Case Study:
ALP Leicester

ALP Leicester is an Independent Special Needs School catering for learners aged between 6 and 19.

Highlighting the way in which ALP have to educate their students, ICT Specialist/Online Safety Officer, Kyle Spencer says there has to be a slight adaptation due to their special educational needs.

That’s no different in the case of online safety and, through National Online Safety’s comprehensive Certified School package, they’ve been able to deliver a flexible programme of learning.

An early response to incidents

Kyle revealed that since having National Online Safety as a support tool, incidents are being dealt with in a much more decisive manner.

Mr Spencer said: “The cohort of learners which we have are a lot more vulnerable than mainstream students.

“We joined up last summer and this is our second year with National Online Safety. Any online safety incident that we’ve had, whether that be safeguarding or a low-level disclosure, the ability to say to staff that there’s a course has subsequently meant that a lot of the incidents are now dealt with at ground level.

“Our learners have an individual tutor, so the incidents are dealt with at tutor level, and then anything more serious gets referred to me.”

Engagement through #WakeUpWednesday

Our weekly #WakeUpWednesday series ensures that schools and parents stay up-to-date with latest developments in the online world.

ALP have hugely benefitted from these, and are excited to engage their parental audience further moving forward.

“The #WakeUpWednesday guides are amazing,” he stated.

“What we’re planning to do is, on a Friday, send out the guides to all of our parents via ParentMail.”

A direct online safeguarding impact

Ultimately, Kyle declared that our online safety resources and training are having the desired effect, with a proactive culture ever-developing amongst staff and students.

Mr Spencer declared: “The other staff are now able to get that training and knowledge in order to help every young person who walks through our doors. I think the biggest advantage are those tools that we’ve learned, which we can pass on.

“The academic year of 2019/20, we had quite a few online safety incidents and then last year we saw those come right down.

“That proves that the training which staff are getting, the education, which they’re then passing onto the learners, along with the resources, is having that impact.

“Learners are now thinking about what they’re doing, what they’re saying, where they’re going, and that for me is the biggest advantage – it’s working.”