On Tuesday 3rd June, Childnet launched the STAR Toolkit, a new online safety resource that offers practical advice and teaching activities to help secondary schools explore internet safety with young people with autism spectrum disorders (ASD).
Educators, autism specialists, local authorities and NGOs attended the launch event in Leicester at the New Walk Museum, where they heard from Leicester's assistant city mayor about why Leicester City Council is supporting this important work.
There was a practial demonstration of three of the teaching activity ideas from the three Leicester schools who were involved in the development of the Toolkit; Nether Hall School, Ellesmere College and West Gate School.
Explaining how the Toolkit will be used in their school, a teacher at West Gate School said:
"It's not just an ASD resource, it's a special needs resource, and will be used as such within our school... It's about taking the ideas and adapting them to your own students."
Other attendees at the launch event shared their initial thoughts about the Toolkit:
“Good concrete hands on activities”
“It’s a great starting point for teachers rather than trying to think of things from scratch”
Since launching on Tuesday, the STAR Toolkit has already been visited by 2,000 people. We''ve heard incredible feedback about the need for this resource and the importance of keeping young people with autism spectrum disorders safe online. We look forward to hearing back from schools about how they have adapted and built on the resource.
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Tweet: "Check out @childnet’s new #esafety and #autism toolkit for secondary schools. It’s free online at www.childnet.com/STAR"