SWGfL 360 Degree Safe Article for Schools Out Newsletter

19 Jul 2011 UK SIC

Congratulations to successful E-Safety Mark Schools.

The 360 degree safe E-Safety Mark Assessors have been busy in the last few months carrying out assessments in a range of schools.

These are some of the most recent schools to gain the award:

Willenhall Sports College, Walsall

Stroud High School, Gloucestershire

Hasbury C of E Primary School, Dudley

Painsley Catholic College, Staffordshire

Haygrove School, Bridgwater

Slim School, Hohne, Germany

Chasetown Community School, Staffordshire

Abbey Park Middle School, Pershore

Etone College, Nuneaton

Priors Field Primary School, Warwickshire

Hamworthy Middle School, Poole

To gain the award schools must first reach the required benchmarks in the 360 degree safe self review tool. Their submission is then reviewed by an Assessor who will carry out a half day visit to validate the information provided by the school. The visit provides the opportunity to celebrate the school’s successes and suggest areas for further development. 

Feedback from schools is very positive and these are some of the comments they have made:

“I found the tool very useful. It does not have the repetition that I have found with other online assessment tools and includes a number of very useful links that helped with the process.  The tool allowed us to recognise areas that we need to improve and offered advice on how to do this. The feedback given during the school visit was extremely helpful.”

“It was a  stressful process, but a valuable experience that enabled us to celebrate all that we do to support staff,  students and their families in being safe online. Everyone involved talked positively about the experience and commented on how approachable the assessors were.

“A very useful process for the school and a time to celebrate success and use the process to further improve e-safety in school.”

“This was a lengthy process which took us around 2 years.  However, as a result of the framework and in order to work towards the E-Safety Mark we have made significant improvements in our e-safety processes, policies and education”.

“A very good assessment morning that was very rigid and provided us with a chance to see exactly where our gaps are that could be fixed.”

“The tool was very easy to use and raised some interesting points that enabled us to move forward successfully. The assessment process was clear and very helpful.”

The 360 degree safe self review tool is free for schools to use. The registration process is simple – just register from the home page at  www.360safe.org.uk. Once registered you can check your e-safety provision against the level descriptors in the tool and benchmark it against the data from all the schools that use the tool.  Further information about the E-Safety Mark can be found in the tool or by emailing: 360safe@swgfl.org.uk.

Ron Richards

E-Safety Mark Lead Assessor