Nottinghamshire rolls out ‘sexting’ training for teachers

Nottinghamshire County Council will be the first in England to train teachers in how to deal with ‘sexting’ incidents in schools.

Lorna Naylor, anti-bullying co-ordinator for the council, has said that sexting - exchanging self-generated sexually explicit images and messages over text, social media or webcam - is a ‘major issue’ in most secondary schools and is creeping into primary schools as well.

The new training aims to put teachers ‘at the forefront of knowledge for this important area’ and will support schools in making effective decisions about how to manage incidents of sexting and when to refer them to external agencies like the police or social care.

Charlotte Aynsley, director at E-safety Training and Consultancy, who will be delivering the training to over 50 Nottinghamshire teachers, said: “It’s great that Nottinghamshire is the first to receive specific training on this very important issue.

“As this new advice developed, I spoke to many schools which were struggling to manage these incidents. I also spoke to the local police and the Multi-agency Safeguarding Hub in Nottinghamshire to ensure that the training is reflective of the local area and that we can support teachers and schools in dealing with these incidents.

“The training is turning the national advice into something practical for teachers in schools so that they are able to apply it to their local context. This, in turn, will give them the confidence to deal with incidents in-house, if appropriate, or refer them out to local police."