The Highland Council, Education, Culture and Sport Service in partnership with other services has developed an E-safety Strategy for all school communities in Highland. This has been approved by The Highland Council Education, Culture and Sport Committee on the 18th November 2008 and also by the Local Negotiating Committee for Teachers (LNCT)

Key features of the strategy relate to

Approved educational resources for use in all schools delivered on a multi-agency basis
The development of a Cyberbullying Strategy
A training programme to support the implementation of the strategy

Detailed advice on the above features will be issued to all school communities in the coming months. In the longer term all schools should include Internet Safety and Responsible Use education within the curriculum so that children and young people in Highland:

Know how to have FUN online
Know how to stay in CONTROL on the net
Know how to REPORT if they're worried.

The resources being promoted have been developed by the Child Exploitation and Online Protection centre (CEOP) through the 'Thinkuknow' initiative and have been piloted in Highland schools.

Suitable for P1 –P3 'Hector the Protector', who is a fun, friendly dolphin who with his underwater friends focus on how to keep safe online. There are accompanying stickers and posters so that Hector and his friends can be familiar characters in the classroom and home. There are 5 episodes with interactive resources that parents can use at home too.




Suitable for P4 – P7/S1 ‘CyberCafe’ a resource through which pupils can learn all about what the different types of technology are and how to use them safely. There are 11 sessions with curriculum materials to compliment the online resources.

In Secondary schools, all schools are required to deliver the 'Thinkuknow' hour presentation from S2 onwards, training is available to professionals to deliver this hard hitting resource which focuses on 'Do you know who you're talking to?'

These resources are available free of charge to professionals who are registered. Training is provided to all professionals by the E-Safety Group. A pool of trainers in Highland has been established to support schools to implement the resources. The next training session in Highland is on the 24th April 2009. Further training will be available on the ECS CPD calendar.
For further information please contact Louise Jones, Health Promoting Schools Manager or Laurence Young Senior Education Officer, Ross, Skye & Lochaber.

Check out: www.thinkuknow.co.uk