Keeping Children Safe (Updated 30 March 2021)

As the national lockdown is eased, the duty to provide remote education remains (e.g. for those in isolation, bubble closures and local lockdowns), so safe remote learning remains a priority. It is here to stay as part of school life, and many new devices will continue to be used by pupils at home, so use the information on this page to keep children & young people safe.

For more safeguarding support far beyond this issue, online and beyond, follow @LGfLDigiSafe on Twitter & Facebook, sign up to our newsletter,or email us.

1. Review, revise and remind everyone about policies and AUPs - what behaviour is allowed or appropriate - does your policy reflect practice?

2. Follow the guidance in the infographic above and keep a log of events and issues.

3. Test what student accounts can do regularly in case settings have changed - e.g. can pupils join a stream or meeting but not start their own ones? Can they start or (re)join a meeting without you?

4. Don't forget security, too.

5. Blur (even better change) the background. Teams, Meet and Zoom allow you to do this or upload your own. Blurring does not totally obscure others, so why not create a background with the school logo for a more professional look!). Insist staff and students do so to avoid embarrassment or even disciplinaries. It's easy to show personal or inappropriate information or objects by accident (bedding if the bedroom is the only place to work, or family members in their pants - it happens!).

• Follow the links above⤴ for the three most popular platforms' useful settings pages - find out how to achieve each of the points in our infographic above.

• Remember for YouTube - teachers should never use personal channels/accounts, but only those linked to a school's G Suite. But in any case, Google Meet is a better solution for live lessons, assemblies or meetings (not only because the YouTube age limit for is 13 but also for functionality - and it limits it to your domain).

• Google Meet within G Suite - remember to stop students re/joining a Meet without the teacher, it is best to use the fixed Meet room linked to a Google Classroom which also restricts it to members of the. It's the same link each time and displayed at the top of the stream when turned on, so even if you don't otherwise use Classroom it might be worth setting it up just for this. Otherwise: set up a recurring meeting in calendar and turn off 'quick access' (this is only remembered for recurring meetings).

• Microsoft Teams within Office 365 - to stop students rejoining a Teams call without the teacher, you must click End Meeting, not the classic 'hang up' button.

• Free v Paid Zoom - If you consider using Zoom, please use the paid education version, not a free account. Otherwise you will not have the ability to safely audit staff and student meeting behaviour, record or disable chat, and other essential safeguarding settings!

Make the most of resources from LGfL DigiSafe and the other great organisations around the UK to help keep children safe:

• Our signposting portal at saferesources.lgfl.net can be filtered by theme, key stage and more.

• Parentsafe.lgfl.net is our section with items for schools to share with parents (don't share the Parentsafe link - it will be overwhelming - pick items from it to share).

• Join us for handy hints and resources on social media (we are @LGfLDigiSafe on Twitter and Facebook) for you, your colleagues, students and parents.

• If you don't already, subscribe to our newsletter, too.

• As bereavement may have tragically come to many school communities during covid, LGfL made resources with Child Bereavement UK to support schools.