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Get involved in the CyberLand Challenge and put your coding, programming and computing knowledge to the test. You could win an iPad from @Cyberchallenge! Enter the competition
Get involved in the CyberLand Challenge and put your coding, programming and computing knowledge to the test. You could win an iPad from @Cyberchallenge! Enter the competition
From September 2020 Relationships Education and Relationships and Sex education will be compulsory for all secondary aged pupils in England and Relationships Education for all primary aged pupils in England. Health Education will be compulsory for all pupils in state- maintained schools.
The UKCCIS framework Eductaion for A Connected World offers guidance about the digital knowledge and skills that children and young people should have the opportunity to develop at different ages and stages of their lives and is an essential tool in developing Sex and Relationship Education, Relationship Education and Heath Education for pupils of all ages.
ProjectEVOLVE resources each of the 330 statements from Education for a COnnected World with perspectives; research; activities; outcomes; supporting resources and professional development materials. All materialsincluding lesson guides are free.
The new version of the DfE’s statutory safeguarding guidance “Keeping Children Safe in Education” was released on the 17th June. It comes into effect on the 1st September, so it is important that designated safeguarding leads and governors know what changes have been made.
Some of those changes include:
Covid-19
Mental Health
Child Sexual Exploitation (CSE)
Child Criminal Exploitation (CCE)
Online safety
Supply teachers
The following places offer detailed break down of the changes:
Andre Hall’s video
Becki Avery’s blog from the Education People, formally Kent County Council
LGfL Digisafe’s blog
Periodically, we all recieve warnings about 'bad stuff' happening on the Internet. Our first instinct is to then pass that warning on to our friends, colleagues, pupils and children. And when the warning comes from an official source it almost seems as if its our duty to inform as many people as possible. But should we be doing this?
Mark Bentley, our Online Safety colleague at LGfL has written a really useful blog post (about the dangers of sharing hoax online safety news stories and how to respond next time someone asks you to do so. There's also a great poster to use with your class when they get back in September.
Other Useful Links
Whilst schools and academies are in many ways unique organisations they do share an important similiarity with businesses, charities, the health service and indeed private individuals. That is, they are potential victimes of cyber crime. Schools are no more and less likely to suffer a cyber attack than any other internet using organisation. The cyber criminal makes no moral distinction between ripping off a multi-million pound plc and a charity; between disrupting the stock market and stopping your exams officer submitting candidate details. In most cases, they are using a scattergun approach - if they fire at enough targets they will inevitably hit some.
What makes a school or academy a more or less likely to suffer a data breach or randsomware attack is the organisation's start of preparedness and its ability to respond in an appropriate manner. And although technical safeguards such as a secure firewall and software updates are important, a lot of a school's defence comes from good organisational practice and awareness raising.
The NCSC (National Cyber Security Centre) and NEN have put together a set of advice and guidance for schools, academies and trusts on how to improve cyber security, how to reduce the risk of data breaches and what to do if the worst happens.
Guidance for Governing Bodies is a short document to help start a converstaion between Governors and senior leadership teams
NEN Cyber Security Advice includes the 'What if' document that provides more detail on how to prepare for and respond to an incident and the 'Cyber Security Checklist' that will help you audit your school's current state of cyber readiness and collate essential information.