Case Study:
Wilsden Primary School

Wilsden Primary School received their certified school accreditation last year and have embraced a culture of online safety.

The ethos which exists within the Bradford based school extends to the whole school community, with teachers, parents and carers reaping the rewards from our membership package.

Wilsden Primary School is part of the Focus Trust who have a digital strategy which means that all children receive a good education involving the safe use of digital technology.

For Head of School, Designated Safeguarding Lead and SENDCo, Andrew Chadwick, it’s all about empowering the children and those affiliated to them, with the correct online safety knowledge.

Discovering National Online Safety

Each week, we share a topic-specific online safety guide as part of our #WakeUpWednesday series and, it was through this that Wilsden discovered the breadth of resources that we have to offer.

This has led to the school shaping a lot of their online safety content around our guides and the relevant topics which are included.

Mr Chadwick said: “We came across one of your (#WakeUpWednesday) posters and I shared it with parents - I was really impressed with the poster. I saw it on social media, so I just tracked back from there, found the National Online Safety website and got in contact.

“Prior to this, I was just starting to put together what we call the e-safety update, which is a half-termly newsletter to parents on the subject of e-safety. Now, I tend to base a lot of the content around the posters.

“We download the ones which we think are relevant to our school, and then Tweet them out or put them onto Facebook – I just think they’re really handy.”

Effective online learning

Time is a huge commodity for all school staff, so to have the option of remotely completing our online safeguarding courses has been a big plus point for Mr Chadwick and his workforce.

“It’s amazing to be able to log on to an online platform and undertake the training. The staff can do it at home when they want to,” he declared.

“I’m the Designated Safeguarding Lead and SENDCo, so I’ve done some of the additional training courses, and they’re really good. I sat down at lunchtime and did half-an-hour each day and worked through.”

Whole school impact

At National Online Safety, we believe the best way to tackle the issue of keeping children safe online is through a whole school approach and providing teachers, parents and carers with the tools they need to spot any potential dangers.

This was one of the biggest benefits about our certified membership for Wilsden, who were really impressed with this strategy and couldn’t wait to implement it themselves.

He stated: “The whole community approach is what I really like about it.

“It’s not just targeting teachers or parents, it’s targeting teachers, parents, children, governors, SENDCo’s and Designated Safeguarding Leads.

“One parent informed us that they’d printed out the 7 Conversation Starters guide and placed it on their fridge, so that they can follow it. A lot of the resources and guides from National Online Safety which we use, help to start conversations in houses.”