Northumberland ICT & eLearning

School360 Basics

Mon 14th Sept, 1.30pm & 3.30pm, online.

Are you new to School360 or need a reminder about how to manage user accounts? This quick session focuses primarily on how to generate login details, update school and user settings and where to find resources, set up your rewards and house points systems. Perfect for any school administrator or teacher taking a lead role in managing School360.

See our course guide for sessions that deep dive into resources like Canva and Busy Things.

Annual Online Safety Update

Tuesday 15th Sept, 3.45 - 4.45pm, online.

We recommend that all members of staff attend this session annually. In it, we'll cover key areas of risk and how to mitigate these. We'll then move on to cover recent trends, risks and key actions you can take as well as highlighting some new resources to ensure your team is up to date and prepared for the year ahead.

Online Safety at Home - for parents and carers

Tues 29th Sept, 3.30pm & 7.00pm - approx 40m, online.

In this session we'll be discussing what young people are getting up to online, the risks and benefits of having access to the internet, plus a range of strategies and resources that can be adopted to help support our young people to be careful, confident, discerning users of the internet. Parents and carers are able to join from the comfort of their own home via a Teams link. Or you can request the materials and deliver this yourself in school. Details here.

Cyber awareness

Tue 3rd Nov, 3.45-4.45pm, online.

This session will be delivered by Dave Tennant, a Force Specialist Cyber Protect & Prepare Officer with Northumbria Police. Dave will take us through the risks we should all be aware of and the key actions we can take to protect our personal accounts and our school network. Ensuring your team understand the risks and how they can best mitigate these is a vital part of securing your network against cyber attacks.

Follow the link below to see all courses and dates currently available for the next academic year.

Have you been in touch to reserve kit for the next academic year?

Schools in SLA1 have access to a range of kit including iPads, Microbits and Sphero Indis.

For a comprehensive list of what's available follow the link to our website listed below. Kit can be reserved for a half term of your choice dependant on availability.

Barefoot AI Explorers contains two sequenced units of learning that support pupils to explore what AI is, how it works, and how it is used in the world around them. The activities are practical, discussion‑led and linked across the curriculum, helping children build a strong foundation without requiring specialist technical knowledge from teachers.

Barefoot AI Explorers helps children become curious, critical and confident learners, ready to engage thoughtfully with the technologies shaping their futures.

What pupils will learn:

How computers can be trained to complete tasks

How feedback helps improve computer performance

How computers are trained with data

How AI can create images and text – and how this differs from human creativity

How to recognise misinformation and disinformation created using AI

Create a free Barefoot account to access these and a huge array of other computing and online safety resources.

As children transition from Primary School to Secondary, they experience many digital firsts, with many getting new devices.

Help them understand the possible risks and benefits of going online with these resources for parents, carers and teachers to use at home and in the classroom, developed by Internet Matters.

The announcement has met with mixed responses, read the articles below to better understand the potential benefits and concerns around the ban.

Under new plans, Big Tech companies like Apple and Google must activate built-in features or implement technical solutions on smartphones and tablets to detect and block nude images for children. This will prevent predators from being able to exploit and abuse victims through their devices, as well as stopping children from being able to access pornography. Adults will still be able to take, share or view nude content through an age verification process.

Read the full press release below.

In line with the DfE’s Keeping Children Safe in Education (KCSIE) statutory guidance, this document outlines responsibilities schools have regarding digital communications. It specifically addresses the emerging safeguarding risks posed by advancements in generative artificial intelligence (AI), detailing how public images of pupils and staff can be harvested to create 'deepfakes' for targeted harassment or organised exploitation.

This document is essential reading for school leaders, teachers, and any staff members responsible for managing or uploading content to public-facing school websites and social media platforms.

Most of you have now moved across to the new School360 Learning Journal app for teachers.

In the Autumn term we'll launch access for parents, this means that both teachers and parents will log into the same app going forward. The system will identify which type the user is and load the appropriate settings. The parent interface looks very different to the teacher interface, with a very simple, image focussed layout and easier navigation.

With both account types now updated to a more robust software, we can begin to roll out long anticipated features such as announcements.

For now, ensure your teaching team have access to the new app and please get in touch if you have any questions. We'll be in touch to let you know when you can move your parents across.

• Requires min iOS 15.6 on iPad / iPhone and Android 6.0
• Teachers and parents login with existing School360 details

Police Cyber alarm is being re-launched with a new provider. The service has been expanded and is now easier to install and the services available expanded.

'Police CyberAlarm is a free cyber threat detection tool funded by the Home Office and managed by the police led National Cybercrime Team. It helps to identify malicious external cyber activity against a member’s network through monitoring and vulnerability scanning.'

It continues to be free of charge as it is funded by the UK Government.

Create a free account and then follow the guidance to get started. When you're ready to update the DNS records for your school website, please submit a ticket to Digital and IT via the Hornbill system so the cloud team can action this for you.

Please get in touch to request support or reserve a place on any of our training sessions.

jennifer.harris@northumberland.gov.uk

jordan.graham@northumberland.gov.uk

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