Blog – Latest stories

Welcome to the new E-safety Support website. We are all delighted to be able to share our new site and services with you, whether you are an e-safety co-ordinator at a school, a PSHE or ICT teacher, a governor or a member of the senior leadership team.

This blog is a key part of our site, and features a number of teacher bloggers who are passionate about e-safety, and who have diverse experiences with e-safety issues in their school. They will be blogging regularly on relevant topics, so feel free to tell us about anything that you would like to see covered in this section.

Young people are becoming more savvy about online dangers, but technology always stays one step ahead of the great mass of users. That's why it is important to equip children with skills and understanding so that no matter what the latest online craze or widget is, they can use it safely. There is a requirement from young people to be educated, and also a requirement from Ofsted that schools teach e-safety in a comprehensive manner. So how can we help?

E-safety Support offers teachers a free service, which we call our "Bronze" level, that is designed to act as a "toe in the water". Sign up with your email address and we will send you a monthly e-newsletter that will help you to keep up with e-safety developments. You will also have access to our free special reports, the first of which is "What Every Teacher Needs to Know About Social Media". Later in the year we will be launching our Silver and Gold level services, which include policies, teaching resources and training for teachers. So sign up for our free Bronze service, and let us help you to meet Ofsted's requirements. Enjoy our blog and we hope to hear from you soon!

Did you know you that both twitter and facebook keep logs of every instances of online activity – every post, message, interaction, like, friend, comment etc?

There are steps teachers can take to safeguard themselves from false allegations of misconduct. If there’s anything inappropriate, it will have been recorded and logged. But as well as clearly demonstrating what a user has done, the logs will clearly indicate and prove what hasn’t been done online.

Twitter:

Twitter allows you to download your archive history here.

Facebook:

Facebook allows you to download your archive history here.

From What every teacher needs to know about social media – join to download the full 6-page report for free.

Social media sites are a great way to communicate with teachers, parents and pupils. Following some basic rules will make sure you are using them appropriately and getting the most out of them.

1. Set up official school social media accounts

To make the most of social media, schools need to set up official accounts; either in the name of the school, or in the name of staff, but always transparently associated with the school – defining and delimiting the usage as professional and entirely school related. That way there’s no difference between a school attributed social media account and a school email, telephone or letterhead.

2. Communicate appropriately

Using a communication platform which is popular with the pupils is not the same as using the communication platform in the same way as the pupils. Boundaries and professional practice need to be considered at all times. For example, in real life a school might display posters for a school event on an official youth centre noticeboard, but a teacher wouldn’t go up to the children at the skate-park to tell them in person. Twitter and Facebook are no different.

From What every teacher needs to know about social media – join to download the full 6-page report for free.