Case Study:
Royds Hall, A SHARE Academy
Looking at the online world and its ever-changing nature, it was clear for Royds Hall, A SHARE Academy, that they needed to support their whole community.
After signing up for our Certified School package earlier this year, Royds Hall pressed on and achieved accreditation – showcasing how highly they prioritise online safety.
As we now enter the 2021-22 academic year, the Huddersfield-based academy have laid out their plans when it comes to embedding our resources and training further.
An increased online focus
That emphasis on a whole-school community approach to safeguarding has been clear from the outset and, our package, much to the delight of Royds Hall, fully aligned with their values and ambitions.
Nikki Wood, Director of Pastoral Care and Safeguarding said: “More so over the last three years, there has been an increase in terms of the deprivation and the things which children get themselves involved in online, and also the predators out there which will tap into young, vulnerable people.
“It was important not just for staff to be aware, but a push for the students and parents, and your package gives us all of that.
“I’ve had a good nosey around the platform, as you would expect me to as the safeguarding lead for the school, and I’m really pleased.”
Responsive resources
National Online Safety’s ongoing network of support over the summer break and beyond has been crucial for Nikki and the rest of the team, who’ve found our responsive nature crucial.
“We use a lot of your resources and we posted a lot of them to Twitter and Facebook for parents in the holidays. Because, when we go into extended leave, that’s when things can go wrong for our young people, so it’s important that they’ve got that access,” she explained.
“We started to see a surge with that area (TikTok) of online safety and to be able to back it up, not just with the parents, but the children and say to them that this is what you’re getting yourself involved in, has been really important.”
Certification and next steps
That aforementioned certification was vital in Nikki’s eyes, and she was encouraged by the nature of how the award came around.
She stated: “What I was really keen to do was to get that certification and make sure that it was the whole community.
“I see us as part of the wider community out there, with the whole community involved.
“The plan for 2021-22 is to embed the training and the most important thing is to get that parental engagement from outside and bring them in.
“It’s about making sure that we have a completely holistic approach to it all and that the community are all involved."