Cluster Internet safety training Secondary Schools

Purpose of document

The purpose of this document is to highlight the work that has been initiated around the issue of e-Safety and to promote the national Internet safety training package produced by the Child Exploitation and Online Protection Centre (CEOP) for secondary school children.

Kent’s e-Safety Officer has been working closely with CEOP to establish a co-ordinated and effective approach to raising awareness of the importance of safe Internet use in Schools.

CEOP have produced a high impact Internet safety training package aimed at secondary students (11 -16) and Kent has piloted this training in 15 secondary schools. Kent County Council CFE are keen to be in the vanguard of Internet safety, and a training strategy has now been developed with plans to offer training to secondary schools via cluster training sessions. This document outlines CEOP’s education package and the reasons why Kent should actively promote best practice in the protection of children using technology.


‘Thinkuknow’ training


CHILD EXPLOITATION AND ONLINE PROTECTION CENTRE

Information regarding the Education Programme


About CEOP

The Child Exploitation and Online Protection (CEOP) centre plays a decisive role in partnership with the Department for Education and Skills (DfES), police forces, offender managers, children’s services and other stakeholders in protecting children, young people, families and society from paedophiles and sex offenders; in particular those who use the internet and other new technologies in the sexual exploitation of children.

We want people to understand that the Internet can be a fantastic place for young people to learn, have fun and engage with their family and friends. There are however risks, which children and young people need to be aware of to ensure that they can protect themselves. It is therefore vital that CEOP focuses not only on the perpetrators (those who seek to exploit children online), but also empowers children with the knowledge and the skills to manage the risks and to go for help.


About Think u know

Think u know is the name of CEOP’s resources for young people. They have been created as part of its Harm Reduction strategy. These resources draw attention to what young people know about the risks they may encounter whilst using the Internet. The programme uses three themes to focus on key messages:

• How to have fun online
• How to stay in control online
• How to report online

As part of this, there is an interactive presentation, which CEOP aims to deliver to all secondary age children between the ages of 11-16. This is part of a package which includes films, leaflets, posters, and a training pack for all Child protection professionals in the UK. The programme will eventually also be rolled out to primary age children as well.

Background to the presentation:

The ‘think u know’ presentation was built on the lessons learned from another similar programme called ‘Getting To Know It All’. This programme was successfully piloted in November 2005 to 40,000 children in the UK by schools liaison officers alongside industry partners. This programme was evaluated by The University of Bristol and following from their report CEOP developed ‘think u know’.




The Website:

As part of the wider education programme the ThinkUKnow website (www.thinkuknow.co.uk) has been designed especially for young people. It aims to encourage young people to share what they know and do not know about the Internet. The website includes games, information on emerging technology, chatting, gaming, blogging and ultimately how to report anything they think is suspicious. CEOP is also aiming to provide advice and guidance for parents and care givers on the use of the Internet enabling them to understand how people use the web on a daily basis.

Our proposition:

Since July we have already trained over 1100 school liaison officers, educational professionals and local safeguarding children’s board members in the interactive ‘think u know’ programme. The programme is being delivered to over 52,000 young people since September 2006. This number will grow as we continue to train more professionals. And this is where we need your help!

Free resources will be provided - from posters, leaflets and stickers, to lanyards and thumb rings, to help engage young people in a fun and interactive way. Once trained, you will be able to use the presentation and resources required as part of ongoing programmes on Internet safety with Young People.


CEOP believe this programme is vital to ensure that Internet safety messages are consistent throughout the UK and are based on robust knowledge and evaluation. This is also a view shared and supported by ACPO.

If you would like more information on ‘ThinkUKnow’, or would like to be involved in the delivering of our programme then please contact rebecca.chapman@kent.gov.uk





Training and recommendations

As per Becta recommendations, Kent Local Authority is encouraging each school to appoint an e-Safety representative. In many cases this will be the Designated Child Protection Coordinator (DCPC) as the roles overlap , however other suitable people for the role may include, SMT member, ICT Coordinator or subject teacher e.g. PSHE or Citizenship.

The e-Safety representative will be responsible for dealing with any e-Safety issues that arise at their school, coordinating the e-Safety training in school and keeping abreast of local & national e-Safety awareness campaigns. They will be an ideal person to send (along with other school staff) to the cluster Internet safety training session.
This person should also be involved in the writing process for completing the schools revised e-Safety policy. They will be provided with full support and advice from Kent’s e-Safety Officer, the Children’s Safeguard Service and where necessary, the Police

The person who is appointed does not need to have vast technical knowledge, however it would be helpful if they had some basic knowledge of ICT.

School Training

Once the school representatives have attended the Cluster training session, they will need to decide how to disseminate the training to the students.

The decisions about how to offer the training will be discussed with the school representatives at the Cluster training session to determine the most effective approach to suit their school.

There are a number of possible approaches:

1. The school representatives will train students during a lesson (e.g. Citizenship / PSHE)
2. The school representatives will train students in assemblies.
3. The school representatives will train nominated staff members who will then train the students during a lesson or ‘tutor/form’ time
4. The school representatives will train all form tutors who will then train their own form during ‘tutor/form’ time.
5. The school representatives will train a selected group of students and develop them as peer mentors. The student mentors will then train the rest of the students.

Once your school representatives have received the ‘thinkuknow’ training, you are encouraged to develop a page on a school website or Intranet for e-Safety. There can be links to useful sites with e-Safety tips and could provide a forum for students to discuss Internet safety issues. Students could also be responsible for maintaining the site.
You are also encouraged to hold a training event for the rest of your staff and also to highlight the training and raise awareness with Parents.