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In this guest blog Sarah-Jane, Robert and Gerard, Partners at Keystone Law, explore the steps schools could take to address the recent allegations raised by Everyone's Invited. 

Everyone’s Invited, the website on which victims of sexual harassment, abuse and misogynistic behaviour perpetrated by their peers from schools and universities can anonymously submit their experiences, has now received and shared over 14,000 testimonies. The movement has since sparked a significant debate about a culture of sexual abuse within schools. 

While several high-profile independent schools have been named in the testimonies and exposed in the press, the testimonies come from both state and independent school pupils, ex-pupils and university students. This is clearly a complex and pervasive problem facing educational establishments across society. 

Following Everyone’s Invited going viral, Robert Halfon, chairman of the House of Commons Education Select Committee, called for an independent inquiry. The government has asked the regulator, Ofsted, to undertake an immediate review of safeguarding policies in state and independent schools. Ofsted will work to ensure there are appropriate systems in place for reporting concerns and will look at whether the guidance for schools on dealing with these types of allegation are sufficient and whether the current inspection regimes are strong enough to address concerns and promote the welfare of children. The review will conclude by end of May 2021. 

Ofsted has also announced that it will visit “a sample of schools and colleges where cases have been highlighted” and will assess how well schools respond to concerns and support their pupils. The NSPCC has also launched a helpline, the Report Abuse in Education helpline, to offer support and advice to the victims of sexual abuse in schools, including how to contact the police and report crimes, if they wish. 

This article will consider the responsibilities of schools to tackle a culture of sexual harassment and abuse and wider misogyny by peers, as raised in the recent Everyone’s Invited movement, as well as the additional responsibilities that independent schools have as charities to protect students, and outline how schools can protect their reputation whilst responding to serious allegations.

What can and should schools be doing to address the issues raised?

The difficulty for schools in investigating these allegations is that all have been raised on an anonymous basis. Some of the individuals who have submitted testimonies on Everyone’s Invited allege that they did report incidents to their school but that their complaints were not adequately addressed due to fears of reputation damage, or were passed off as ‘banter’ or as ‘part of growing up’. Other individuals did not raise concerns with their school at the time due to a fear of not being believed and/or being stigmatised by their peers for raising a complaint. 

However, given the movement’s impact and the widespread call for things to change as a priority, victims may be feeling more empowered to speak up. Schools should now be actively encouraging victims to come forward with specific allegations. Schools should communicate a zero-tolerance approach to peer-on-peer abuse by committing to formally investigate all reports and refer cases to external authorities, where appropriate. 

Victims should be reassured that they will be taken seriously and supported by their school. By talking about these issues more openly, students will hopefully feel more able to disclose their experiences. Clearly, however, schools cannot promise confidentiality in dealing with such reports. If a child is at risk of harm, is in immediate danger, or has been harmed, a referral should be made to children’s social care. 

Allegations of rape, assault by penetration and sexual assault constitute criminal offences which must be referred to the police. Parents or carers should also normally be informed unless there are compelling reasons not to. Many of the testimonies from victims refer to behaviour perpetrated outside of school premises, such as in social settings like at house parties. 

Furthermore, multiple testimonies raise allegations against pupils from different schools to those of the victims, such as neighbouring single-sex schools. The Department for Education’s advice on sexual violence and sexual harassment between children in schools and colleges makes it clear that in these circumstances the safeguarding principles and individual schools’ duties to safeguard and promote the welfare of their pupils remain the same and that appropriate information sharing and effective multi-agency working will be especially important in dealing with such allegations.

Whilst Keeping Children Safe in Education (KCSIE) requires schools to refer to peer-on-peer abuse in their safeguarding policy, schools should consider whether now would be an appropriate time to implement a separate peer-on-peer abuse policy given the prevalence of this issue. It would be advisable for schools to consult the student body, staff, the governing body or proprietor, as well as parents and carers when drawing up a peer-on-peer abuse policy. 

Policies should be transparent, clear and easy to understand by all. Clearly all staff need to be trained on the school’s policy and procedures with regard to peer-on-peer abuse (this is required by KCSIE) but students and parents should also receive training on the policy in order to understand what constitutes peer-on-peer abuse and to be able to detect when a child might be the victim of peer-on-peer abuse or, conversely, might be displaying inappropriate behaviours. Pupils should be made aware of the process to follow to raise a concern and how any reports will be handled by the school.

Schools should also review their behaviour policy and ensure that it clearly states the values and standards of conduct expected from its students. This should be recommunicated to students and they should receive training on acceptable and unacceptable conduct and behaviour. 

Safeguarding and child protection should be a recurrent theme running through schools’ policies and procedures and schools should ensure that the behaviour policy, safeguarding policy and peeron-peer abuse policy all appropriately cross-refer to each other.

In addition to having regard to the statutory guidance in KCSIE and Working Together to Safeguard Children, schools should also be mindful of their wider legal responsibilities, including their obligations under the Human Rights Act 1998 (“HRA”) and the Equality Act 2010. 

Being subjected to sexual violence or sexual harassment may breach Article 3 HRA (the right to freedom from inhuman and degrading treatment), Article 8 HRA (the right to respect for private and family life, which includes a duty to protect individuals’ physical and psychological integrity) and Protocol 1, Article 2 HRA (the right to an effective education). 

Schools should also have regard to their obligations under the Equality Act to ensure that pupils are not discriminated against because of their sex or sexual orientation.

Schools should also review their provision of Relationship and Sex Education (RSE) and Personal Social Health and Economic education (PSHE) to ensure that it sufficiently covers and deals with all of the issues raised by this debate. 

RSE and PSHE programmes should encourage healthy and respectful relationships and challenge attitudes that can grow into disrespect and sexual violence in open discussion forums. They should cover issues of consent, coercion, pornography and stereotyping, as well as misogynistic behaviour.

Schools could also provide active bystander training for pupils to give them the confidence to call out inappropriate behaviour that they witness from their peers. The Active Bystander Training Company runs training programmes for 11- to 18-year-olds at independent and state schools. 

The training is highly user-friendly and covers techniques on how to keep a cool head in a challenging situation and assertive language to use to challenge or respond to poor behaviours when they occur. Each student who attends the training receives an Active Bystander toolkit which sits on their mobile phone as a quick and easy reference if they need an on-the-spot reminder of the techniques they learned in the session.

What additional responsibilities do Independent Schools have as charities?

In the event of allegations of wrongdoing or a serious incident, it is possible that the Charity Commission could open a class inquiry under the Charities Act 2011, so it is important that schools take this issue extremely seriously. There are some steps that schools can take to, in effect, self-regulate from a charity law and regulation perspective and thereby prevent the Charity Commission opening a potentially very damaging class inquiry. 

These self-regulation measures include reporting issues to the Charity Commission with a view to receiving their advice. Self-reporting is a development in charity regulation by the Charity Commission in recent years which transfers regulation and reporting onto charity trustees. This has, not surprisingly, coincided with cutbacks at the Charity Commission, at a time when the role of charities has been expanding.

The key to imposing these extra burdens on charity trustees is the Charity Commission’s use of section 60 of the Charities Act 2011 to ask questions. This statutory provision makes it a criminal offence for a person to knowingly or recklessly provide the Charity Commission with information which is false or misleading. The offence is wide enough to cover withholding information. The offence could potentially lead to a maximum fine or two years’ imprisonment. It is a sobering thought. 

When the charity trustees complete their annual return, they will see that section 60 is cited and they are warned that a failure to properly answer the questions set could lead to a prosecution under that section. At the same time, the annual return has been expanded to ask more questions, such as whether there have been any serious incidents and questions about overseas funding, staff salaries, safeguarding of children and vulnerable adults, grant funding from government, whether trustees have resigned and then been appointed as staff, and whether any charity trustees are directors of a trading subsidiary. 

All these questions have potential regulatory consequences depending on how they are answered. Although serious incident reporting is not a legal requirement, it becomes one when charity trustees complete the annual return and have to answer the question about whether there have been any serious incidents during the year which have not been reported under the obligation imposed by section 60. 

What is classified as a serious incident?

According to the Commission, a serious incident is an adverse event, whether actual or alleged, which results in, or risks, one or more of the following:

significant harm to a charity’s beneficiaries, staff, volunteers or others who come into contact with the charity through its work;

harm to a charity’s work or reputation. 

Prompt, full and frank disclosure of an alleged serious incident and how the charity’s trustees are dealing with it must be reported. Harm to a charity’s work or reputation is extremely wide and captures most situations, including the issues discussed in this article. It is better to err on the side of reporting to be on the safe side and avoid the risk of failing to report. 

Also, the Charity Commission has told practitioners that when considering potential liability, it will consider whether trustees have filed a serious incident report. Reports that indicate individuals are at risk or there is risk of serious harm to a charity’s work will be prioritised by the Commission, as well as situations where trustees require advice and guidance on how to deal with the incident.

The duty for Auditors and Independent Examiners to report incidents to the Charity Commission

Auditors and independent examiners acting for charities are also under a duty to report such incidents to the Charity Commission under section 156 of the Charities Act 2011, where they become aware of a matter of material significance to the Commission or have reasonable cause to believe an incident is likely to be relevant to the Commission. 

In a review of audit reporting under the section 156 duty in February 2018, it was found that only 28 reports were submitted out of 114 audit opinions containing information that should have been reported. In April 2020, the Charity Commission released updated guidance to independent examiners and auditors on this reporting requirement and announced that it will be carrying out an ongoing review of all independent examination reports or audit opinions signed after May 2020 which contain a qualification, modified opinion or other reporting paragraph to confirm that a report of a matter of material significance has been promptly filed at the Charity Commission.

There is obviously an overlap between serious incidents and matters of material significance and both reporting obligations should be considered together. The Charity Commission’s increased focus on this area and published statistics suggests there has been under-reporting which will no longer be tolerated by the Charity Commission.

The need for a Charity Governance Code for Schools

In addition to self-reporting, Everyone’s Invited highlights the need for there to be a Charity Governance Code for sub-sectors of the charity sector, such as schools. At the moment, the guidance within the Code is too generic and the only allowance that is made for different charities is for larger and smaller charities. 

Given that the Code’s purpose is to improve governance and prevent problems from happening, this is an important area where the Charity Commission could help to support this part of the charity sector. Although the Code is not mandatory, there is an expectation that reference should be made to it in the charity’s annual report. 

If a code could be agreed by the education sector, then this could lead to members of various umbrella groups such as the Independent Bursars Association providing a kitemark for adopting such a code and encouraging a prevention culture amongst schools.

How can schools protect their reputation whilst responding to serious allegations?

Several high-profile independent schools were named in the testimonies submitted to the Everyone’s Invited website, attracting significant media attention for those institutions. However serious allegations concerning a school may be, it is vital for the school to be prepared to respond to media enquiries, whether local or national. 

A failure to respond or a response of “no comment” in the present circumstances is likely to be extremely harmful to a school’s reputation. A non-response may suggest that the allegations are true, alternatively, that the school has a problem which it is unable to deal with. 

Schools recently in the public spotlight have generally responded in a suitable manner by issuing a statement recognising the seriousness of the allegations being made, committing to investigating them and taking all necessary actions to deal with the allegations and achieve the necessary culture change. 

A pre-prepared statement of this kind is probably the best that can be given in the circumstances, but it does give the school the opportunity to be seen to be taking the matter with sufficient seriousness and being committed to taking the necessary steps. The media will likely publish the allegations that it intends to publish but a short, well-constructed response is also likely to be published in the same article or broadcast and may redress the balance to some extent. 

All media enquiries should, as far as possible, be referred to a nominated spokesperson. That person should be prepared to issue the agreed-upon statement on behalf of the school and deal with non-controversial questions. Approaches from the media can come either over the telephone or in writing. 

If a media approach is made by phone, it is recommended that the journalist is told that questions will not be responded to over the telephone but he or she should put their enquiries in writing so that they can be considered in good time and properly responded to. It is possible that this may then lead to non-follow-up. If not, a deadline to respond will inevitably be given but there is no absolute necessity for that deadline to be adhered to. 

All media, whether broadcast or published, act in accordance with a code of conduct which requires that where serious allegations are made, the party against whom the allegations are made must be given a fair opportunity to respond and that response should be published. 

Dependent on the circumstances, and perhaps unlikely at present, named individuals, governors, teachers and other such persons within the education system can threaten to sue and, if necessary, can sue for defamation in respect of any allegations which may be or are published or broadcast which are false and cause serious harm to that individual’s reputation. 

In the case of most independent schools, a claim in defamation may be brought in respect of false and seriously harmful allegations which cause or are likely to cause financial loss to the school. Even if allegations published do not meet the necessary “serious harm to reputation test” for defamation, any untrue or misleading allegation or statement published or broadcast can form part of the school’s permanent record, in particular on the internet, and so should be corrected as far as possible through approaching the media concerned. 

The relevant code of conduct for broadcast and published media again requires that care is taken not to publish inaccurate or misleading information and a significant inaccuracy or misleading statement should be corrected promptly.

This article is for general information purposes only and does not constitute legal or professional advice. It should not be used as a substitute for legal advice relating to your particular circumstances. Please note that the law may have changed since the date of this article. © Keystone Law Ltd. April 2021. For more information visit Keystone Law.

The above article was written and released by the team at Keystone Law on the 16th of April 2021 at this source and we thank them for allowing us to share this as a guest blog article with our readership. 

Should your school or trust be interested in hearing more about SCR Tracker, the leading market solution for online single central record management, please do contact us today at sales@scrtracker.com or 020 3743 8843, to hear how we can assist you with your SCR processes and any challenges that you're currently facing in your recruitment processes.

What steps should schools be taking to address the recent allegations raised by Everyone's Invited?

The Department for Education published two case studies on flexible working solutions in trusts and schools on the 12th of May 2021. Below are the findings from two case studies: the first from United Learning with insights from High Hazels Academy, Shoreham Academy and Guildford High School, and a second case study from Reach2 Academy Trust's White Meadows Primary School.

Schools group United Learning has taken a trust-wide approach to designing and delivering innovative flexible working solutions.

United Learning is a large group of schools with over 80 primary and secondary schools across the UK, predominately academy schools and a smaller number of independent schools.

Part-time rates for teachers across the trust are similar to national averages, but vary greatly from school to school, with some schools taking a more proactive approach than others.

United Learning’s leadership sees a role for their trust in addressing recruitment and retention challenges. They are specifically working to attract and keep high quality teachers, as well as increase numbers of teachers in subjects where graduates are in high demand.

Additionally, the trust is keen to ensure that it is an inclusive employer with a diverse employee body, a minimal gender pay gap and a set of working practices which work for all.

In 2018, the trust’s leaders carried out a strategic planning exercise which identified that flexible working could address both these issues. As a result, they sought to improve the understanding and implementation of flexible working across the trust, through a 2-stage project.

From the end of 2018 to spring 2019, the trust carried out a review of policies and guidance related to flexible working across the group. This included:

rewriting the trust’s flexible working policy, highlighting the role of informal dialogue and proactive leadership to inform decisions and move away from a request-response model

new tools and guidance for leaders and staff on how to plan and discuss flexible working options

training for the HR team, carried out by Timewise, providing the skills needed to support and drive conversations about flexible working

sharing of best practice across the trust, including video case studies from headteachers with a good record for enabling flexible working, and a discussion led by a school with a high proportion of flexibly-employed staff

Starting in October 2019, United Learning launched a research project with 7 volunteer schools which demonstrated positive attitudes towards flexible working. This included:

an introductory meeting to bring the schools’ leaders and HR teams together, encouraging inter-school dialogue and sharing of best practice

training and workshops for headteachers, delivered by Timewise, including a focus on the role of job design and how to use it successfully

in-depth training on adapting the timetabling process to incorporate flexible working, including a practical ‘how to’ session delivered by a school which excels in this area

Progress was then reviewed and priorities set for the next steps in January 2020. Areas for further exploration included:

building flexible working into recruitment plans

creating a more systematic approach to staff consultation

exploring how to consolidate planning, preparation and assessment time to allow remote working

scheduling of meetings and pastoral time to support staggered start and finish times.

The COVID-19 pandemic began midway through stage 2. The unexpected challenge of providing distanced teaching and learning for pupils put some of United Learning’s plans on hold.

However, the move to remote education for many pupils also created an opportunity for schools to explore the techniques and technology required to make remote schooling – and remote working – work. The experience also removed some of the perceived barriers, and highlighted other possibilities, such as using IT to allow remote access to team meetings.

United Learning and its member schools will be incorporating what they have learned into their post-COVID-19 strategic planning.

Examples of good practice in United Learning schools

High Hazels Academy, a primary school in Sheffield, has undergone a transformation as a result of implementing flexible working. With staff turnover above trust and national averages, the school’s leadership team undertook a programme of initiatives, including mentoring, continuing professional development (CPD), succession planning and flexible working.

Having actively engaged with United Learning’s guidance on flexible working, and taken part in the training and support they were offered, the school’s leaders have been able to increase opportunities for flexible working across all staff groups.

They are now taking an even more proactive step by recruiting new staff on a flexible basis. This, in turn, has increased the school’s diversity and improved the inclusion and well-being of staff.

The school’s headteacher, Asma Maqsood-Shah, believes that strong communication has been central to the success of their new flexible working strategy. She has built in a system for 2-way feedback around every aspect of the school, so that the senior leadership team can be clear about the impact on staff.

Following the new approach, part-time teacher rates are now higher than the national average and, according to the annual staff survey, engagement has increased from 68% in 2017 to 89% in 2019. Voluntary staff turnover rates have reduced significantly in the same timeframe, dropping from 12.2% to 2.5% in 2019 for Key Stage 1, and from 10.9% to 4.9% for Key Stage 2, and recruitment costs have reduced accordingly.

Only 2 years ago, the school needed to recruit between 6 and 8 teachers a year. in 2020 just 2 new teachers have been needed.

Faced with a high proportion of teaching staff who were approaching retirement, the senior leadership team at Shoreham Academy have taken a proactive approach. They have actively encouraged those who were considering stepping down to opt for phased retirement, which allows them to continue working in a part-time role and draw part of their pension. This has helped the school to retain these teachers’ experience and skills, and support their wellbeing, whilst simultaneously reducing budget costs.

Flexible working is now available to all staff, at every level, and the school’s leaders are rarely unable to meet a staff member’s needs. Part-time teacher rates are above the national average, and informal flexibility is also treated positively, with staff members willing and able to cover for each other when needed.

From September 2020, the school’s vice principal will be working 3 days per week, passing on some responsibilities to the assistant principal. This will in turn support the assistant principal’s CPD and the school’s succession planning.

Guildford High School’s approach is driven by the headteacher’s belief that outstanding schools are built on outstanding teachers, and that retaining them is a clear priority. Under her leadership, the timetabling process is not based on part-timers working a specific number of days, but instead on the days they wish to be in school. Their contracts are built around timetabling software. Teachers are given clear expectations about what is possible, so that everyone knows where they stand.

For example, it is understood that part-time core subject teachers will have to be in school across 4 days each week. Teachers in other subjects may be able to consolidate their teaching time together and so have fewer days on site. Additionally, if they are willing to teach a limited number of year groups, they may be able to reduce their role even further. For example, a science teacher was able to create a one-day-per-week pattern by opting to teach only biology to pupils in years 7 to 9.

As a result of this experience in implementing flexible working, as well as a proactive approach to technology, the impact of COVID-19 was less disruptive than it might otherwise have been. The school used Microsoft Teams to deliver remote lessons during lockdown, and was able to support other schools with their virtual provision.

The experience has reaffirmed the headteacher’s view that flexibility enables rather than hinders outstanding teaching. She also believes it has opened up more opportunities for flexible working.

In addition to the case studies noted above, and despite the impact of COVID-19, United Learning is already seeing a range of benefits from their flexible working project, at a trust-wide level.

Schools with high rates of part-time staff are reporting improved retention of talent and more efficient staffing costs, and the teacher turnover rate is declining across the trust as a whole. The trust’s HR business partners also report that the new policy is facilitating more positive and constructive outcomes for flexible working requests across all schools.

High Hazels Academy headteacher Asma Maqsood-Shah says,

"Despite previously being anti-flexible working, I am now a passionate advocate. It has made such a difference to retention and morale and, ultimately, to the children."

Additionally, the gender pay gap for United Learning Academy schools is reducing, and analysis by the trust suggests that greater flexible working for school leaders and teachers is a factor. Data from United Learning’s Gender Pay Gap Report 2019 suggests that there is a correlation between the reduction in the pay gap and an increase in flexible working in the workforce overall, for teachers and for women in senior roles.

The trust has put in place a range of mechanisms to continue sharing learnings and good practice, including case studies, a dedicated information area on the intranet, and training for HR business partners and school HR staff. A new recruitment and retention best practice handbook is currently in development.

Case study 2: White Meadows Primary School

White Meadows has used flexible working to recruit and keep high-calibre staff, supporting their path from special measures to a good Ofsted rating.

White Meadows is a 3-form entry community primary school based in Littlehampton, in one of the most deprived parts of West Sussex. The infant and junior schools were amalgamated in 2011, at which point they were both in special measures. It currently has just under 100 teaching and support staff.

While the shortage of teaching staff has been a national issue for many years, recruitment and retention is more difficult for schools in deprived areas. Additionally, a legacy of being in special measures makes the situation more difficult, even when a school is starting to improve. This is a challenge which the leaders at White Meadows have sought to tackle through their flexible working strategy.

Over the last 8 years, leaders at White Meadows have used flexible working to attract and keep a group of passionate, resilient teachers who relish the challenges of their roles and are prepared to go the extra mile to support their pupils.

The drive for flexible working was initially led by the school’s headteacher (now its executive head), who set out to create a culture in which people’s lives did not take second place to their jobs. In practice, this meant taking the approach that they would try to accommodate flexible working requests, for whatever reason.

The school’s leadership team openly champions flexible working, the current headteacher worked a 4-day week in her previous role as the school’s deputy headteacher. As a result, staff are confident that they can be honest about their need for flexible working.

Staff who are due to take maternity leave are asked about their return plans before they go, giving the school time to work out the best way to accommodate their wishes. Flexible staff are celebrated, not tolerated. Candidates are told about the flexible approach during their tours of the school.

Leaders work hard to match part-time roles and partnerships with staff needs and personalities, as well as the needs of pupils.

Leaders are open about how the school benefits from flexible working. For example, they are positive with staff and parents about how job shares provide a ‘fresh’ teacher part-way through the week, as well as providing some pupils with a mid-week chance to start again. As a result, parents are generally supportive.

Making the most of staff members’ outside interests

One part-time teacher runs the education unit in a local museum for the rest of her working week. The school has built strong links with the museum as a result and asked the teacher to use her experience to write the school’s history curriculum.

Leaders are careful not to assume that staff will work outside of their part-time arrangements, for example, if staff attend inset days on their scheduled day off, they are given the time back. Staff are allocated 3 days personal leave to allow them to attend their own children’s school events or take care of other personal priorities.

Leaders have noted a number of ways in which COVID-19 has changed working practices for the better.

As the school is part of a national academy trust (Reach2), leaders and staff were previously required to travel around the country for trust-wide meetings. These have been moved online, which benefits both staff and budgets, and will hopefully continue to some degree.

The school has embraced technology during lockdown, using a platform called SeeSaw to set work and engage with pupils (for example, posting videos of the nursery teacher reading stories online). They will continue to use SeeSaw to set homework and believe this technology could also support teachers’ ability to work remotely in the future.

The school’s positive approach to flexible working means that it is no longer seen as something just for staff members who are parents, and has resulted in a number of interesting developments. For example:

there are currently 3 job share partnerships, including the year 1 team leaders

a number of staff work part-time in a role designed to cover colleagues’ planning, preparation and assessment time

2 year 6 teachers don’t have a class of their own, but instead work a 0.6 contract spread across 5 mornings, taking smaller groups, set by ability, for further stretch and challenge

2 higher-level teaching assistants are working part-time while they study for university degrees

Staff retention has increased, with the number of leavers dropping from 16 in 2015 to 8 in 2018 and just 3 in 2019. Anecdotally, the improved well-being of the staff body has also been noted.

"Teachers and school support staff tend to be caring, family-oriented, values-driven people, they wouldn’t choose this profession otherwise. So it’s important that school leaders allow them to provide the same care and attention for their own families and personal lives as they do for their pupils. Flexible working allows our brilliant staff to balance the challenges of their role with the rest of their lives, and we benefit from this as much as they do. It’s simple, really, if you keep your staff happy, they will stay."

The above article was written and released by The Department for Education on the 12th of May 2021, on the following sources: Case study one, Case study two. 

Should you be interested in hearing more about SCR Tracker, the leading market solution for online single central record management, please do contact us today at sales@scrtracker.com or 020 3743 8843, to hear how we can assist you with your SCR processes and any challenges that you're currently facing in your recruitment processes.

Department for Education: Case studies in flexible working solutions

The pandemic has drastically changed the way education is being delivered worldwide. For a large part of the last year, through various lockdowns, we have inhabited a world where being safe equates with being socially distant, quarantined, and connected only virtually. 

In the process, we have embraced newer models of education dissemination, battled major safeguarding risks, and accounted for the psychological as well as the overall long-term impact of the pandemic on children. 

The bottom line is that this transition to either a hybrid or a remote learning model has come with a fair share of challenges. As a result, the school authorities have to stay vigilant, constantly. 

As we enter the next phase, we want to be ready for, and ahead of, any challenges that might arise. When we first made the transition, it was done in haste, so we worked with imperfect systems, where a plethora of safeguarding concerns raised alarm. 

Now, all school authorities and other education stakeholders wish to implement a system that is well-thought-out and tested for any safeguarding loopholes. In tandem with this goal, the Department of Education (DfE) has mandated the implementation of a secure remote learning plan by September this year. 

This plan would take into account challenges faced in educational settings related to cybersecurity best practices, equity and access, and psychological concerns. This brings the issue of cyber safety to the centre stage. As EdTech is developing exponentially, it is more important than ever to liaise with National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) and develop a foolproof structure where 

b) mitigation directives are in place if such attacks occur despite these guardrails present.

New Learning Models, New Cybersecurity Challenges

In order to fully appreciate the need for a remote learning plan and implement a safeguarding infrastructure around it, it is important to understand the challenges posed by the remote model in nuanced depth. 

The NSCS has issued warnings as well advisories in regards to the increased ransomware attacks in the education sector. In a fairly recent ransomware attack, 37000 children were unable to access their email. Since we moved to the remote mode of learning and working, hacking incidents have been on the rise: the Cyber Security Breaches Survey 2020 found a total of 54% identified breaches or attacks at least once a week for secondary schools. 

In addition to the traditional forms of cyber attacks, we also witnessed novel security breaches in the form of “zoom bombing” whereby an uninvited user accesses a private video call. In an educational setting, zoom bombing has posed several threats: 

Invasion of privacy of everyone in the video chatroom/call,

Distraction from or disruption in the lessons, and 

Exposure to inappropriate materials or sights.

Phishing — the fraudulent practice of masquerading as a person/company of repute in order to acquire sensitive information — was rampant too. 

When we first implemented a remote learning structure, it was out of urgency and uncertainty. We knew very little about the virus and how it would impact our lives. Going forward, however, we can predict with a certain degree of certainty, what precautions and safeguards we need in place to ensure a safe remote learning environment. The Chief Information Security Officer of XYPRO and Cybersecurity Expert Steve Tcherchian shares, 

“Cybersecurity awareness needs to be part of any remote learning plan. This needs to start with teachers and administrators. There is usually a huge tradeoff between security and functionality. Unfortunately, with the rush to implement this, security may have been an afterthought.” 

“Unfortunately, criminals know that and will capitalise on that. One of the biggest immediate threats to remote learning is ransomware, meeting hijacking and email compromise. These don’t take a lot of effort given the current landscape.”

So, how do we ensure that the remote learning programmes are not laden with security vulnerabilities still? That’s the answer this action plan seeks to provide. 

A robust remote learning plan would account for the safety of children online, data protection and privacy shields, access to educational resources without endangerment or mental distress. Here are a few areas that need to be considered in the creation of this plan.

Legislations to be referred & abided by 

The plan should give due regard to all relevant legislation and statutory guidance including, but not limited to, the following:  

Equality Act 2010  Education Act 2004  

The General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR)  

The Reporting of Injuries, Diseases and Dangerous Occurrences Regulations 2013  

DfE (2019) ‘Keeping children safe in education’  

DfE (2017) ‘Special educational needs and disability code of practice: 0 to 25 years’  

DfE (2018) ‘Health and safety: responsibilities and duties for schools’  

DfE (2018) ‘Health and safety for school children’  

DfE (2016) ‘Children missing education’  

DfE (2020) ‘Safeguarding and remote education during coronavirus (COVID-19)’  

DfE (2020) ‘Adapting teaching practice for remote education’  

DfE (2020) ‘Guidance for full opening: schools’

Measures and tools to be included in a secure remote learning plan

For teachers, who are directly organising and scheduling the classes, it is important to have a checklist of precautionary and security measures handy. According to Tcherchian, measures on this checklist should include: password protecting your zoom meetings, using complicated passwords, creating accounts for children’s emails, Chromebooks, etc with stronger passwords that aren’t set to their name. He also suggests the admin not to share passwords and account details in public documents, and to add another layer of security, make sure the user is forced to change the password upon signing on. 

Some remote learning applications can have security vulnerabilities and leakage threats due to mobile device permissions. Our advice to mitigate this would be to firstly start with an initial audit of your information systems. Standard controls should include intrusion detection and prevention, firewall protection, content filtering, email security, antivirus software, and data loss prevention. 

The approach of network segmentation, i.e. creation of separate network segments for students, staff, and confidential data can help protect the other segments in case of an attack on one segment. A safeguarding perspective would also mean following the “least privilege” policy. According to this, you will provide tiered access to various segments/users, with no user having access to more dashboards or files than they need to. With each tier, the security settings can get tougher & prevent any attacker from escalating to the more sensitive data. 

Rahul Mahna, Managing Director of Managed Security Services at EisnerAmper’s Process, Risk and Technology Solutions points out,

“Cameras also come to mind. Most students are using Chromebooks that have integrated cameras. Those cameras are often integrated and not easily controlled by the student. In the case of a hacker getting access to the camera, we suggest that when the student is not working in an online classroom to block the camera lenses with something simple, such as tape. The other precaution is the location in the house in which the student does his/her learning. The camera is picking up items behind the student, such as household items and other personal items that could identify that particular student or his/her family, and then used by hackers for password clues to any number of that family’s devices.”

School managers could also consider an ongoing monitoring framework. This will help analyse logs for unusual activity that could indicate an attack or a potential data breach. “Moving forward, our team does see more shift to Chromebooks that are easily remotely controlled, provisioned and secured through various cloud security software offerings that assist both the school and student,” Mahna adds.

Furthermore, a single sign-on feature across all accounts within an educational institution can be useful to combat breaches. This is because a single sign-on makes it easier for users to create and maintain unique and complex passwords for logging in. This way they stay more protected across more accounts.

Finally, ensuring two-factor authentication (2FA) or multi-factor authentication (MFA) also allows you to add an extra layer of security to your accounts, using an authenticator app to prove user identity. For example, the SCR Tracker software provides MFA capability to further protect your organisation's single central record.

Not all children have the same accessibility and affordability for the remote learning infrastructure, specifically the devices and internet. According to Ofcom, children from financially vulnerable households were 89% likely to have access to a desktop or laptop as against 98% in the least financially vulnerable homes.

If children use unsafe devices or open/public connections, it might jeopardise their safety as well as that of the school systems. Therefore, it becomes extremely important to address equity from a safeguarding perspective: when children from less privileged backgrounds find it harder to access a suitable device, they miss out on schoolwork or synchronous lectures/classes. Sharing a device with other family members can also make it harder for them to take extra measures for security. Hence, equity becomes a safeguarding concern. 

Overall, it is recommended to use all measures listed above, but the final implementation of a secure framework ultimately also needs in-built education around it, and will only fully succeed when the staff and administrators are well-trained and aware of the risks, threats, and solutions. Schools are suggested to host cybersecurity training and awareness sessions for staff regularly, with updates on newer technological threats as well as the use of protective tools. 

Devising a secure remote learning plan to fortify against cyber risks

A series of conversations with students since 2018 about different forms of peer-on-peer abuse provides the first-hand context and a strong foundation for the guidance in this post.

We have outlined ways that schools and universities can prevent and respond to this form of harm, specifically looking at some of the challenges and strengths facing institutions that serve geographically mobile and culturally diverse student bodies. We’ve also been careful to reflect on the Coronavirus, anti-racism and diversity and how these may also have an impact on peer-on-peer abuse. 

We hope that the information and links to resources will help to support you in your roles as you work to protect students. 

Content Warning: This article contains information about sexual violence that might be triggering for some. The article might also make you reflect on personal or professional issues, which may be upsetting. If you would like to speak to someone after reading this article, we would encourage you to talk to friends or family members, or to talk to a counsellor. You can also call a mental health helpline or a trusted child helpline in your country, and they can point you in the direction of further support if necessary.

Peer-on-peer abuse is the ‘physical, sexual, emotional and financial abuse, and coercive control, exercised within young people’s relationships, including their intimate relationships, friendships and wider peer associations.’[1]  

Students from multiple countries and diverse cultural contexts have spoken about their experiences of peer-on-peer abuse including:

Being blackmailed to engage in sexual activities

Being threatened by knife point in the locker rooms and bathrooms

Having sexual images taken of them without their consent

The rape of students, including on campus, at parties and on trips

Being excluded from social groups because of where they come from or the languages that they speak, or don’t speak

Having rumours and ‘gossip’ spread about them and other students

Figure two: students’ experiences of peer-on-peer abuse in a school setting.[2]

Here are some actions you can take to prevent and identify peer-on-peer abuse at an early stage.

1.   Ensure that your policies address all forms of peer-on-peer abuse

Young people often experience multiple forms of harm that can intersect and overlap with each other. Having policies that address all forms of peer-on-peer abuse can be helpful. We have heard from counsellors, whose schools only had an anti-bullying policy in place, that they were ill-equipped to respond when other forms of harm occurred.

2.   Provide on-going education that enables students to identify and report harm

Providing ongoing, evidence-based social emotional skills and prevention education, tailored appropriately to the audience, is critical to helping students identify and report peer-on-peer abuse.[3] We have heard from a survivor of peer-on-peer abuse that no one had ever spoken to her about different types of harm before her abuse, which meant that she didn’t have a framework to understand what was happening to her, or a language to describe it. As she explained:

"Too many children and adolescents suffer these things in silence. After the most severe rape incident I found myself searching Google looking for the right word. It wasn’t a male, so could it really be rape? Sexual assault was too vague and didn’t encompass the actual act. But this was a peer so could it even be child abuse? It is important to me to keep telling this story so that the next teenager to go through this at least knows how to talk about it and has someone who will listen."

Rather than leading with the message ”it’s wrong to send a photo of yourself to others”, focus on the abusive and harmful aspects of image sharing. For example, that it’s wrong to put pressure on another person to send images of themselves, and to share any images of others.

"They teach you not to send images in the first place. So, if your photo gets shared around, you’re not going to speak to a teacher because they are the ones that told you not to send it” —Student engagement session on sexting, 2019.

3.   Identify and address the risks presented by the Coronavirus, and build on any protective factors that might have emerged

We are still learning about the impact of the Coronavirus on young people’s experiences of peer-on-peer abuse. Many organisations have issued warnings that with more young people online more often and for more time, the exposure to online risk is likely to be increased (UNICEF, NCA-CEOP, NSPCC, IWF, Europol).[4]

Our conversations with counsellors over the past few months indicate that some students are reporting less peer pressure and bullying, and increased time for self-reflection. A key question for schools and universities will be to ascertain what protective factors may have emerged during lockdown, and how these can be carried forwards as campuses start to reopen.

4.   Embed values of equity, diversity and inclusion throughout your institution

Inequalities and discrimination provide fertile breeding grounds for peer-on-peer abuse. We know that socio-economic inequality within a school can increase bullying rates, that young people experience peer-on-peer abuse in gendered ways, and that racial or ethnic minority status can be a risk factor for peer victimisation.[5]