ONLINE SAFETY MARK
Online Safety Mark Review 2018
Date of assessment: June 8th, 2018
Assessor: Ron Richards
Thank you for your application and for the supporting documents.
The application form, the review and the supporting documents suggest that the school has continued to improve its online safety provision and that the school remains at (and in places above) Online Safety Mark benchmark levels. It gave me pleasure to read the application form and the review which made it clear that there has been progress in recent years. The previous Assessor’s Report began with the statement: “Clare Mount Specialist Sports College has been incrementally developing its strategy for e-safety since 2012”. It is clear that this incremental development has continued.
There are many positive aspects to your review, including (but certainly not exclusively):
- The development points raised in the previous Assessor report have been addressed and it is good to see that a number of the aspects in the review are now rated at the aspirational level 1 (and the commentary appears to justify this choice of level).
- The CPOMs system provides integration of behaviour and child protection monitoring, recording and reporting and appears to be an effective solution for the school’s needs.
- The school Twitter account disseminates information to parents, but this is only part of the wider process of improving the communication with and involvement of the parent body and wider community groups.
- In reading the review, it is obvious that the school effectively adapts resources and online safety messages to the particular needs of the students. In turn they are consulted and involved, wherever possible, in the designing and delivery of experiences for other students.
- Online safety developments take place through a targeted plan with an evidence based format.
In terms of development points I would like to suggest:
- The school has identified opportunities for a school You Tube channel. This would be a very effective way of developing students’ digital literacy and would model good practice in the safe use of digital / social media. This would be an exciting development and should be encouraged.
- There are references in the review to a much enhanced community programme. The review does not provide any information about whether the school is actively supporting other schools to improve their online safety provision. If it is, this is to be applauded. I would encourage the school to offer its expertise to other schools – particularly Special Schools because it is able to model good practice and has in place many solutions that schools sometimes struggle to achieve.
I am pleased to confirm that the school has been awarded the Online Safety Mark for a further three years.
Ron Richards