The App

In an ever-evolving online world, keeping up to date with the latest developments, news and risks can be difficult. Finding reliable, expertly written updates can be even harder. And something that combines this with everyday schools communications near impossible! This doesn’t need to be the case! With the Safer Schools Scotland App, you can be assured that your school community will be kept well informed of the fast-paced changes of the digital sphere, as well as have the ability to access popular school platforms and communications tools.

We believe that safeguarding works best when it’s an entire school community approach – and that doesn’t just apply to knowing the latest news. We know that relaying pertinent information to parents, carers and students can be trying and time consuming. Our App includes features to help you navigate these difficulties, as well as develop easier channels of communication for things like absence reporting and safeguarding concerns. Our newest developments also include location sharing for parent’s peace of mind, as well as digital notice boards which allow you to share custom content to your school community, including newsletters, posters or your own articles.

Key features of your customised version of the Safer Schools App will include:

  • Your schools’ brand colours, logo, and up to 4 customisable carousel images
  • Integration of your school news, calendar, policies, and social media channels
  • Integration of popular educational platforms such as Glow, SumDog and Satchel:One.
  • Push Notification capability at a school and Local Authority level
  • Digital Noticeboards and custom article creation tools
  • Survey sharing
  • Anonymously report a Safeguarding Concern
  • Age appropriate signposting for safeguarding and wellbeing help
  • Safeguarding Updates, Warnings and Alerts
  • Staff CPD certified professional development courses

Our user-friendly portal provides access for schools or local authorities to send push notifications to specific user groups, or organisations. They are a great way to communicate school news and announcements, and engage your school community with online safety messages, training, surveys, and much more. Whether you want to update staff, parents/carers, or pupils – the choice is yours!

The introduction of Digital Noticeboard capabilities have been developed and designed with a ‘Safeguarding First’ philosophy. They facilitate safe one-way messaging from school staff to specific users groups, allowing the sharing of documents, photographs or text messages in a secure and private environment.

Capture the thoughts and opinions of your school community by uploading and sharing a survey through your management portal. This can be achieved with a third-party survey integration from providers such as Survey Monkey, Wufoo, and Google Forms.

Digitise your absence management procedures with absence reporting. When activated by a school, parents & carers can inform you about their child’s absence, sent straight to your designated school inbox.

For those who need added help or advice, we offer access to charities and other organisations that provide extra assistance where needed. Not only will we provide relevant links amidst the content, but the Safer Schools Scotland App is intelligent by design thanks to ‘Arti’ our in-app intelligence. He will intuitively react if a user repeatedly visits content that indicates they may be worried or scared. ‘Arti’ will prompt them with safety messages and guidance on where to seek support.
The intelligence feature complies with data minimisation requirements and does not collect personal data. ‘Arti’ only needs to differentiate whether the user is a child or adult. This ensures prompts and signposting are age specific and appropriate.

Our research and safeguarding teams monitor and respond in real time to current online trends and emerging risks to young users. We use our Prompts, Alerts, and Warnings (PAW) process to respond to concerns, threats, and dangers (e.g., the latest online challenges) by notifying users directly. We ensure your school community has access to reliable information related to online risks, alongside practical advice on how to respond effectively. There are three forms of message:

    • Regular notification relating to events, articles or awareness of a current issue
    • “Update”: This will be an update to an article, that we will send a Push Notification to
    • “Alert”: This will be a brand new article written within 24 hours of being aware of the alert.

This daily roundup of safeguarding headlines curated by our dedicated online safety experts ensures that staff are always up to date. Delivered in a bite size format directly to your App, your DSN is available in print format. For anyone preferring an audio format, our weekly podcast ‘Safeguarding Soundbites’ is also available in your notificaitions.

Online Safety content

Your Safer Schools Scotland App provides age-appropriate safeguarding information and advice, when you need it, where you need it; it’s in your pocket!
This includes access to our:

Need to Know

The Basics of Digital Safety Advice and Information: Passwords, Home Safe and Device Safe, Age Restrictions, In-App Purchases, Safe Search Filters, Translating Teens and more.

The Online World

Understanding their World, Social Media and the Law, Influencers, Fake News, Online Reporting, Events in the News, Persuasive Design and Viral Challenges.

Younger Children

Passwords, Trusted Adults, Games, TV / Video, and Safe Messaging Apps

Social Media

Understanding Social Media and Appropriate Use, Addiction and Social Media, Anonymous Messaging, Chat Apps, Decoy Apps, Disappearing Messaging, Buzzwords, and specific apps (e.g., TikTok, Instagram…)

Gaming

Risks, Privacy while gaming, Age ratings, Buzzwords, and specific games (e.g., Roblox, Fortnite and many others.)

Cyber Resilience

Malware, Cyber Security Updates and How to Report Scams.

Personal Information

Information Responsibility, Consent, Sharing, Screenshots, and Sharenting.

Health and Wellbeing

Looking after your Mental Health, Body image, Online Friendships, Healthy relationships, Information Sharing, Consent, Exam Pressure, Getting Support and more.

Image Sharing

The Law, The Facts, What You Can Do, Coercion and Extortion, and more.

Harmful Content

Understanding harmful content, deepfakes, Self-harm content, Violent, Sexualised and Extremist content and the dark web.

Bullying

Signs of bullying in and out of the classroom, reporting bullying and advice.

Immersive Experiences

Virtual Reality, The Metaverse, Replika, Deepfakes and more.

Interactive Quick Quizzes

Quick Quizzes are a fun and interactive way to test your knowledge on topics such as social media, gaming, scams and harmful content. They’re a great way to measure user’s current progress and knowledge of a topic before they take a Digital Test!

These can be taken individually, in pairs or as a group classroom activity. Families can also join in the fun, taking quizzes together at home as part of a safeguarding educational approach that extends beyond the classroom door.

Digital Tests

Our longform tests provide users with the opportunity to apply their knowledge and receive certificates of successful completion.

Those who score 75% or more receive a certificate of completion. Your Safer Schools Scotland App will keep a record of your results for each test and your mark, letting you know if you’re re-taking a test and the score to beat!

Schools can prompt users to complete learning by requesting them to take Digital Tests when needed. Test results are stored in your dedicated school Management Portal, providing an audit trail of the learning achieved for internal or external inspection.

Management Portal

Your school account administrators will have licensed access to a customised management portal to administer your App and safeguarding services. This will include the following functions: 

  • Create, send, and queue push notifications.
  • Upload and share surveys.
  • Review and export digital test results and certificates.
  • Generating group communication codes.
  • Access App entry codes.
  • Add additional administrators.
  • Update in-App customisations like images and social media
  • Create news articles to share with the School community
  • Signpost and link to additional Ecosystem services as they become available

App Benefits

For Schools

  • Communicate Announcements and news directly with the school community with Push Notification, Noticeboards and News builder functions.
  • Receive regional safeguarding information and news.
  • Gain CPD certifications with in-App training courses such as Safeguarding level 1 and 3, Mental Health Awareness and Youth Produced Imagery
  • Customise your App for your school, with your school’s branding, logos and photographs, plus integrated calendars, social media channels and more.
  • Know that your staff teams are participating in regular safeguarding training and kept up to date with current online safety risks, trends and threats.

For Parents

  • Find credible advice on contemporary issues facing families today, such as harmful content, image sharing, mental health, consent and gaming.
  • Everything is kept in one handy place right in your pocket, 24/7 – your child’s homework, safeguarding information, school updates and more.
  • Receive updates straight to your phone that will keep you informed on the latest online safeguarding news, threats, and advice.
  • Keep up to speed with the latest games, social media trends, apps, and websites that children and young people are visiting.
  • Gain practical, useable advice that you can implement easily into your family life, including how to talk about the digital world and its risks, bringing your child’s online life off the devices and into the dinner table conversation.

For Pupils

  • Find practical advice on the topics and issues that you experience both online and offline, including the latest trends, apps, games and social media platforms that you and your friends are using.
  • Find out what to do when you see something online that upsets or worries you, or when you’re struggling with an issue, including knowing who to talk to and how you can seek further support.
  • Feel empowered that your safety is in your hands, and you’re part of you school’s efforts to keep you and your friends safe on and offline.
  • Learn about the importance of keeping yourself and your information private online, including personal details, protecting your passwords and what to do if you lose control of an image online.