Welcome to the March post of our monthly achievements and updates blog. Here we congratulate schools who have completed their training over the past month and share good news stories from Digital Leader schools.
Well done to the Digital Leader teams from the following schools who have recently completed their online training!
Brentfield Primary School – 2nd cohort!
Downside School
Kensington Prep School – 2nd cohort!
Lady Eleanor Holles Junior School
Monkshouse Primary School – 3rd cohort!
Notre Dame Senior School – 2nd cohort!
Penwortham Primary School
Rosebank Primary School
TASIS The American School in England- Secondary
School visits
Last month Siobhán and Fabian visited Barnfield Primary School Digital Leaders to learn about what they have been doing to share their online safety knowledge and support their peers when on the internet. We were really impressed with the Digital Leaders’ plans for how they will impact their school community in the coming months. Take a look at the blog post about our visit to Barnfield Primary School including some top tips for online safety that their Digital Leaders shared with us!
Safer Internet Day 2020
Well done to all of the Digital Leaders who took part in Safer Internet Day across the country by running and being involved in activities in their schools. Take a look at our blog post about the Safer Internet Day London event and the important roles that Digital Leaders had at the event, from running activities for the guests from industry and policy, to being the youth host and key note speaker!
Digital Leaders were also involved in developing the Young People’s Charter for Safer Internet Day, which Aimee and Cosima, two of our Digital Champions, presented to government on the day. Read more about the Young People’s Charter here.
Many Digital Leader teams across the UK featured on their schools’ Twitter on Safer Internet Day. Well done to all Digital Leaders involved in celebrating the day, we are so impressed with the breadth of activities that Digital Leaders were involved in at their schools. Safer Internet Day celebrations ranged from assemblies, to videos and lessons around the theme of #freetobe: exploring identity online.
Take a look at some examples of tweets featuring Digital Leaders celebrating Safer Internet Day below.
Make sure to let us know what your Digital Leader team did to celebrate Safer Internet Day to be featured in a blog post round up! Contact us at [email protected]
The theme of Safer Internet Day in the UK this year looked at identity online and how young people manage, curate and navigate their online identity. Digital Leaders from five schools, a mixture of primary and secondary, attended the Safer Internet Day event at the BT Centre in London on 11th February.
Guests from the internet industry as well as services which support young people, government and policy attended the event which was organised by the UK Safer Internet Centre and hosted by Homyra, a Digital Leader from Mayfield School.
Digital Leader teams from Coopers School, Harris Academy Tottenham, Leigh Academy Blackheath, Stanburn Primary School and Woodcote Primary School attended and prepared and led activities around the theme of identity online for the guests, to encourage them to think about what this means to young people and whether everyone is free to be themselves online.
Digital Champions, Aimee and Cosima, were also in attendance to talk to guests about the Young People’s Charter. Take a look at our blog post about the Young People’s Charter and Digital Leaders’ involvement in the development of the charter here.
Young people give their thoughts on online safety
Homyra kicked off the event in the auditorium by welcoming everybody and introducing speeches from Marc Allera, CEO of Consumer Goods at BT, who spoke about how proud he was to host the event at the BT Centre as well as Will Gardner, CEO of Childnet and Director of the UK Safer Internet Centre. Will spoke about how important Safer Internet Day is, and how it can be used to to start conversations around young peoples’ lives online and talked about the breadth of activities that young people across the UK were doing to celebrate the day.
Will presented the Safer Internet Day research report, ‘Free To Be Me: piecing together identity online’ which looks at how young people manage, curate and navigate their online identity and highlighted the key findings from the research to the guests.
Aimee then delivered the youth keynote speech. She spoke about why she wanted to become a Digital Leader, what her new role as a Digital Champion involved as well as the importance of the theme of exploring online identity.
After the speeches, the guests were invited to take part in the Digital Leader led activities. Activities included drawing your own avatar to display your online persona, thinking about which scenarios are more likely to happen offline or online and looking at the things you do online that make up your online identity.
Guests received stickers for visiting each activity station. Aimee and Cosima also ran an activity which involved explaining the Young People’s Charter and asking the guests to make pledges in how they are going to champion the charter. Take a look at our blog post about the Young People’s Charter here.
Everyone then returned to the auditorium again for the final part of the event. This session involved a panel hosted by Natasha Devon MBE with panellists from a variety of organisations which support young people, such as The Mix, Girlguiding and Glitch. The Digital Leaders in attendance had prepared questions for the panel around the theme of how young people manage their online identities and what support there is for young people in managing their online lives. This created some great discussions among the panel.
The day was a huge success and we were so pleased to have so many Digital Leaders in attendance to lead the event and represent the entire Digital Leaders community. Thank you to the Digital Leaders who attended as well as their teachers and chaperones who supported their pupils on the day. Thank you also to the Digital Champions, Aimee and Cosima, for attending and speaking passionately about the Young People’s Charter, and to Aimee for her impressive key note speech. Thank you also to Homyra for being an excellent youth host, welcoming guests to the event and introducing speakers to the stage. All of the Digital Leaders in attendance were fantastic in their roles on the day.
Take a look at the Safer Internet Day research report here. And the Young People’s Charter here.
Make sure to let us know what you did to celebrate Safer Internet Day in your school by emailing [email protected], so that we can include your activities in a Safer Internet Day roundup blog post!
Siobhán and Fabian from the Childnet Digital Leaders team recently visited the Barnfield Primary Digital Leaders. They were very impressed with what the team have already achieved in school as well as their plans for the next few months!
The team have completed the core training modules and have also run assemblies in school for Anti-Bullying Week and Safer Internet Day. The assemblies were such a success that after watching them other pupils wanted to become Digital Leaders too! We want to say well done to the Barnfield Digital Leaders for making such a big impact in their school already. No doubt that the team will make an even bigger impact in the next few months as they have impressive plans to share their online safety knowledge and support pupils in their school to keep safe online.
The team’s plans include writing for the school newsletter and running a school poster-making competition. We think these are fantastic ways to get their online safety messages out to the whole school and to encourage pupils to think creatively!
Whilst visiting them the Barnfield Primary Digital Leaders also shared their top online safety tips with us. These included:
Don’t share your personal information
If you receive nasty messages, you don’t need to reply
Always tell an adult when in doubt
Be careful who you talk to online
Be kind online
We had a great time visiting the Barnfield Primary Digital Leaders and talking to them about their role as Digital Leaders in school. Thank you to Ms Vessey and the fantastic Digital Leaders for welcoming us to your school. Good luck and keep us updated with what you achieve!
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 in school by emailing [email protected] and tweeting @ChildnetDL.
This blog looks at the Digital Leaders’ involvement in the Young People’s Charter for Safer Internet Day 2020.
In consultation with young people across the UK, the UK Safer Internet Centre produced the Young People’s Charter for Safer Internet Day 2020. The Charter calls upon the government and internet industry to make a more inclusive internet where everyone is #freetobe themselves.
41 Digital Leaders contributed to this charter, alongside other young people across the UK, through an online survey. Our Digital Champions fed into the charter through consultation, helping to shape the charter’s four key points which highlight the demands that young people need government to act upon to keep them safe and free to be themselves online.
Aimee and Cosima, two of the Childnet Digital Champions, were involved in the development of the charter. They then presented the charter to MPs at Westminster and then to industry at the Safer Internet Day event in London.
Take a look at the full charter here for more depth around the four calls to action.
The Young People’s Charter includes:
Provide good quality education about the internet
Protect equal rights and opportunities online and offline
Establish better protection and accountability
Give us the space and power to create change
The Young People’s Charter launch in parliament on Safer Internet Day 2020
Aimee and Cosima, two of the Digital Champions launched the charter by presenting it to MPs at parliament on Safer Internet Day. They spoke directly to over 25 MPs, explaining the purpose and importance of the clear demands included in the charter. They also explained how the charter was developed by the UK Safer Internet Centre with young people. The charter comes from the young people that the UK Safer Internet Centre spoke to.
Aimee and Cosima then attended the Safer Internet Day event where they presented the charter to guests from the internet industry and asked guests to pledge to play their part to support young people online and to champion the Young People’s Charter.
Photo: Baroness Nicky Morgan,Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, gives her support for the Youth Charter
The Safer Internet Day 2020 research report which influenced and accompanies the Young People’s Charter can be found here.
Tuesday 11th February saw the celebration of Safer Internet Day across the world in over 170 countries. The theme of this year’s campaign in the UK was ‘Free to be me: Exploring identity online’, encouraging young people to explore how they manage their online identity, and how the internet shapes how they think of themselves and others.
We asked Bella, one of our Digital Champions, a few questions around the theme and she provided some enlightening and insightful responses which you can find below.
1) Why is it important for all young people to be free to be themselves online?
“For many young people, particularly as the generational divide between our and our parents’ generations widens, access to the internet can equal a person’s access to certain safe spaces that they would not be able to access ‘in real life’. This means something, and whether or not a person feels comfortable in a certain community online should be the qualifier for it allowing young people to ‘be themselves’. These spaces should be commended for accommodating people regardless of race, sexuality etc.”
2) Why is it important to have different groups represented online? Why is online representation important?
“The intense diversity of some sites, such as Tumblr and Instagram, really helps to confront and challenge people’s opinions and understandings of the world where in their current situation offline they may not be. Issues that do not pertain to certain people are still raised by others online, and therefore those people learn something valuable about the struggles and the successes of other communities – and therefore the importance for diversity and the concept of ‘free and equal’ online. Representation online is so critical in my own experience because LGBTQ+ folks in my area are not so common publicly – to be presented with people that are ‘like you’ online, regardless of what that means to an individual, provides a critically important sense of validation and strips away the isolation many feel in their offline situations. This is why visible and healthy representation must be paramount.”
3) What is the best thing about diversity online? What is the worst thing about diversity online?
“The best thing (for me personally): the communities that form around aspects of diversity, particularly when those aspects are not universally or widely celebrated offline. The internet is so critical for providing (particularly) young people with a set of others like them whom they can communicate with and share their experiences with, and anonymously, if need be. These communities build up a validating sense of self worth for those who might otherwise be lacking it.
The worst thing (for me personally): In the quest for diversity, which, today, particularly with regard to sexuality, tends to produce more views/clicks, things like ‘queer-baiting’ have come into existence, whereby shows etc. falsely advertise inclusion and tolerance in order to draw in a subset of the population interested by this. The use of diversity as a weak and commercial factor in media is increasingly becoming a problem; I believe distinctions should be made for showwriters and media executives between healthy and unhealthy representation in order to bate this problem in the future.”
4) What is your one wish for the future of the internet?
“I hope we are able to overcome this idea that hate speech is a quality that should not be dismantled online because of the policy of freedom of speech. I’m aware that a number of social media sites (i.e. Twitter) have removed a considerable amount of ‘hate speech’ content under cyber-laws and legislation, and have received criticism from radical communities which resent the idea of restriction of certain materials – and while freedom of speech in a political sense is incredibly important, I believe that comfortable diversity for the large majority cannot be achieved until hate speech and free speech are separated properly by legislation and social media policy.”
5) If you could tell parents, teachers, and the internet industry one thing about online identity, what would it be?
“It is so important to encourage children and young people to develop a healthy online presence early, and, perhaps even more so, to put forward a level of trust in letting them do this. ‘Watcher’ apps are increasingly popular and they should not be underestimated in the sense that they do make online identity a more restricted concept if people feel as though they cannot express themselves, and in some cases, this is damaging to a person’s ability to socialise. Children and young people might misrepresent themselves a little bit online, but it is critical that ‘healthy identity’ is promoted and taught; that is, cultivating an image that you feel comfortable with, while also understanding there are limits.”
Thank you, Bella, for your passion for this topic and for being so open with your thoughts. Find out more about our Digital Champions here and take a look at their plans for the year ahead as well as more information about their role within the programme here.
The Childnet Digital Champions are Jess, Bella, Maryam, Niah, Oyinkan, Cosima and Aimee. They are a group of Digital Leaders from across the country who were successful in applying to be ambassadors of the Digital Leaders Programme, representing the Digital Leader community and supporting the Childnet team. Find out more about our fantastic Digital Champions here. The Digital Champions had their kick-off day on 23rd January at Facebook offices and the day was a chance for the young people to get to know each other, find out what to expect in their role as a Digital Champion and lots more!
Here is part one of two blog posts written by the Digital Champions which explains what they got up to on the kick-off day and what to expect from them in the coming months. Hear from Cosima, Jess, Niah and Bella in this blog post and hear more from our other Digital Champions in part two.
What did we get up to on our kick-off day?
Cosima: We all arrived at Facebook, signed in and waited to be taken in, it was the first time that all of the new Digital Champions met and it was so nice to finally see each other face to face! We went upstairs to a room on the 8th floor, there were loads of snacks and drinks which they said we could have. After we all introduced ourselves; new and existing, and the Childnet team told us a little about themselves too we decided to play some icebreakers. I’m sure that I speak for all of us in that after we made recipes from our favourite foods and scattergories we felt like we had been friends for ages! Some time and snacks later, the existing DC’s told us a little more about their experiences and highlights of the role and what kind of things to expect. We then were given an amazing tour of the Facebook offices. They had a giant phone, Instagram carriage, pick and mix, emoji game, work pods and much more. We were all thinking how if we worked there we would never get any work done as there are too many cool things to do! Once again we collected some snacks and drinks and then went back to our room! The Childnet team talked to us about upcoming events and tasks and then it was time for lunch, the best part! During and after lunch we talked some more (like a lot!) and set in stone the expectations and requirements for our time as Digital Champions and we talked to by another member of the Childnet team who asked us for our views on some pretty cool things. After a long, packed and fun day we said our goodbyes and took a trip to the pick and mix! It was a really great and enjoyable day that we won’t be forgetting in a hurry.
What are the team of Digital Champions going to do?
Jess: As a team of Digital Champions, we want to speak as the youth and for the youth. We are all from so many different backgrounds, and we can harness this diversity to speak out about issues facing young people online in our area and come together to voice our peers’ opinions. The Digital Champion team and I are ready to make young people’s voices heard and speak out for our internet!
Which part of being a Digital Champion are you most looking forward to?
Niah: The part of being a Digital Champion I am looking forward to the most is having the opportunity to support young people in making positive decisions online outside of my school community, as well as working with young people from all different backgrounds to take on Digital Leader roles and positively grow the online space.
For some of the Digital Champions this is your second year in the role. What advice would you give to the new Digital Champions?
Bella: To the new Digital Champions, I’d definitely say to twist your role in your school and on a local level especially into something you can harness to pursue relevant things you’re interested in seeing improve in your local area. For instance, my Digital Leaders and I have done a lot on safety for the LGBTQ+ community online, because we’re mostly involved in the GSA (Gay-Straight Alliance) here at my school. If you choose a ‘specialty’ you’re super invested in, it will pronounce you as a seriously capable young leader and it’ll give you the confidence you need to approach a leadership role. That’s how it’s been in my experience.
Charlotte and Marie from the Childnet team had a fantastic visit to the Digital Leaders at Penwortham Primary School on 17th January 2019. The Digital Leaders told us how they have been completing the training modules whilst planning lots of exciting projects for the future! They also wrote an article for their school newspaper, ‘The Globe.’
See their article below to read about their role as Digital Leaders and find out what their aims as a team are:
Thanks to Penwortham Primary School for sharing your fantastic newspaper article, it is great to see such an informative article by the Digital Leaders. The Childnet team really enjoyed meeting the Digital Leaders and we can’t wait to see what else they achieve in their roles.
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 updated with what your Digital Leaders achieve in school by emailing [email protected] and tweeting @ChildnetDL.
Siobhan from the Childnet Digital Leaders team along with Kate and Phoebe from the Childnet Education team visited St. Martins School in Derby, to meet with their Digital Leaders, discuss their experience of the programme and to talk to their peers about online safety.
The Digital Leaders had recently finished the online training and so were awarded with their certificates and badges in assembly. Siobhan was delighted to be able to award St. Martins School their Digital Leaders Programme school certificate and also give them their certificate for having a Digital Leader school visit! During the assembly we heard about what the Digital Leaders’ role in school will look like and their plans for how they will support other pupils and teachers. We also got to watch the Digital Leaders in action, presenting to other pupils about some key online safety topics.
We were really impressed with the hard work they have already put into being Digital Leaders, and they have only just begun! The fantastic team had produced a leaflet to go to all parents/carers of pupils at the school to announce their new role in school, who they are and what they will be doing. We think this is a brilliant idea! See an image of the leaflet below:
The team were also particularly impressed with a game that one of the Digital Leaders had created. The game was played by a member of school staff and pupils in assembly. Everyone watched on the large screen and enjoyed seeing the pupils get a higher score than the teacher! The game was very well designed and informative, with the player receiving online safety messages and points when they correctly aimed the laser at the target by using the mouse and clicking to shoot the laser. Creating games is a fun and engaging way to share online safety messages. We would love to hear from other Digital Leaders who have made games to share their online safety knowledge!
Thanks to the Digital Leaders for their great feedback on the programme and platform, this will be really useful for future development. We really enjoyed meeting the team and we can’t wait to see what you achieve in your school community in your new role.
If your Digital Leaders team would like a school visit from the team, then please get in touch at [email protected].
Make sure to keep us updated with what your Digital Leaders achieve in school by emailing [email protected] and tweeting @ChildnetDL.
These pages contain tips, advice and resources to help young people and their families enjoy technology and the internet together in a safe and positive way. We encourage Digital Leaders to share these top tips for Safer Internet Day 2020.
Top Tips for children and young people
These pages include top tips about staying safe as well as the ways young people can express their identity online and help create an internet where everyone is free to be themselves.
The advice pages for young people are split into three age appropriate sections:
The top tips for 3-7 year olds centre around being proud to be yourself, the things you can do online, as well as where young people can go if they need help.
The top tips for 7-11s look at being proud to be different, respecting others and expecting respect yourself, and what they can do if they need help online.
The top tips for 11-18s look at how young people can embrace and support difference online, as well as the way that young people can use the internet to explore and find out more information.
These tips are a great way to ensure that parents and carers are supporting their children and giving them the tools to stay safe and positive online. They highlight ways to have a conversation, take a balanced approach and to make use of the tools available.
There are also accompanying films and resources that parents can use to explore online safety this Safer Internet Day.
Further resources you can use
We have created Education Packs, which are tailored made for 3-7s, 7-11s, 11-14s, 14-18s and parents and carers, along with some guidance for educators. Available in English and Welsh these free packs include lesson plans, posters, presentations, activities and more!
Our Safer Internet Day films have been produced to complement the Safer Internet Day Education Packs. The films act as an extension of the packs and as such aim to be conversation starters around the topic of identity online.
To keep up to date with the latest Safer Internet Day news you can:
Join the UK wide conversation with the #SaferInternetDay and #freetobe hashtags
We can’t wait to see what Digital Leaders get up to on Safer Internet Day and the creative ways that they celebrate. Let us know what your Digital Leader team get up to for Safer Internet Day 2020 on twitter @ChildnetDL#ChildnetDL.
Welcome to the January post of our monthly achievements and updates blog. Here we congratulate schools who have completed their training over the past month and share good news stories from Digital Leader schools.
Well done to the Digital Leader teams from the following schools who have recently completed their online training!
College Town Primary School
Pallister Park Primary
Queen’s College
Sarum Hall – 2nd cohort!
Selston High School – 2nd cohort!
St Patrick’s CE Primary Academy
The John Bamford Primary – 2nd cohort!
Walkington Primary School – 3rd cohort!
Warwick Preparatory School – 2nd cohort!
A quick round up of some fantastic tweets from Digital Leaders schools over the past month, highlighting some of the impressive achievements of their Digital Leaders:
We are looking forward to working with Digital Leader teams throughout 2020 and really excited to see what Digital Leaders achieve this year! Please share with us what your Digital Leaders team have been up to. Email [email protected] or tweet us @ChildnetDL#ChildnetDL to be included in the next update!
