Online Safety for Schools

Free resources for UK schools, teachers and safeguarding leads — lesson-ready materials, policy guidance and reporting routes for online grooming and exploitation.

For safeguarding leads (DSLs)

Designated Safeguarding Leads in every UK school have a statutory duty under Keeping Children Safe in Education to address online safety — including grooming, sextortion and peer-on-peer abuse. Key actions:

• Ensure your child protection policy covers online grooming, sextortion and harmful sexual behaviour explicitly — not just filtering.
• Filter and monitor all devices (statutory requirement) — but remember: filtering is a floor, not a ceiling. Education is the real defence.
• Log concerns on your safeguarding system (CPOMS/MyConcern etc.) with the same rigour as offline concerns — online abuse is child abuse.
• Know your referral routes: local children's services (MASH), CEOP (ceop.police.uk), and the NSPCC helpline 0808 800 5000.
• Report child sexual abuse imagery to the IWF (iwf.org.uk) — required if a pupil shares such content.

For teachers — classroom-ready ideas

For parents of pupils

Share these with your school community — every page is free to link from newsletters and parent mailings:

• Keep Children Safe Online — parental controls and family rules
• How Online Grooming Works — the stages and warning signs
• Report & Get Support — CEOP, NSPCC, Childline, IWF

Key guidance & partners

• Keeping Children Safe in Education (DfE) — statutory guidance for schools, updated annually.
• UK Council for Internet Safety (UKCIS) — Education for a Connected World framework.
• CEOP Thinkuknow (thinkuknow.co.uk) — free age-appropriate resources for pupils and parents.
• NSPCC Learning — online safety training for school staff.
• LGfL / SWGfL — regional broadband consortia with filtering, monitoring and e-safety training.

"Schools see children every day. You're often the first to notice. Trust your instinct — and report."