Over 4000 qualified Digital Leaders thanks to the Childnet Digital Leaders Programme!

The Childnet team are happy to announce that the Digital Leaders Programme has recently reached two milestones! Take a read below to find out more about these milestones and how the programme has developed over the years.

How the programme started

The Childnet Digital Leaders Programme began with the aim to engage young people in online safety education in new and innovative ways. By speaking to young people directly, we found that they found online safety education more valuable and relevant when it was delivered to them by people their own age. By directly consulting with young people, teachers and educational settings, Childnet created the programme to give young people an opportunity to take the lead in online safety education, making it more impactful overall. The programme started in 2014 with just a few pilot schools.

How the programme has grown

The programme has grown tremendously over the last 6 years, impacting more and more young people in Primary and Secondary schools every year. Take a look at our Digital Leader Group map below or on our Impact and Reach page, which shows the reach of The Digital Leaders across the UK and beyond. As well as growing in reach, the programme has developed significantly over the years, now offering more participation and collaboration opportunities to the young people and schools engaged with the programme.

To date, the Childnet team have run four Digital Leaders Regional Events across the UK as an opportunity for Digital Leaders to meet, receive exclusive training and collaborate on ways to impact their school communities.

Other developments include the community newsletter which features monthly programme updates and announcements, and a programme Twitter account, @ChildnetDL, to showcase Digital Leader achievements.

The programme now also has a youth representative board, the Digital Champions, who help the Childnet team to ensure the programme remains youth led. We have seven Digital Champions who represent a youth voice, which is essential to the programme’s success. Learn more about the Digital Champions here and read part one of their guest blog post about their responsibilities and plans for the year ahead here.

Recent Milestones

We are proud to announce that the programme has recently reached two milestones. The programme has now had over 1000 subscriptions and over 4000 Digital Leaders have completed the training, qualifying as Childnet Digital Leaders!

Congratulations to all of these qualified Digital Leaders and thank you for contributing to the success of the programme. The programme relies on the support of dedicated teachers who lead the programme in their school and support their Digital Leaders in impacting their school communities, so a big thank you to all school staff who have been involved in their educational setting.

Digital Leaders are always impressing the Childnet team with their creative ways of sharing their knowledge and impacting their school communities. Take a look at some brilliant Digital Leader achievements here and make sure to keep an eye on the blog for regular programme updates and Digital Leaders achievements.

We are excited to see which milestone the programme reaches next, how it will continue to develop and what the Digital Leaders will achieve over the coming years.