Case Study:
St. Nicholas Secondary School
When Daniel Williams took on the role of Computing Lead at St Nicholas Secondary School, he knew the importance of empowering the school’s community with online safety expertise.
After discovering National Online Safety at the BETT Show, Daniel ultimately opted for a Certified School Membership package to support parents, carers and school staff with keeping children safe in the online world.
Embedding a culture of online safety
Reflecting on the decision to join National Online Safety, Daniel said: "When I took on the role of Computing Lead, I embedded online safety into the curriculum to ensure that it’s taught all year round."
"It's really important that all staff members are trained on and up to date with the latest online risks for children." he nodded. "I saw National Online Safety at the BETT show and had a chat with one of the online safety consultants, before deciding to go for the Certified School Membership.”
#WakeUpWednesday guides
Protecting children online is a collective responsibility - sitting not only with school teaching staff but with parents and carers too.
Daniel explained that our weekly #WakeUpWednesday guides have been a huge positive for St Nicholas Secondary School.
"We were struggling to communicate with parents and carers to educate them about online safety risks and dangers," he recounted. "The #WakeUpWednesday guides are bright, colourful and focus on the latest trends, apps, games and devices. Now, we send the guides out in a weekly newsletter to parents and all staff within the school."
At National Online Safety, we’re constantly updating our resources and training, so that the whole school community can stay up to date with the latest developments in the ever-changing digital world.
Daniel agreed that this was a significant benefit. "We've had parents calling the school and asking if we have information on apps, games or devices, and we can sign them up to the National Online Safety platform easily," he confirmed. "We've had some parents complete the online courses too."
Certified School Programme
Daniel stated that the ability to track all staff training progress through a centralised hub has been extremely advantageous for the school. "School staff have been very active on the platform, completing a range of courses and webinars," he revealed. "You can access certificates online and tick all the boxes."
Classroom-based learning has been enhanced, too - with our age-specific interactive lesson plans being hugely successful at St Nicholas Secondary School.
Daniel explained: "On Fridays, we target any students that we feel need extra support with online safety. The lesson plans have been great for that. I can also use those lesson plans and videos on a daily basis, which is fantastic."
A collective sense of pride
Daniel highlighted the challenges of keeping up with a fluid and rapidly evolving digital landscape. "It can be a struggle to keep up with the latest online trends - that come out on a daily basis - and roll that information out to the whole school community,” he admitted. "I'd find that very challenging without National Online Safety."
Reflecting on the overall achievement of becoming a Certified School, Daniel believes that the accreditation has provided a real validation for everyone’s collective efforts.
"It's great to be able to say that all staff, not just me, are fully trained in line with Ofsted expectations and DfE guidelines," he smiled.