Good practice Imported

STAR SEN toolkit

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Developed in partnership with Leicester City Council’s Building Schools for the Future Programme, Childnet’s STAR Toolkit aimed to increase the online safety knowledge of educators and empower them to support their learners to use the internet safely and positively. The Childnet

Details

Promoter: Childnet International — website
Type: Service
Status: Ended
Target groups: People with disabilities, Marginalised young people and children
Period: 2014-01-01 – 2018-12-31
Keywords: ASD, access, safety, digital tools, learning disability

Context

Autistic young people need additional support and guidance to use the internet safely given their complex needs; as technology access grows more prevalent, ensuring this group is not left behind is important.

Objectives

Increase educators' online-safety knowledge and equip them to help learners with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) use the internet safely and positively.

Activities

Developed in partnership with Leicester City Council's Building Schools for the Future Programme and three schools in Leicester, the toolkit is organised into four sections — SAFE, TRUST, ACTION and RESPECT — built around the theme of friendship and balancing online and offline interaction, addressing risks such as cyberbullying, contact by strangers, and exposure to inappropriate content. It is published free online for all UK schools, with teaching-activity ideas and a forum for educators to share feedback and materials.

Conclusions

Childnet CEO Will Gardner described the toolkit as giving 'schools the building blocks they need to develop a tailored approach to online safety for their pupils with ASD,' intended to encourage collaborative sharing of e-safety practice among educators nationally.

Implementation

Indicative cost: Low (< €50k)
Time to results: Medium (1–3 years) — Developed and piloted 2014-2018 in partnership with Leicester City Council and three Leicester schools.
Staffing & skills: Childnet International development team, Leicester City Council (Building Schools for the Future Programme), three partner schools in Leicester

Conditions for success

Piloted directly with schools (three schools in Leicester) before wider release
Published free online so any UK school can access it
An educator forum for feedback and shared materials to sustain collaborative improvement

Where it fits

Governance type: national NGO-developed resource with local-authority pilot partner
Scale: national (freely available to all UK schools)
Income level: high-income (UK)