Online Safety
Digital Safety – National Online Safety
Online safety is top class for St Leonard’s Primary School
The school has received a National Online Safety Certified School Accreditation for its whole-school community approach to protecting children in the online world:
- National Online Safety Certified School Accreditation 2019-2020
- National Online Safety Safe Remote Education Accreditation 2020 -2021
- National Online Safety Certified School Accreditation 2020 -2021
- National Online Safety Certified School Accreditation 2021-2022
Previous Headteacher Beverly Holmes said: “The online environment offers a wealth of potential when creating a curriculum which draws on pupils individual strengths and interests. However, pupils need to know how to navigate this safely.
“This environment gives them the opportunity to foster connections with the wider world exploring other countries, cultures and environments.”
The Designated Safeguarding Lead and Computing co-ordinator Matthew Gaukroger said: “The involvement from staff and parents has meant that we’ve had more people involved in our school community than we did last year. With the accreditation next year, we hope to make that bigger again.”
National Online Safety is a multi-award-winning digital training provider with extensive resources in online safety, developed in line with the Department of Education’s statutory requirements.
Its CPD-accredited courses and educational resources support UK schools in educating the whole school community – including all school staff, senior leaders, teachers and parents – in online safety and making the internet a safer place for children.
James Southworth, co-founder of National Online Safety, said: “Congratulations to everyone at St Leonard’s Church of England Primary School on becoming a National Online Safety Certified School. By completing our training programme, the school has shown its strong commitment to implementing an effective whole-school approach to online safety.
“It can be increasingly difficult for schools and parents to stay ahead of online threats and ensure both children and staff are safeguarded from potentially harmful and inappropriate online material.”
St Leonard’s Church Of England Voluntary Aided Primary School Online Safety Policy 2025 2026
St Leonard’s Church Of England Voluntary Aided Primary School Social Media Policy 2025 2026
About National Online Safety
National Online Safety are a multi-award winning provider of CPD accredited courses and educational resources which help to support schools in their online safety provision. We equip school leaders, staff, parents and pupils with the knowledge they need to understand online dangers by adopting a ‘whole school approach’ towards onlin5 safety, with a belief that safeguarding children online does not stop at the school gates.
Our Certified Schools Membership responds to current DfE statutory policy around online safety, including the revised ‘Keeping Children Safe in Education’ guidance, which came into effect in September 2021. The package includes award-winning online safety e-learning, resources and updates for the whole school community, including designated roles, teachers, non-teaching staff governors, pupils and parents/carers.
For Parents
Parents are able to also sign up to National Online Safety website. This will enable them to access webinars and resources to assist parents to improve their knowledge and understanding to in turn be able to support their children.
National Online Safety provides teachers, children and parents a range of different resources and knowledge that we need to understand online dangers and how best to react if an incident arises. By clicking the link , you can sign up for National Online Safety and access to a number of different training sessions, webinars and leaflets
Access User Policies 2025-2026
New technologies have become integral to the lives of children and young people in today’s society, both within schools / academies and in their lives outside school. The internet and other digital information and communications technologies are powerful tools, which open up new opportunities for everyone. These technologies can stimulate
discussion, promote creativity and stimulate awareness of context to promote effective learning. They also bring opportunities for staff to be more creative and productive in their work. All users should have an entitlement to safe access to the internet and digital technologies at all times.
St Leonard’s will try to ensure that staff and volunteers will have good access to digital technology to enhance their work, to enhance learning opportunities for students learning and will, in return, expect staff and volunteers to agree to be responsible users.
Netsweeper Onguard
Starting September 1st, 2023, the UK Department for Education (DfE) will be introducing changes to the Keeping Children Safe in Education (KCSIE) statutory guidance. This statutory guidance applies to all children under the age of 18 and details both the legal (“must” do) requirements and best (“should” do) practices for safeguarding in schools. This document is periodically updated to ensure it remains current and comprehensive.
There are four significant changes related to required online filtering and monitoring software used by schools to monitor students’ website visits or attempted visits, as outlined in the updated KCSIE guidance:
- DSLs now have a responsibility for “understanding the filtering and monitoring systems and processes in place” as part of their remit (p. 28, para. 103)
- Governing bodies should ensure that all staff undergo safeguarding and child protection training. It should give them “an understanding of the expectations, applicable roles and responsibilities in relation to filtering and monitoring” (p. 32, para. 124)
- A school’s child protection policy should include how it approaches ‘appropriate filtering and monitoring on school devices and school networks.’ (p. 36, para. 138)
- Schools and colleges should consider meeting the DfE’s new Filtering and Monitoring Standards (p. 37, para. 142) and Cyber Security Standards (p. 38, para. 144)
Netsweeper’s hybrid deployment capabilities ensure that St Leonard’s remain compliant with all regulations while delivering consistent and reliable filtering across various devices and platforms and ensuring a safe and secure online environment for students. In fact, Netsweeper’s products align well with all UK Safer Internet Centre recommendations and allow for seamless implementation and management of filtering policies, while providing schools with a robust solution that effectively safeguards students from harmful and inappropriate content.
OnGuard provides a real-time monitoring and alerting safeguarding services. This valuable tool will aid schools and designated safeguarding leads to meet the online safeguarding criteria in the DfE’s Keeping Children Safe in Education report (KCSIE).
At Padiham St Leonard’s our Filtering and Monitoring for Mr Matthew Gaukroger, Mrs Beverley Holmes, Mr Adam Duerden (T2 Computer Services) and Lancashire Education Digital Services.