As schools rely more heavily on digital systems for everything from lesson planning to safeguarding, they also become more vulnerable to cyber threats. In 2024, we took a proactive step to ensure all of our registered educators – including supply teachers, TAs, and support staff – must complete cyber security training as part of their registration process and retake it every year.
This isn’t just a tick-box exercise. It’s about protecting schools and their staff and pupils.
What is Cyber Security and why does it matter in schools?
Cyber security is the practice of reducing the risk of cyber-attacks. In a school setting, this includes keeping sensitive data safe, maintaining access to IT systems and preventing criminals from gaining control of networks or devices.
Schools today rely on technology for teaching and learning tools, attendance tracking, behavioural management systems, staff and pupil records, and financial data and payroll.
With so much at stake, a cyber breach doesn’t just mean inconvenience – it can mean major disruption, loss of learning time, reputational damage, and in some cases, serious safeguarding concerns.
School cyber resilience in numbers
A survey from 2019 looked at cyber security in over 400 schools. The key responses included:
- 83% of schools had experienced some type of cyber incident or attack.
- 69% of schools had suffered a phishing attack. This was the most common form of cyber-attack across the schools surveyed.
- 97% of schools said losing access to IT would cause considerable disruption. This is not unusual considering how dependent schools have become on technology.
- 65% of schools don’t train non-IT staff on cyber security. When trained, staff play a valuable role in defending against cyber-attacks and incidents.
These statistics clearly highlight just how crucial cyber security awareness is across the entire school workforce.
Why we require Cyber Security Training for all our educators
At justteachers, we understand that every member of school staff contributes to digital safety, not just permanent employees or IT teams. That’s why we have made cyber security training:
- A mandatory part of candidate onboarding
- A condition for working with any of our partner schools
- A course that must be retaken every 12 months
This ensures that every supply teacher, TA, and support worker we place on assignments, is up to date with current threats and prevention strategies, in line with the latest government guidance.
What our training covers
We use the official free training from the National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC), recommended by the Department for Education (DfE). The course covers key topics, such as:
- Who is behind cyber-attacks
- Cyber threats from both outside and inside schools
- Four practical ways to defend yourself and the schools you work in
The Cyber Security training is delivered online, making it easy and accessible for all our candidates to complete at their own pace. Once completed, candidates are required to take a short quiz to test their understanding of the material. Upon successful completion, they receive a certificate of completion, which we keep on file as part of their compliance and safeguarding records.
The training is straightforward, practical, and takes just around 40 minutes to complete – but the impact it has on digital safety in schools is significant.
Why we require our educators to retake the training annually
Cyber threats evolve constantly. Attackers become more sophisticated, new vulnerabilities emerge, and schools continue to digitise more of their operations.
By requiring annual re-training, we make sure that our registered supply staff stay current with the latest threats and are aware of new tactics cyber criminals are using. Our partner schools and education settings can also be confident they’re hiring professionals who are compliant, informed, and ready to protect sensitive data.
It’s also a reflection of broader government policy – the DfE now requires all school staff to complete cyber training annually, and we’re proud to help schools meet that standard.
