The 360 Degree Safe Online Safety self-review tool (www.360safe.org.uk) is used by over 11,000 schools in England and Northern Ireland. If you are not already using the tool to review your online safety policy and practice, here’s why you should:
- It is an easy to use self-review tool
- It identifies your online safety strengths and weaknesses
- It helps children, young people and staff at your school stay safe online
- Most importantly – it’s free!
What does the tool contain?
- 21 aspects of online safety for you to review your practice against
- Policy templates that you can use as the basis for your policies
- A large range of current and historical reports of your progress, plus action plans to take you forward
- Benchmarks which allow you to compare your position with other schools and national standards.
- Certificates to show your commitment and progress
- The Online Safety Mark award to work towards
Where should you start?
- Register your school at www.360safe.org.uk. Use your DfE number and/or your postcode to check if your school is already registered. If it is, email 360safe@swgfl.org.uk to ask for support. If not, just go ahead and register.
- Download and print your Certificate of Commitment.
- We would recommend that you invite others in the school to be additional users, so that you can work collaboratively
- Review the 21 different aspects (in any order you wish). Read the level statements (level 5 to level 1) and chose the level closest to your current practice.
- Add a commentary to describe your current position and how it matches the level you have chosen.
- Use the radar graph (on the home/review page or on the reports) to check your progress against the other schools using the tool and the Online Safety Mark benchmark standards.
- Access some of the reports to view/save/print to show your progress.
- Draw up an action plan (using the improvement actions in the tool)
Who can help?
- Use the FAQs in the tool for further support
- Email 360safe@swgfl.org.uk if you cannot find the answer you are looking for.
- We would strongly recommend that you carry out the review with a representative group in the school – it is unlikely that any one person will have all the answers! Setting up an Online Safety Group will help you in your work.
We hope that you will find the 360 Degree Safe tool helpful in improving your online safety policy and practice.
