Teachers given training about sexting

Primary school teachers are to receive training to help them better manage incidents of sexting in school.

Sessions earlier this year, attended by 60 teachers, were heavily over-subscribed so an extra workshop was set set up for this week in response to demand.

The chairman of Nottinghamshire County Council’s children and young people’s committee, Mr Philip Owen, said: “Following the success of training for secondary and special schools last autumn, when they became the first in England to receive the latest available advice, we quickly decided to extend and tailor this to the needs of primary schools.

“Sexting — exchanging self- generated sexually explicit images and messages over the internet — is an issue in most secondary schools, but we know that it has now crept into primary schools too, which is clearly worrying.

“Correspondingly, schools need to be armed with increasingly more effective strategies for preventing and managing incidents.”

Figures earlier this year showed 40% of children get a mobile phone before they leave primary school.

The same study showed young children were even more likely to be given electronic tablets, with 400,000 nationally owning one by the age of ten.

The council already works closely with schools to deliver e-safety training and support for staff and parents.

Its anti-bullying co-ordinator, Lorna Naylor, said: “Given how tech-savvy younger children have become, this obviously raises concerns about the dangers they are potentially exposed to online.

“Children can very easily share images and videos with one another sometimes quite innocently without realising the full implications.”

Making effective decisions

New advice for schools — Sexting In Schools, What To Do And How To Handle It — brings it into line with national police advice.

It aims to support schools in making effective decisions about managing incidents and when to refer them to external agencies, such as the police or social care.

The update also supports Government guidance around schools incorporating their response to incidents of sexting into their safeguarding policies.

One of the authors of the updated national advice, Charlotte Aynsley, a director at E-safety Training and Consultancy delivered this week’s training to 30 more Nottinghamshire teachers —mainly those also responsible for safeguarding and/or pastoral care at county primary schools and academies.

She said: “The training is turning the national advice into something practical for teachers in schools so that they’re able to apply it to their local context.

“This, in turn, will give them the confidence to deal with incidents in-house, if appropriate, or refer them out to local police.”