February 2018
No Tech for Breck Day - 6th Feb - 17th Feb 2018
Sexual Abuse & Sexual Violence Awareness Week - 5th - 11th February 2018

March
National Safeguarding Month
National Child Sexual Exploitation Awareness Day - 18th March

April
Childnet Film Competition

May
Mental Health Awareness Week - Date TBC

June
Stop Cyber Bullying Day - 15th June 2018
Stand up to Bullying Day
Child Safety Week
GoGadgetFree/Unplug

July
Stand Up to Bullying Day
World Emoji Day

August

September
Sexual Health Week
Pupil Voice Week

October
Bullying Prevention Month (Cybersmile Foundation)
National Hate Crime Awareness Week
Get Safe Online Week
Digital Citizenship Summit
Digital Kids Show

November
Wear Blue for Bullying Day
Anti-bullying Week
Child Internet Safety Summit

December

If you have an event that you would like to include in this list, please email tina@e-safetysupport.com or use the comments section below.

E-safety Support members can download an e-safety planner from the support and advice area of their dashboard

E-safety Support launched in February 2013, shortly after Ofsted released the new requirements for e-safety in schools. Since launch we have added over 100 resources, send over 150 e-safety news bulletins and been joined by almost 11,000 members.

The most significant development since we launched has been the addition of 7 online training courses. These have been tailor made to reach the whole school community, and have been created specifically for pupils, staff, parents and governors. We are delighted to report that these courses have been issued to over 52,000 candidates - a number which is growing rapidly on daily basis.

Over the last 3 years, the online safety environment has seen many changes, both good and bad. We have seen the phenomenon of online trends making headlines for all the wrong reasons with Neknominate, Slenderman and various risky (and unfortunately sometimes fatal) challenges all playing out on social media. But there have also been positive trends too, with the ice bucket challenge for example which used the platform to raise millions of pounds for charity.

More safeguards for young people have also been made available - the big 4 media providers making changes to their parental controls to help protect children in the home and the RDI rolling-out their Friendly WiFi scheme to help protect them when in public places to name just two.

Of course, we must mention the most recent issue of young people being groomed online into extremism. This has been an incredibly challenging issue for many teachers and schools to tackle - we will continue to monitor this area particularly to ensure that we are providing appropriate resources to help support our members.

We are, of course, delighted to have so many members benefiting from the resources available at www.e-safetysupport.com, some of the comments we have received can be seen on our testimonials page - if you would like to let us know your thoughts, please email feedback@e-safetysupport.com or use the comments section below.

Over the coming months, we are looking forward to bringing you a new look to the website along with more e-safety resources. Will continue to monitor the e-safety issues to ensure we are keeping you up-to-speed with the important issues.

Finally, below is an infographic showing the E-safety Support story so far, highlighting the important developments across the site in the first 3 years - we look forward to continuing our journey with you.