Nominet has donated almost £10,000 to help a school in the North East improve online safety for young people through interactive escape room style puzzles in the classroom.

Nominet member Mike Odysseas, Managing Director at Odyssey Systems Limited nominated Yarm School for funding through our Members’ GiveHub. This provides members with the opportunity to support a charity or organisation of their choice.

Following Mike’s application, we’ve donated £9,750 to help Year 6 pupils learn about online safety in an interactive learning environment. Yarm School will also be sharing the resources with other schools in Teesside to maximise the impact of our funding.

Read on to discover how Yarm School is taking inspiration from escape room concepts and applying these to the classroom.

Updating the digital curriculum to reflect a changing online world

As the online world changes, Yarm School is continually revising its digital curriculum to address pupils’ needs and parents’ concerns. But teaching young pupils about the possible dangers they may encounter online can be a challenge. How do you bring digital concepts to life in a way that resonates with them, while protecting them from risk?

To overcome these challenges, the school has partnered with Cyents Educational Escape Rooms, the educational arm of local escape room company Cluedini Ltd, to translate online safety lessons into interactive puzzles. The escape room style puzzles in multimedia formats will enhance its online safety curriculum in a dynamic and age-appropriate way.

From offline to online: How escape room concepts are inspiring online safety lessons

Escape rooms allow people of all ages to challenge themselves and practice their critical thinking, logical reasoning and problem-solving skills. They also emphasise the importance of working as a team to achieve a common goal through communication and collaboration. These skills are beneficial when it comes to online safety, especially for children who are learning about the online world.

Physical escape rooms can be costly to create and require significant amounts of space and resources. However, introducing escape room style puzzles is a dynamic and cost-effective way to bring the benefits to the classroom.

Yarm School has created inclusive and age-appropriate puzzles that represent possible real-world scenarios online. This provides the opportunity to explore the risks and challenges in a safe environment. The puzzles feature gaming, pretend social media and messaging apps, newspapers, YouTube videos and more to suit different learning styles.

The puzzles will equip pupils with strong foundational knowledge of online safety and critical thinking skills, as well as practical tools to navigate challenges they may encounter online.

Helping children across Teesside get to grips with the digital world

We’re delighted that Members’ GiveHub funding has gone towards creating an online safety challenge to supplement the existing curriculum. The challenge is initially aimed at Year 6 pupils and features physical, interactive activities that are engaging for children.

To help this important funding go further, Yarm School currently partners with 20 other schools in the Teesside area. The school plans to share the resources with them as part of a collaborative effort. This new approach could benefit up to 650 children across Yarm Preparatory School and its Primary Schools Partnership Programme. The new learning resources are intended to be used year upon year, maximising value for money.

Want to make a difference to a charity or organisation of your choice?

When you become a Nominet member, you get access to our Members’ GiveHub. This is an opportunity to apply for up to £10,000 in funding to support an eligible organisation of your choice. Projects should be aligned to our commitment to making the world more connected, inclusive and secure.

Thanks to our members, we’ve been able to fund a variety of exciting projects. This includes incorporating VR technology in classrooms, accessibility resources for the theatre and more.

To apply for funding through the Members’ GiveHub, simply log into your Member Hub account. We’ll be in touch if we require further information to support your application.

The GiveHub panel, made up of volunteers from our membership, review applications monthly with support from our Membership Engagement team.

To learn more and start making a difference to a charity or organisation that matters to you, please contact membersgivehubenquiries@nominet.uk.