Digital Leaders tell us how they have shared their online safety knowledge

Published: 29th July 2022

Danielle, Fabian, and Kerease from the Childnet Digital Leaders team have recently visited several Digital Leader schools across the country.

We have been hugely impressed by what Digital Leaders teams have already achieved as well as the exciting plans they have been coming up with.

It’s been fantastic to see how engaged Digital Leaders are and how brilliant the support has been from their teachers.

We have had some fascinating discussion about the most important issues affecting young people online and received plenty of useful feedback for how to improve the programme.

St Patrick’s College

We were thrilled to have caught up with one of our Digital Champions, Dominik, at St Patrick’s College.

During his time with us, Dominik has been involved in many exciting projects. He took part in our live event for Safer Internet Day 2022, provided a voiceover for our video introducing the new Digital Leaders training platform and even played a vital part in this year’s Childnet Film Competition.

We have even more exciting plans in the pipeline for Dominik and other Digital Champions over the next year.

The team is hoping to meet as a group more often going forward but have already shared their learning with family members including how to manage online friendships, and have also improved their own communication, teamwork, and leadership skills.

Arena Academy

The Arena Academy Digital Leaders team provided us with a whole portfolio of the work they’ve been doing, such as reaching #1 on the leaderboard and running activities for Safer Internet Day including an assembly, the #PlayYourPart poster competition and a live Q&A session.

The team is made up of a range of ages, with the senior Digital Leaders helping welcome the newer members to the team.

They meet every week and are eager to connect with other schools – so much so that they are planning to run sessions in local primary schools to pass the beacon of online safety to the next generation!

Selston High School

Our visit to Selston High School afforded us the opportunity to see another of our Digital Champions, Jess, who visited Brussels as our representative in the Safer Internet Forum.

She has supported our newer Digital Champions, and even won the Childnet Film Competition! The team has been focusing on progressing through the modules but have lots of exciting plans for the future, including planning workshops and linking online safety lessons to help with recruiting their next cohort of Digital Leaders.

They are also busy putting together a list of websites and a cyberbullying worksheet to offer further support to pupils.

Holte School

The Holte School Digital Leaders team has been hard at work helping other pupils form healthy internet habits by putting up posters around school and writing pages for the school website, featuring online safety tips and guides, as well as how to get in touch with the team.

The team meet regularly and their peers can reach them by email or in their regular lunchtime drop-in sessions. They often help peers with solutions to cyberbullying, untrustworthy contact and fake news.

We’re thrilled that they have also held an online safety meeting for parents and carers covering a range of topics, including age-appropriate gaming.

Weekly newsletters are sent with online safety tips and more information about the team, and the whole team are eager to claim top spot on the Digital Leaders leaderboard!

Priory Academy

We were shown a thoroughly entertaining and educational presentation that the Priory Academy Digital Leaders team have been showing during form times.

It included a (very difficult) quiz that covered a wide range of topics including privacy, location sharing, fake news, relationships online, cyberbullying, and top tips.

Their learning has also been shared with family and friends with very positive reactions – parents and carers were very proud of their Digital Leaders for showing such initiative!

The team is also holding a schoolwide poster competition for individuals or groups using knowledge from the presentation, and students know they can always reach out to their Digital Leaders using the details provided

Childnet were even given some great ideas on how to expand and advertise more effectively!

We had a wonderful time visiting our Digital Leader schools and talking to them about the programme and wider online safety issues.

Thank you to all of the teachers and Digital Leaders who welcomed us so warmly to your schools – good luck to you all and keep us updated with what you’re up to!

If your Digital Leaders would like a school visit from the Childnet Digital Leaders team, then please get in touch at [email protected].

Make sure to keep us up to date with what your Digital Leaders achieve by emailing [email protected] and tweeting @ChildnetDL.