Case Study:
Upton Hall School FCJ
Aligning directly to the DfE’s ‘Review your remote education provision’ guidance, our ‘Safe Remote Education’ accreditation offers schools the ability to display their compliance and commitment to keeping pupils safe online remotely.
Upton Hall School FCJ, which is a Roman Catholic Grammar School for girls aged 11-18, have recently achieved the accreditation.
For the school, online safety is an ever-evolving priority and will always be high on their list of concerns.
Offering whole school reassurance
There’s a real collective desire to empower their students around online safety, and Assistant Head (Director of Pupil Development), Designated Safeguarding Lead & SENCO, Nicola Griffiths was delighted after completing the process.
She said: “We wanted to complete the accreditation to ensure that we were doing everything we could to keep the girls safe online.
“It’s like an audit – so we wanted to reassure the governors and parents and really cover all bases with it.
“It’s great that we can have that badge to display, and it reassures our parent body that we are taking good care of their daughters as much as we can.
“It’s a really good way of making sure that staff are talking about safeguarding and online safety and, when you’re doing something often, it becomes habitual.”
Being constantly informed
At National Online Safety, we’re consistently updating our resources and training, so that all schools are right up to speed with all of the latest developments, from what is an ever-changing digital world.
This approach is one that’s echoed by Upton Hall, and they’ve been using our resources and training in order to fulfil this commitment.
“Technology is evolving and everything is moving online at the moment – for our younger people, they’ve not known any other way,” she explained.
“So, with that being said, it’s important that staff are keeping abreast of developments and any other risks towards our students.
“It’s about providing the students with the skills so that they can make their own informed decisions.”
A high-quality resource base
Praising of the all-encompassing package, Mrs Griffiths says that all areas of the platform have allowed for that continuous online safeguarding across the school.
She stated: “The thing with National Online Safety, is that it’s very easy to use and straightforward.
“Especially the quality of the resources. With your training, I like the way that you’re quizzed at the end and then you receive the certificate.
“For me as a DSL too, the admin side of things is great, because I can see who’s done what in terms of completition.
“I think the app is brilliant – your staff, parents and governors can all be on there!”