The Friary School has successfully achieved the Quality Assurance Mark for E-Safety from 360 Degree Safe (https://360safe.org.uk). This is a tough external assessment of the school’s safeguarding and online systems and sets the school up as a strong practitioner at a national level.
Even more, the school has been marked out for Beacon School Status and Mr Steve Neale, who orchestrated the assessment process and bid, has now been asked to talk at national conferences on the exemplar practice that we deliver.
The report stated that:
* “Leadership of online safety is excellent”
* “Pupils receive an excellent grounding in online safety”
* “Pupils commented on how pleased they were not to be allowed to use their mobile phones as it reduced the pressure on them”
E-Safety is an important part of our job and as young people move into a very different online world to that of their parents, it is vital they are prepared to deal with the threats and challenges, as well as opportunities that lie ahead of them.
Beyond the school gates, parents have a massive responsibility to keep on top of their children’s online activity. This is a big ask as things move quickly but keep an eye on the school website and Twitter / Facebook feed as problems and concerns that emerge are regularly flagged up there.
Ian Rose, Deputy Headteacher, said: “E-safety is perhaps the biggest change between the school lives of today’s children and their parents. This QA Mark and Beacon Status shows that we take E-Safety very seriously and stand-out nationally as an exemplar provider. E-safety is never an issue you can think you are on top of, it moves so fast, but it is great to know we are leading the race to do so rather than trailing towards the back.”
