GovWire

This guidance is to help schools and colleges support childrens remote education. For the purposes of this guidance, children includes everyone under the age of 18.

It should be read alongside:

• statutory safeguarding guidance on keeping children safe in education
• emergency planning and response for education, childcare, and childrens social care settings guidance
• guidance for schools on providing remote education

Safeguarding children and teachers online

Keeping children and teachers safe during remote education is essential. Teachers delivering remote education online should be aware that the same principles set out in the school or college staff behaviour policy (sometimes known as a code of conduct) will apply.

Schools and colleges may want to update their policies to reflect remote online education provision. Schools and colleges (led by their designated safeguarding lead) should review and update their child protection policy to reflect the fact children may be learning both online and in the classroom.

Guidance on keeping children safe in education includes information and support to help schools and colleges keep children and young people safe online and a dedicated collection of resources (at Annex D) to support safe remote education, virtual lessons, and live streaming. It also includes support for schools and colleges to signpost parents and carers to help them keep their children safe online.

Schools and colleges also may wish to use these resources to understand more about how to ensure online education is safe:

• advice from the National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children (NSPCC) on undertaking remote education safely
• guidance from the South West Grid for Learning (SWGfL) on safe remote learning
• Digital wellbeing of learners guide from Jisc which curates a number of resources and guides

Schools can access the free Professionals Online Safety Helpline (POSH) which supports the online safeguarding of both children and professionals. Call 0344 381 4772 or email helpline@saferinternet.org.uk. The helpline is open from Monday to Friday from 10am to 4pm.

Guidance on teaching online safety in schools provides information to help schools ensure their children understand how to stay safe and behave online.

Important conversations with parents, carers and children

In your conversations with parents, carers and children you should emphasise the importance of a safe online environment, which amongst other things, means keeping any passwords and credentials safe. You should offer support and advice on how to do this.

It is especially important for parents and carers to be aware of what their children are being asked to do, including:

• sites they will be asked to use
• school staff their child will interact with

Reporting concerns

All school and college staff should continue to act immediately (following their child protection policy and the processes set out in part 1 of guidance on keeping children safe in education) if they have any concerns about a child or young persons welfare, whether the child or young person is physically in school or learning from home.

Children should be encouraged to speak up if they come across something worrying online.

It is essential to have and communicate clear reporting routes so that children, teachers, parents and carers can raise any safeguarding concerns in relation to remote online education.

These should be reflected in the school or college child protection policy and should be communicated to all children and staff.

Schools and colleges should also consider referring teachers, parents and carers to the following practical support for reporting harmful or upsetting content, bullying and online risks.

Harmful or upsetting content

Get support on:

• reporting online abuse, from the National Crime Agency (NCA) Child Exploitation and Online Protection (CEOP) command
• reporting harmful online content to the UK Safer Internet Centre
• safeguarding from radicalisation, building resilience to extremism, and promoting shared values at Educate Against Hate
• your approach to dealing with harmful online challenges and online hoaxes
• handling the sharing of nudes and semi-nudes

Bullying

Get advice on preventing and tackling bullying to help schools and colleges create safe, disciplined environments where children are able to learn and fulfil their potential. This guidance also includes links to further advice on cyberbullying for headteachers, school staff and parents.

There is information on bullying from the Anti-Bullying Alliance for children or young people who are being bullied.

Schools may also wish to use resources such as Tootoot to provide a confidential route for children to report bullying or abuse.

Online safety advice for parents and carers

Schools should encourage parents and carers to provide age-appropriate supervision for children and young people in their care using the internet. Amongst other things, this should include:

• talking to their children about not accessing age-inappropriate material on devices
• knowing who their children are talking to online
• setting up age-appropriate parental controls on digital devices

Internet filters should be used to block malicious websites. These are usually free, but often need to be turned on.

The following information and resources will help to support parents and carers to keep their children safe online:

• support for parents and carers to keep children safe from online harm which provides extensive resources to help keep children safe online and details of specific online risks, including sexual abuse, criminal exploitation and radicalisation
• CEOP Education provides advice from the NCA on staying safe online
• Childnet offers a toolkit to support parents and carers of children of any age to start discussions about their online life, to set boundaries around online behaviour and technology use, and to find out where to get more help and support
• Internet matters provides age-specific online safety checklists, guides on how to set parental controls on a range of devices, and a host of practical tips to help children get the most
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