Empower your pupils to become online safety peer leaders this summer term

Published: 23rd March 2021

As young people have returned to school after learning remotely, now is the time to think about making the most of the summer term.

The Childnet Digital Leaders Programme provides leadership opportunities and has been proven to increase the confidence of young people. In the 2020 Digital Leaders Programme Impact Report, 93% of Digital Leaders said the training made them feel more confident about educating pupils in their school.

We suggest making the most of the summer term, allowing you to head into the next school year with a group of confident peer leaders who are eager to impact their school community and educate their peers on online safety.

With three out of four teachers saying the ethos of their school has improved to promote kindness and respect both online and offline due to the running of the programme, it really can boost school morale and support pupil wellbeing.

The youth leadership aspect of the Childnet Digital Leaders Programme means that your whole school community can be impacted by the programme, including parents, carers, and families. Once your school is enrolled, it only takes a couple of weeks to get a group of your pupils started on the gamified online training platform, and for the programme to begin having an impact.

In the 2020 Digital Leaders Programme Impact Report, 95% of teachers said that the programme has impacted on a whole school level and 100% of teachers said the programme prepares young people to be peer educators. Young people want to hear from other young people about online safety, and we have found this to be more impactful in both primary and secondary settings, with 95% of teachers agreeing that peer education is more effective when teaching about online safety.

Young people have been spending more time online than ever before and are increasingly aware of the positive and not so positive aspects of our online lives. Now is the time to engage the young people you work with in conversations about their online lives, to empower them, and learn how to support one another online with the Digital Leaders Programme.

We know that the programme works in educating young people in an age appropriate and engaging way, as 81% of teachers have noticed safer online behaviours from young people as a result of the programme. It can also play a crucial role in supporting school staff during difficult times as 81% of teachers said it has helped their school staff fulfil their safeguarding duties.

A programme subscription will last either one or two calendar years. If you choose to subscribe to the programme now and train up a group of Digital Leaders over the summer term, you can then recruit a new cohort in the autumn term, allowing the programme to continue to have impact throughout the following academic year.

Digital Leader Training Platform development

The Childnet team are currently working on redevelopment of some of the Digital Leader training modules and online platform over the coming months, so now is an exciting time to enrol! The platform learning content is developed by our online safety experts and informed directly by Digital Leaders’ feedback on what they want to learn about, and what they are most concerned about with regard to their time online.

Register your interest in the programme here to receive some more information and a link to our enrolment form where you can choose to purchase either a one year or two year programme subscription.

Take a look at other blog posts, our ‘How It Works’ page to learn more about how the programme could fit with your school and the 2020 Programme Impact Report. Make sure to follow ChildnetDL and Childnet on Twitter to keep up to date.