Assembly resources

Online Safety and Digital Citizenship

A complete online safety assembly for Heads of Year, with slides, script notes, practical scenarios and tutor time reflection.

Year group: KS3 focus (Year 7, 8, 9), adaptable for KS4 Best delivered: Start of year, Safer Internet Day (February), or after an online incident in school Duration: 10 minutes Tone: Respectful and matter-of-fact.

Not scaremongering.

Acknowledges that students know more about some platforms than the adults presenting.

Script notes Opening (Slide 1, 2 minutes) Start by naming the reality honestly.

Most online safety assemblies lose students immediately by talking down to them about platforms they know better than the presenter.

Don't do this. "I want to be honest with you at the start of this.

Some of you are more across TikTok, Snapchat, BeReal, Discord, and whatever launched last week than I am or ever will be.

That's fine.

What I'm going to talk about today isn't about the platforms.

It's about something that stays the same regardless of what you're using." "The same values that apply when you're standing in a corridor apply when you're online.

The same judgment that stops you saying something genuinely cruel to someone's face should stop you typing it.

The same respect you'd show in person applies in a DM.

None of that changes because there's a screen involved." Show Slide 1.

Let the image make the point.

Then: "The space is different.

The rules are not." Play your video here if using one.

The footprint (Slide 2, 1.5 minutes) Move to Slide 2 and let the line land.

Address the three things students commonly misunderstand about their online activity: "It feels less real." But the person on the receiving end of an unkind message or a screenshot feels it exactly as much as they would if you'd said it to their face.