A WELLINGTON school has been awarded for its ‘outstanding’ work to promote online safety among pupils and staff.
Beech Grove Primary School has become the 500th school across the UK to receive the ‘Online Safety Mark’ from not-for-profit charity SWGfL, a partner with the UK Safer Internet Centre.
This award celebrates those schools which are able to show exceptional standards relating to their online safety policies and practice within their communities. The Online Safety Mark is awarded when schools have reached the required benchmark levels within SWGfL’s own, free to use online safety self-review tool 360 Degree Safe (currently used by over 16,000 schools across the UK).
This is followed by a day of assessment where an accredited assessor will visit the school and meet with senior leaders, staff, children, parents, carers and Governors for interviews and internal reviews.
Claire Joyce, headteacher at Beech Grove Primary School, said: ‘'The Beech Grove community is delighted to have been awarded the Online Safety Mark in recognition of the work we are doing in this important area.
“We are committed to ensuring that our pupils can enjoy all the benefits the online world can offer, but in a way that is safe and responsible. We see online safety as an integral part of our safeguarding work so are pleased that our report highlights the strong culture we have created.
“I would like to thank the staff team for all their hard work in building this excellent practice and the Somerset eLIM EdTech team for supporting us on this journey. We are looking forward to continuing to build on these strengths to develop our practice even further.’’
Ron Richards, Online Safety Mark lead assessor, said: ‘’Awarding Beech Grove Primary School with the 500th Online Safety Mark award is a glorious and monumental occasion. In recent years, online safety has become a priority issue for all educational establishments and ensuring that schools are doing all that they can to protect young people online is an essential practice.
“We congratulate Beech Grove Primary School for their commitment and ongoing work in upholding exceptional online safety practice and for striving to keep their community safe online.’’