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This competition is open to schools and youth organisations in the UK and schools overseas. You do not have to be a member of E-safety Support to enter.

Entries must be received by midnight on 6th February 2017 to be entered into the competition.

Each entry must be an acronym using the words UNITE or CHANGE to be valid.

By submitting an entry, you agree for the entry to be used on the E-safety Support website as well as on social media platforms. Your school name (but no names of staff of pupils) may also be included on these platforms.

There are 4 categories, Best SEN School UNITE acronym, Best SEN School CHANGE acronym, Best Primary School UNITE acronym, Best Primary School CHANGE acronym, Best Secondary School UNITE acronym and Best Secondary School CHANGE acronym

A winner will be chosen from each category and announced on 7th February 2017 - Safer Internet Day. If you are a winner, we will endeavour to contact you by phone and email on the same day prior to announcement. However, if we are unable to contact you, we will still announce the winning entries on the 7th February.

If you are chosen as a winner, you will be given 1 years free Premium Plus membership to E-safety Support for your school. If you are already a member, the free year will be added to the end of your current membership period. Alternatively, you may choose to nominate another school to receive your prize.

For winner’s details please send an email to: competition@e-safetysupport.com within 28 days of the draw date.

By entering the free prize draw, entrants agree to be bound by the rules and by any other requirements set out in promotional material.

Anti-Bullying Week shines a spotlight on bullying and encourages all children, teachers and parents to take action against bullying throughout the year.

Anti-Bullying Week was started by the Anti-Bullying Alliance in the early 2000s as a way of focussing the attention of schools on tackling bullying between children and young people.

The Anti-Bullying Alliance consults with its members and children and young people to decide the theme each Spring. This year the theme is Power for Good.

The key aims of the 2016 campaign are:

To support children and young people to use their Power for Good – by understanding the ways in which they are powerful and encouraging individual and collective action to stop bullying and create the best world possible.

To help parents and carers to use their Power for Good – through supporting children with issues relating to bullying and working together with schools to stop bullying.

To encourage all teachers, school support staff and youth workers to use their Power for Good – by valuing the difference they can make in a child’s life, and taking individual and collective action to prevent bullying and create safe environments where children can thrive.

Anti-Bullying Week for Teachers
The aim of the campaign is not just to raise awareness of bullying for one week each year but to support teachers in preventing and responding to bullying throughout the year.

This year the Anti-bullying Alliance want every teacher, member of school staff and children's worker to know what a difference they make in children's lives. Children tell the ABA how much it means to them when teachers believe them, when they support them, and when they work with them to resolve bullying issues. For the first time the ABA have launched a Power for Good Award to celebrate those teachers and school staff that go beyond the call of duty to provide pastoral care for pupils with issues relating to bullying. The ABA want to celebrate those teachers that are changing children's lives for the better and encourage all teachers and schools staff to use their Power for Good.

How can you get involved in Anti-Bullying Week 2016?

Register for Anti-Bullying Week updates by joining the free ABA School or College Network.

Download the Anti-Bullying Week logos and share on your websites and newsletters.

Access the free Anti-Bullying Week resources including top tips.

Join the Anti-Bullying Week social media campaign.

Raise much needed funds for the work of the Anti-Bullying Alliance.

E-safety Support members can download a free Cyber Bullying assembly from their E-safety Support dashboard. If you are not a member, join free here.

Find out more at the Anti-Bullying Alliance website

Global Kids Online research confirms that the majority of children say they learn something new online at least every week, but large numbers still face risks online.

The Global Kids Online project, launched earlier this week (1st November) at the Children’s Lives in the Digital Age seminar held at UNICEF Headquarters in New York, aims to build a global network of researchers using their research toolkit to investigate the risks and opportunities of child Internet use.

Their initial research, carried out in Argentina, the Philippines, Serbia and South Africa, with support from UNICEF country offices, piloted the research toolkit, with the results being compared and combined to demonstrate both similarities and differences between countries.

The key findings of the pilot research include:

1. Children predominantly access the Internet at home and through mobile devices - Children in all four countries report that they most frequently go online at home. Access to the Internet through schools is not as common


2. The majority of children learn something new by searching the Internet - Most children who use the Internet say they learn something new online at least every week.


3. Younger Internet users lack the digital skills of their older peers - There is a clear age trend in all four countries in terms of children’s self-reported ability to check if information they find online is true.


4. Younger children’s digital safety skills also need support - Most of the older children, but fewer younger children, report knowing how to manage their privacy settings online, a key indication of their digital and safety skills.


5. A substantial minority of young Internet users have had contact with unknown people online - Between 19 per cent (in the Philippines) and 41 per cent of children (in Serbia and South Africa) have been in touch online with somebody they have not met in person.


6. Argentinian children are most likely to report having been bothered or upset online in the past year - Between a fifth (in South Africa) and three-quarters (in Argentina) of children report feeling upset about something that happened online, with older children reporting more incidents.


7. Countries vary in the amount of risks encountered and the balance with online opportunities - As many as one third of children in Serbia reported being treated in a hurtful way by their peers, online or offline, though in South Africa and the Philippines only a fifth said this had happened to them.


8. Children are most likely to seek support from a friend, and rarely from a teacher - In all four countries, the most common source of support is friends – between a third and two-thirds of children spoke to a friend the last time something upsetting happened online. Few children confided in a teacher, and the follow-up survey questions suggested that few children had received e-safety or digital literacy teaching at school.

One of the conclusions of the findings suggests that, “children are generally positive about the opportunities available for them online. However, children do not use the Internet in schools as much as expected and they generally do not see teachers as those they could confide in about what bothers them online”.

The toolkit is being made available for researchers to utilise allowing the research to be broadened globally. The project aims “to connect evidence with the ongoing international dialogue regarding policy and practical solutions for children’s well-being and rights in the digital age, especially in countries where the Internet is only recently reaching the mass market”.

More information about the project and a full copy of the pilot research findings can be found at blogs.lse.ac.uk/gko/