We hear from Nicola — an Assistant Head teacher working in an all-through complex needs school — about her experiences of supporting students to navigate their online lives.
Nicola Holland, is an Assistant Headteacher at Billing Brook: a Complex Needs School in Northamptonshire for children and young people aged 4-18 who have multiple diagnoses ranging from autism, ADHD and Global Developmental Delay.
Jenny is one of the Senior Subject Specialists at the PSHE Association, working closely with the Director of Education to lead the Subject Specialist team. She has a Masters in Teaching and Learning, and led PSHE education and Citizenship in two London schools, including a school with Specialist Resourced Provision for Autism.
Note: This interview transcript has been edited for readability with permission from both speakers.
This interview explores a range of approaches to online online safety through PSHE education in a Special Education Needs and Disability (SEND) setting. All settings will vary significantly and these examples demonstrate what has worked for one PSHE lead in a particular all-through, complex needs school. You will know your own setting, and the needs of your pupils best, and the suggestions shared here may not all be applicable to all settings, particularly for those working in mainstream schools.
Jenny Fox (JF)
Hi Nicola, thanks so much for joining us today. It's really interesting to hear your experiences. You're the assistant head and online safety lead at Billing Brook school. And before we dive into all of our questions, can you just tell us a bit about the context of your school and the students who attend?
Nicola Holland (NH)
Yes, of course. So we are a special needs school in Northamptonshire, and we have students who are aged four to eighteen. We're an all through school, and we have around 262 pupils on our roll, ever-increasing. About two thirds, if not more — maybe three quarters — of our students are autistic students. We have some students who have got ADHD, students who have Global Developmental Delay, students with communication difficulties and students with a whole host of multiple diagnoses. So whereas maybe previously — when I first started here, around 14 years ago now — we may have had one main diagnosis, now it's more complex, and multiple diagnoses are coming through.
We have three pathways. Pathway one and two, are very much before our subject-specific curriculum. They are students who are very much on an informal or semi-formal curriculum. And then [around] a third of our students are currently working at the subject-specific (pathway 3). So in terms of online safety, that adds a whole other category of difficulties that we can face and challenges around supporting them.
JF
Wow, absolutely! Sounds like such a wide range of needs. And, yeah, really different approaches needed for each of those young people. And I think that kind of leads us on to my next question, really, which is what led you and your school to make such a focus of online safety?
NH
Well, we identified that a lot of our students, obviously, are very vulnerable, just in the world. But [even] more so when it comes online. And there are so many pulls for our students in particular to be online. Special Educational Needs [students'] access to things such as clubs, or leisure activities, or social activities in the wider community are heavily reduced. So we find a lot of our students will go online to connect with people. They'll also go online to make friendships, and to learn about things. Because that opportunity in the physical world isn't necessarily available to them, or it's something that causes them too many anxieties; or the transitions are something that they can't cope with. So being online for them [in theory] is a lot safer. But [we know that's not] necessarily [the case], because of the other people that are online.
We identified that there were a lot of pulls for going online, and we found that there was that real need for a desire to connect. Like we've said — being able to potentially make friendships, being able to connect with people and not being judged — you know, [not] judging a book by its cover. Because, in a way, [students can] be someone else online. If they've got physical disabilities, they're not seen straight away because of their physical disabilities. They may be heard first, and then their image is shared... And it's also just that element of connection, that element of coming together over maybe an interest, a shared interest, [e.g.] they can connect over forums.
And in terms of the pandemic, so many habits have been formed about communicating online, you know... we're doing it right now... the opportunity of being able to converse over a system online. There's so many more options now because of the pandemic. And the students that we have in our school have seen that as a benefit. Which it is... You know, it's brilliant that they can then connect with people; they can have a voice; they've got a platform in which to share things; if they've not got skills in certain areas, [that's] not highlighted, for example. [My] non-speaking students can type, they can use emojis, they can actually have their voice heard in other ways. If I've got students who are illiterate and not very good at using sentences or spelling, they've got spell checker on[line]. They can use emojis, they can use memes, they can actually speak so it doesn't matter if they can't spell. Text talk is highly accepted online. So there's so many ways in which they can then be heard, they can connect with other people that actually in person they can't always do.
There's an opportunity to take things very literally online as well, which again, for a lot of our students, that is good, because they [can be] quite black and white — what is said is what is meant. Whereas in person, or in face-to-face conversations, there's a whole range of other communication strategies [at play]. And they can't always read all of those cues. So that's where we sort realised the appeal — there's so much of a pull to go online. But with that, there is a need to really upskill [students] and develop their ability to identify things that maybe aren't right online, and recognise when things aren't going very well. But also to reach out to people around them... And to sort of [help them] think, "okay, is what I'm seeing what I want to be seeing", and how can we shape that that online world for them a little bit better?
JF
Yeah, that's so interesting. So they're kind of seeing it as an emotional safety [strategy], and a way of removing those barriers that they might otherwise encounter in face-to-face communication. But yeah, of course we know, even though it may feel safer, or more of a judgement free place, there are also obviously lots of challenges and risks that face all young people when they're going online, but perhaps particularly young people with special educational needs and disabilities?
NH
I think there's so many positives of being online. And we've embraced so many of those things. You know, I've already touched on a couple of those positives in terms of the fact that they can have a connection and a voice, but also the opportunities that it brings. Like I said, it's highly accessible as well. So we don't need to be literate — pages can be read aloud to them. They can learn through videos; we know that TikTok is one of the biggest platforms for teaching, you know, so many things are learned off TikTok, whether they're right or wrong... But that is where our students will go to because it's short, it's sharp, it's quick. And in terms of ADHD, cognitive capacity overloading, actually, they can watch a short video, and they can learn — from that — a lot more [potentially] than in a whole hour webinar or a whole hour session...
Even with AI now, you've got that voice activation... that support... everything is at [students'] fingertips. If they're at home, they can ask Alexa to order things, or if they want radio put on, you know — there's so much available to them. But we've got to make sure that [along with] those positives of being online, that [students are] aware of the downfalls as well, and that they critically challenge some of it. I think with the developments in AI, we are potentially heading for a generation of non-thinkers... Because you've got a fridge that can order your milk when it's running too low. You've got Alexa that will tell you what the weather is... You can literally ask [AI] anything and it will give the answer. But how do we challenge that? How do we know that something is factual or true? Where is the critical thinking coming in? And actually, that's what we need to really instil in our students. They can go online, and we want them to go online and use all of these things. But you've got to [be able to] challenge it. [For example, thinking about some of the information on] TikTok: is it factual? Is it true? Have you cross-referenced that with other people? And have you been able to see where that evidence is coming from? So those are some of the ways in which we're trying to tackle it at school...
JF
Yeah, absolutely... And again, it's that balance, isn't it, of how empowering it must feel to have some of these tools available to them now, in a way that we couldn't use before, and [at the same time] not becoming so reliant on them for everything [to the extent that] we're not doing anything independently anymore.
NH
One of the other things that we find is — because of the need to go online, or maybe play online games, or be on those online forums — there's a lot of dysregulation that comes as a result of this. So students may be spending a lot of time outside of school or in the middle of the night, potentially, on [various forms] of technology or on the internet searching for things. And the cognitive overload that can present for them can cause a lot of dysregulation. They might not be able to then sleep because they've been exposed to a lot screen time. Or potentially they'll become emotional as a result of things that have been said or that have been happening in their [online] chat or the game that they're playing. But that trickles over into the school day. So that a lot of the time we'll have students who might come into school highly dysregulated because of things that maybe have happened outside of school. But then we [still] need to support them with that [because it's impacting them in school].
We tried building the support around limiting screen time, setting breaks, you know, movement breaks, regulation breaks... thinking about how many times you're clicking on things — are you sort of just click, click, click, click, click, click trigger happy and [therefore over]stimulated. We have a lot of students who go on YouTube [for instance]... the amount of visual information that's been presented to them... their mind is on overdrive. And so we do find that we have a lot of challenges with regards to the children's ability to regulate. We can't always be the parrot on the shoulder. And the initial desire to do things such as maybe sharing photos, sharing information, contacting someone saying that they want to meet up with them. That pull, that desire; in that moment the adrenaline and quick dopamine kick far exceeds their rational thought process — knowing that they shouldn't do those things. I can talk to all of my students, and they will be able to tell me so much with regards to online safety. And we're always so impressed with how much information they know: they know who not to talk to; they know not what not to say. But yet the next day, I know I can have 10 conversations with students who have done exactly what it is they know they shouldn't be doing...
JF
And again, it's so challenging, isn't it. Because we are really working against the tide of all of those persuasive design features that you've just been describing: the impulse control, the confirmation bias, emotional regulation. They are challenging for all of us to manage in terms of our relationship with the online world. And it's so interesting listening to the insights that you have, and how well you know your your students and the kinds of challenges that they face. Can I ask a bit more about what you do through the PSHE curriculum?
NH
Yeah, so our PSHE curriculum and our online safety curriculum sort of run very much hand-in-hand. So there are elements of our PSHE curriculum that we will focus on in terms of getting on and falling out, how we work with others, the relationships side: what is a positive relationship, what might not be such a positive relationship. But we're [also] doing a lot in terms of developing the safety side with regards to our PSHE curriculum at the moment [and we're] investing in strategies to help students to understand things like consent; things such as how they can keep themselves safe, and who they can potentially allow to do certain things or to help them with things; who they would share information with.
And then alongside that, [we're doing] a lot of work with regards to the protective behaviours as well. So recognising that everybody is has got a voice and that whatever they say, and whatever they feel is valid, and that we need to listen to that. But it also means that we can tailor lessons specifically to the different needs of our pupils. Some students might be accessing one lesson; some pupils might be accessing a slightly different lesson. So it can be tailored, depending on their ability, but all with the same umbrella theme. So that's been really supportive, in terms of that interconnection [between] what's in our PSHE curriculum, and how we supplement that with our online safety curriculum.
We've also connected with the NSPCC on their 'Building Connections' programme. So we've had a couple of students who are accessing their 'befriender' person online and actually breaking down what [it is that they're] wanting to seek out online in terms of a relationship or a communication, and breaking that down with some of our older students to think about the behaviours that they may be presenting. And I think that's been going quite well, because it's something that can be accessed week-to-week. It's done through a text messaging service on the computer, so it really appeals to pupils' [need for] interaction. They don't have to necessarily speak but they can if they want to. So there's a whole host of different strategies, but it means that we're taking note of [what their] desire is, [i.e.] the fact that they want to connect with people. But we're not saying "don't do that". We're just saying, "here's some strategies to keep you safe and then unpick it".
...I suppose that's one of the hard things. How do we cover everything in the depth that we want to, at the level that we want to? Because, as we know, for Special Educational Needs providers and schools, it isn't tailored. The materials out there are quite hard to pick and know that they're going to [meet the] needs of [our] students. And I think that's right for every school, you know, I don't think there's any school out there that would pick something off the [shelf] and deliver it verbatim. I think everybody would tweak but even more so within Special Educational Needs [because] there is a bigger gap. And so trying to make online safety, for example, or relationships and all of that accessible for students who potentially — cognitively — are working under the age of a two year old... But we know that they are able to access YouTube; they can do, you know, the cause and effect on an iPad to recognise how they get to certain websites or apps... How do we help them to know when they have seen something that is inappropriate? Or how do we know [when] to intervene? How do we know when we've got a 16 year old who potentially has taken a selfie, and it's now out there because they've just [pressed] certain buttons, but they haven't got the cognitive comprehension to recognise that that isn't okay to do, or that [the image] may now be used inappropriately, or that AI has just completely changed that image? Because you wouldn't have that conversation with a child who's under two...
JF
And so can I just ask, how do you go about managing safeguarding concerns that arise around online safety?
NH
Yeah, again, this is one that's quite tricky at all levels for us. But it's the priority, you know; it's got to be the priority of everything that we do in school... But when we have students who are obviously able to communicate to us who can tell us what's happened, who are able to bring it to our attention, or parents might bring it to our attention, and we can talk it through, we can handle that; we can really focus in on that and support them. We might be able to remove an image or we can report it. We can get involvement from services like the police or professionals who might need to do some targeted work with them. So for those pupils, who are potentially more of our pathway two / pathway three students, we can do that... brilliant. With our pathway one and lower-end pathway two students, that becomes a lot more tricky — especially for students who may be non-speaking. Because how do we allow them to make a disclosure or make a safeguarding report to us when they maybe can't verbalise it to us?
So we use a lot of communication devices in our school, and we are starting to implement a lot of communication boards at different levels, to help students to recognise core vocabulary. So [for example] if we're using the iPads in school, and maybe it stops working, it's an 'Oh, no' moment. Or maybe we see something that we don't want to see in school, that's [not] appropriate to show in school — [that's] s an 'Oh, no' moment. So that students start to recognise that they can use those communication boards in school and outside of school to sort of identify an 'Oh no' moment. So maybe they watch a video on YouTube and suddenly another pop-up comes up, and it's something that they don't like; they don't necessarily know that it's wrong, or that it's inappropriate to see, but they just don't want it on their screen. They can then use that [communication board strategy] to say, "Oh no". That already provides an element of communication to the parents [who can] say, "oh, okay, right, we've seen something that maybe we shouldn't be seeing... right, I need to get you off this or I might need to step in and put some filters in"... you know. We can then work with parents to do that.
We [have] different levels for some of those communication boards that are being trialled. So we'll have things such as "it's safe or unsafe", and different categories of words, or [they might start] to break down into phone, email, text, you know, so that they can actually communicate the method of communication or platform they're using, so that we can speak to them and bring the pieces of the puzzle all together. It's a really hard one to do because as much as we obviously want to get that information and we need to support those students, we don't want to offer a leading question... Because by giving a leading question, we're then sort of suggesting that something has happened. And actually, with disclosures, obviously, we can't do that; we need to actually give the voice of the child. But when the child doesn't necessarily have the voice, verbally, then we need to make sure that they can give it in other ways.
JF
Absolutely. Thank you. You're completely right — an incredibly challenging issue. But it's great to hear about all of the different ways that you're enabling your young people to speak to you when they need help. And it's really interesting hearing you talking about the kind of joined-up approach that you're taking across all of the different subjects that you deliver, how [you take] the starting points around relationships and consent, and then [how you apply] that to the online world. Is there anything else that Billing Brook does as part of the wider school approach? We've talked very much about what's in your curriculum, but are there other other ways that you're supporting people across the school?
NH
The students have created a series of podcasts that they have recorded alongside one of my amazing teachers, the computing lead Jo Graham. She's orchestrated opportunities for the computing options group to prepare, and comment and share the pros and cons behind a host of things that are online. They're called 'Safe surfers'. And one of the students has designed the logo — it's a penguin surfing on a wave of binary... Because, you know, you don't often see that... [laughter].
But [the podcast] is another way that we thought — not only could we then educate our students, because they will learn from each other: we can share that with our parents; we can share that with our school community; we can share it wider, you know... It's on Spotify, so people can listen to it. And actually, it just means that they're learning from the perspective of a child and of our learners. We think... if we can't learn from them — [i.e. those] who are using [these technologies on this way] — then really we are doing something wrong. So [it's about] trying to get [the students] to be more empowered to share their messages, but also to reflect on those dangers that maybe they're presented with and think of top tips that they think the [other] students would listen to, and the parents might listen to.
[We also have] videos on demand. So I've recorded, for example, using the [CEOP] '#AskTheAwkward' resource, a series of discussion training sessions/webinars and I've put those onto our school YouTube account. Parents can access that on demand. So say, at nine o'clock at night, they think, right, I want to just check in with this... They can go in. I might not be available at nine o'clock at night but [perhaps] they only have time at that point, you know — so let's make it accessible.
We also have a quick reporting tool on our school website. So actually, if parents — [in] the middle of the night — they wake up and they think, Oh, my goodness, I'm really worried about this — in terms of a child's online safety — they can go to our school website, and straight away, there is a button that says 'report online safety concern'. They fill out their name, and it sends me an email automatically, and then I can get in touch with them. So again, it's about being accessible to our school community.
JF
Yeah, gosh, absolutely. I was just about to say, I think as an adult, sometimes, you can so quickly feel left behind by the sort of developments in technology and where the new app is and whatever... But it's been so interesting to listen to some of the really innovative approaches that you're taking as a school and the kind[s] of bold steps that you're taking to make this learning accessible [and] to reach out to the wider community. I love the idea of the podcast. It sounds absolutely brilliant. I can't wait to listen to it!
NH
[Laughter] Yeah, the kids enjoy it because they're sort of like “ooh I'm famous!”.