We’re delighted to share that The High School of Glasgow has been awarded the prestigious Digital Wellbeing Award from Digital Schools Scotland.
The award recognises schools supporting children to advance their digital skills while remaining safe and responsible online.
The importance of cyber safety
The Digital Wellbeing Award is a Special Recognition Award for Cyber Resilience and Internet Safety and is recognised by Education Scotland, the Scottish Government’s Child Protection Unit and Police Scotland.
It is the first initiative of its kind to be delivered in Scotland and acknowledges the risks posed by children spending an increasing amount of time online.
The High School of Glasgow was commended for its positive and supportive ethos of digital wellbeing. The High School'sleadership and vision in the area of Cyber Resilience and Internet Safety was said to be ‘clearly evident’ and ‘embedded in improvement planning, across subjects and year groups’.
Inserting digital wellbeing into school culture
The school’s commitment to embedding digital health and wellbeing across the curriculum allows for organic conversations to arise where relevant. This prevents the topic from being viewed in a silo within Personal and Social Education (PSE) classes or Computing Science.
Pupil advocacy and leadership are encouraged via the Digi-Leads Committee in the Junior School where children play a key role in supporting and interacting with their peers, acting as mentors to promote digital wellbeing across the school. A similar committee of Digital Champions is being set up at the Senior School to provide peer-led support and enable young people to manage and protect their wellbeing online.
Assessors of the award highlighted ‘the clear evidence of children [at The High School of Glasgow] being aware of the relationship between what they do in the digital world and their physical, social and emotional wellbeing as a result’.
Teaching staff are kept up to date with knowledge and training in the digital realm via Professional Development Plans, ensuring they are fully equipped to provide guidance and advice on safe digital practices.
Digital Schools Scotland Assessor, Malcolm Wilson, said: “The High School of Glasgow is clearly committed to embedding digital technologies and ensuring continuous improvement. It is quite clear that the ethos and strategies of the school have provided pupils, as well as staff and their parents and carers, with the capacity, the framework for dialogue, and the vocabulary to deal with any issues as they might arise, or indeed to pre-empt them, in a restorative approach, building in pupils an increased understanding of how actions affect others online or in-person, and how to be respectful of others.”
Mr. John O’Neill, Rector of The High School of Glasgow, said: “It is an honour to be awarded the Digital Wellbeing Award. Life today transcends the physical and digital world, and we must prepare children and young people with the knowledge, guidance, and confidence, to navigate both worlds in the safest way possible.”
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