DfE publishes guidance on teaching online safety

The Department for Education has released guidance outlining how schools can ensure their pupils understand how to stay safe and behave online as part of curriculum requirements.

The guidance is for school leaders, school staff and governing bodies but does not imply additional content or teaching requirements.

It complements existing and forthcoming subjects including Relationships Education, Relationships and Sex Education, Health Education, Citizenship and Computing.

From September 2020, Relationships Education will be compulsory for all primary aged pupils, Relationships and Sex Education will be compulsory for all secondary aged pupils and Health Education will be compulsory in all state-funded schools in England.

Through these new subjects, pupils will be taught about online safety and harms. This will include being taught what positive, healthy and respectful online relationships look like, the effects of their online actions on others and knowing how to recognise and display respectful behaviour online.

The guidance shows how to help pupils identify online risks. This will enable pupils to identify possible online risks and make informed decisions about how to act. The focus should be to help pupils assess a situation, think through the consequences of acting in different ways and decide on the best course of action.

The guidance explains how to teach children that not everyone online is who they say they are and how to look out for fake profiles.

Find the guidance here