Schools are doing all they can to improve safeguarding process for children, but could we make more use of the classroom to raise awareness and build confidence around keeping safe and getting help amongst our young people themselves? Non profit 360 Skills For Life is working on just this, supported by a multi-agency partnership. With the energy crisis putting yet more pressure on families, such support is needed more than ever.
360 Safeguarding is a brand new NHS-supported classroom resource using VR. It covers age-appropriate safeguarding topics, initially for KS2/3 transition, in Skill City, an immersive virtual reality environment designed for standard web browsers with no headsets required.
This is supported by teaching plans, resources, and training, developed by experienced teachers, in partnerships with safeguarding specialists, plus a database of further support from partners. These support inspection and updated KCSiE guidelines about teaching safeguarding.
360 uses an immersive dilemma and discussion-based approach, focussing on risk awareness and collaborative decision-making, rather than rote learning.
“It’s very fun because there are multiple choices and based on your options it can go a different way.” – Caitlin, 11
"By young people working through scenarios that could be affecting their lives, it helps to improve their understanding of potential risks, consequences and ...decision making to enable them to make choices to keep safe and well". – Rosie Luce, South West Regional Safeguarding Lead at NHS England.