Annual Advanced Certificate in Online Safety for DSLs & Deputy DSLs (2024-2025)

Lorna Ponambalum
Senior leader and safeguarding consultant

Course

1h 21m

Rated 5 stars

492 reviews

11 modules

Developed by Lorna Ponambalum, independent safeguarding and inclusion consultant, our brand-new online safety course for DSLs covers the latest updates from ‘Keeping children safe in education 2024’ and has been designed to provide you with the expertise and capability to effectively carry out your role and keep children and young people safe online.
CPD Certified
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Designated safeguarding leads (DSLs) should take lead responsibility for safeguarding and child protection, including online safety. They should undergo training to provide them with the knowledge and skills required to carry out the role, including the ability to understand the unique risks associated with online safety, and be confident that they have the relevant knowledge and capability required to keep children and young people safe whilst they are online at school or college. 

Developed by Lorna Ponambalum, independent safeguarding and inclusion consultant, our brand-new online safety course for DSLs covers the latest updates from ‘Keeping children safe in education 2024’ and has been designed to provide you with the expertise and capability to effectively carry out your role and keep children and young people safe online.  To make learning more exciting and enjoyable, we've recorded this course with celebrity presenter, social media influencer, and musician Myleene Klass.

Please note: This course provides AI-generated subtitles in multiple languages including English, Welsh, Arabic, German, Spanish, French, Polish, Ukrainian, Portuguese, Russian, Romanian and Chinese. To select a language, start the video and click the Closed Captioning (CC) button. 

When planning and allocating your time, please consider that this training course consists of learning through video, task completion and further reading/research. To successfully understand and achieve the objectives of the course, learners are expected to engage in all aspects of the learning process and complete all relevant activities to ensure they can successfully apply the knowledge and skills they have gained in their own school or setting.

Designed in line with the following policies:

Introduction

Developed by Lorna Ponambalum, independent safeguarding and inclusion consultant, our brand-new online safety course for DSLs covers the latest updates from ‘Keeping children safe in education 2023’ and has been designed to provide you with the expertise and capability to effectively carry out your role and keep children and young people safe online.

Module 1: Understanding the online safety landscape

This module explores the current online safety landscape including the background to online safety, key statistics reflecting online activities and online harms that children and young people may encounter, and what issues teachers, parents, and carers may face while keeping children safe online.

Module 2: Statutory guidance and legislation

This module considers the key policy documents that schools and staff need to be aware of in relation to their online safety responsibilities, and what staff should know in relation to Ofsted and how they view online safety in schools.

Module 3: Developing an online safety policy

This module focuses on the need to develop an online safety policy that will support your school’s online safety provision, taking into account how it should be drafted, how often it should be reviewed, and how to ensure it remains compliant with key legislation.

Module 4: Understanding online risks – unsafe communications

This module discusses the different types of online harms and risks associated with unsafe communications, including online relationships, fake profiles, online bullying, online grooming, child sexual exploitation (CSE), sexting, and live streaming.

Module 5: Risks of online information

This module covers the risks associated with online information and the practical steps you can take to support children around online reputation, age-inappropriate content, online fraud, financially motivated sexual extortion, fake news, targeted advertising, personal data, and the dark web.

Module 6: Children’s health, wellbeing, and lifestyle

This module provides insight on the risks to children’s health, wellbeing, and lifestyle including online and offline identities, social media and mental health, device addiction, online challenges, online gambling, radicalisation, and misogyny and the manosphere.

Module 7: Developing a culture of online safety

This module explores your role in developing a whole-school approach to online safety in schools, including a focus on reporting mechanisms, referrals, compliance promoting good practice, teaching online safety, and providing the necessary support to children and young people.

Module 8: Safeguarding remote learners

This module outlines what your responsibilities are regarding safeguarding remote learners in line with DfE requirements, including key considerations when conducting remote learning, how technology is used in both the classroom and the home, and key guidance and legislation.

Module 9: Staff use of digital technologies

This module considers your role in ensuring effective staff use of digital technologies, particularly in supporting enhanced teaching and learning, complying with relevant safeguarding requirements, and how to address the ever-increasing rise of social media.

Module 10: The role of the DSL in online safety

This module discusses what you must be aware of and understand in your role as the designated safeguarding lead (DSL), or deputy designated safeguarding lead (DDSL), including the expectations of the DSL or DDSL and your responsibilities in safeguarding children online.

Outcome 1:

Understanding how the designated safeguarding lead plays a key role in helping schools and colleges meet their online safety statutory safeguarding requirements and Ofsted expectations

Outcome 2:

Developing up-to-date knowledge and skills in order to carry out the role effectively and provide advice and support on online safety concerns

Outcome 3:

Recognising the importance of developing a whole-school or college approach to online safety and ensuring governors, senior leaders and staff receive the appropriate training

Outcome 4:

Identifying and responding to different categories of online harm and abuse, reporting safeguarding concerns and supporting children and young people

Outcome 5:

Understanding the importance of engaging parents and carers and developing and implementing policies to help build a culture of online safety

Lorna Ponambalum

Lorna Ponambalum is a strategic senior leadership education professional with over 23 years of teaching experience in inner London schools. She has served on the governing board and Senior Leadership Team (SLT) and is highly experienced as a Designated Safeguarding Lead (DSL), leading her schools to outstanding inspections for safeguarding and being recognised herself as an outstanding teacher by Ofsted.

Lorna has worked as a Mental Health Lead and the Designated LAC (Looked After Children) Teacher. She has a wealth of strategic and operational knowledge in specialist areas. She has led on and is a champion for inclusion, safeguarding, anti-bullying, attendance, behaviour, and mental health as well as being a trained mental health first aider.

Lorna has been on the SLT of two recent Ofsted inspections where the schools have been judged as ‘good with outstanding features’. She has managed large local authority (LA) safeguarding initiatives, represented on working groups, worked on self-evaluation forms (SEF) and school improvement plans (SIP) and is familiar with single central registers (SCR).

She has developed and delivered INSET and continuous professional development (CPD) training to multi-agency education professionals including teachers, pastoral and therapeutic staff as well as senior leaders. She has also managed teams and supported staff to develop and implement policy and safeguarding systems to meet quality assurance compliance cycles and standards to ensure children and young people are kept safe.