Safeguarding and Online Safety - Digital Leaders programme

Every year there is a small recruitment drive within Year 5 to find children interested in becoming Digital Leaders. A small group of around 10 to 15 children are selected from eager applicants to undergo an in-house training programme designed to teach them how to stay safe online. These children will then be given the opportunity to pay it forward to all other St. Stephen's children by acting as ambassadors in digital safety. With the increasingly popular use of mobile technologies by children, it is of paramount importance that they are guided in using the internet safely. These children will carry this experience with them into Year 6 and beyond. Watch our Digital Leaders video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OIrz4JvLaSU 

Information from the Childnet website best describes the programme:

The Childnet Digital Leaders Programme aims to empower children and young people to champion digital citizenship and digital creativity within their schools and to educate their peers, parents and teachers about staying safe online.

This youth leadership programme offers pupils an exciting online community, structured training and ongoing support from Childnet’s expert team, helping make online safety learning fun and effective and helping schools work towards an outstanding whole school community approach to e-safety.  Once they have completed all online modules, they then become a ‘Qualified Digital Leader’. As they complete the various modules, students receive digital badges on the platform which keeps their motivation going. Qualified Digital Leaders are encouraged to run various activities in schools, such as educating other students to tell them how to keep safe online, writing a leaflet for parents or making a poster. In the picture the Year 6 Digital Leaders are running Safer Internet Day.