For PSHE and Computing leads

Mapped to RSHE and Computing
across KS3 and KS4.

The technology side of online safety: scams, privacy and data, security, AI, deepfakes and misinformation. Mapped to the RSHE online-safety strands and Computing online-safety outcomes, sequenced across key stages 3 and 4. A lesson plan on every lesson.

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A teacher helping secondary students working at computers in a school IT room
What a PSHE or Computing lead gets

The technology side, done properly.

What you need to plan, teach and evidence scams, privacy, security, AI and misinformation from Year 7 to Year 11.

The technology side of RSHE

The scams, privacy, data, AI, deepfake and misinformation content of Online safety and awareness and Wellbeing online.

Computing outcomes too

Online-safety outcomes from the Computing programme of study, so one lesson counts towards both.

Sequenced across KS3 and KS4

A deliberate order from Year 7 to Year 11, updated once a year so your scheme of work holds. New scams arrive as extra lessons you choose whether to assign. Adapt, delay or switch off topics for a class or an individual student.

A lesson plan on every lesson

Objectives, discussion prompts and teacher notes. Ready to teach, not just ready to assign, by a specialist or a form tutor.

Built for the 2026 guidance

Deepfakes, AI-generated images, AI chatbots and targeted advertising are named in the statutory guidance and taught in the sequence.

Fits the slots you have

Each lesson takes about thirty minutes on its own, or a full fifty minutes with the discussion prompts.

Built for the 2026 RSHE guidance, not retrofitted to it

The DfE’s updated statutory RSHE guidance came into force on 1 September 2026. For the first time it names deepfakes, AI-generated images, AI chatbots, sextortion and targeted advertising as online-safety content secondary schools should cover.
Cloak for Schools is built around the technology risks among them, with self-paced activities and tools to assign work and track progress. It also supports the wider push on media literacy, digital literacy and critical thinking across RSHE, Computing and personal development. Sextortion belongs in teacher-led RSE, so we leave it there.
RSHE online-safety content Computing-linked Transparent with parents
Evidence, not just delivery

Show what was taught, not just who logged in

Digital tools can show activity without showing what teaching took place. The dashboard answers the question a reviewer actually asks: what online-safety teaching happened, who completed it, and where are the gaps?

See real engagement

Track completion and correct-answer totals by class and student, so you can see who has engaged, how they did and where follow-up may be needed. Lessons with a content warning report completion only.

Ready for governors and reviews

A clear record of online-safety teaching across RSHE, Computing and tutor time, ready to share with SLT, governors or during a personal development review.

Spot the gaps early

Leads get a whole-school view of which classes or students have not engaged yet, so they can follow up before online-safety teaching is missed or uneven across the school.
A class teacher’s view of one class: each student as a row and each lesson as a column, with done, in-progress and exempt status per cell and a class tally per lesson
Class view. A class teacher sees their own classes: who has completed each lesson, who is part-way, who has not started, and each student’s correct-answer total. Lessons with a content warning report completion only.
The whole-school view for a safeguarding lead or school admin: every class against every lesson set, with completion bars and counts, and Not set where a class has no live assignment
Whole-school view. Leads see every class and year group together, so gaps in provision show up before a review does.
What students do

Students practise the skill, with feedback at every step.

Knowing about a risk is not the same as knowing what to do when it happens. In lessons students handle realistic situations themselves.

  • Lesson 7.1

    Lock down a phone

    Set the privacy and location settings on a character’s new profile, then see who can still see what.
  • Lesson 8.1

    Investigate a profile

    Tap through a profile for the signs it’s fake, then make the call.
  • Lesson 9.4

    Train a feed

    Like, skip and linger on posts, watch the recommendations drift, then reset them.
  • Lesson 11.1

    Recover a hacked account

    Take the right steps in the right order, from changing the password to telling the bank.
We found that the ability to recognise a genuine versus a fake social media profile was strongly associated with higher levels of media literacy education exposure.
Ofcom · Children and Parents: Media Use and Attitudes Report, May 2026, on children aged 8 to 17. Ofcom counted a child as having media literacy education only if they had had a conversation about using the internet safely, plus multiple or regular school lessons about being online covering five or more topics. Read the report
Inside a lesson plan

Teach an unfamiliar topic with the plan in front of you.

Every lesson opens for staff with clear objectives, discussion prompts and teacher notes, so a specialist, a form tutor or a cover teacher can lead it. Here is a shortened extract from a real one, lesson 8.2.

Year 8 · Lesson 8.2

Too Good to Be True

Scams, phishing and fraud. Maps to RSHE Online safety and awareness and the KS3 Computing outcome on using technology securely.

Objectives

  • Recognise common characteristics of scams, phishing messages and fake websites.
  • Identify emotional manipulation techniques such as urgency, fear and impersonation.
  • Respond safely to a suspected scam, including reporting it.

Discussion prompts

  • Several of the scams had no link at all, and two genuine messages did. So what should make you stop and check?
  • The ‘hi mum, new number’ message: why does it work even on people who know about scams? How could you check independently?
  • A scam text arrives on your phone right now. Walk through what you do in order, and where you would report it.

Teacher notes

The deck deliberately breaks the ‘if it has a link it is a scam’ shortcut, so the discussion should land on the warning signs: a fee, a request for a login, code or bank details, a countdown, or a ‘new number’ asking for money. These should make you pause and check independently; they do not prove whether a message is genuine. The safe habit to reinforce is going direct: don’t act on the message, open the official app or site yourself. For the ‘new number’ message, contact the person on a number you already trusted before the message arrived, or check with them in person.

Use the last prompt to check every student’s understanding: ask each one for a brief answer, spoken or on paper, before discussing answers.

Reporting routes worth naming: forward scam texts to 7726, report scam emails to report@phishing.gov.uk, and tell an adult quickly, without blame, if money or a login has already been handed over.

Confidence matters here. Among schools using ProjectEVOLVE, SWGfL’s 2024 report found that educators mainly cover the topics they feel confident in, and that pupils’ knowledge is weakest in privacy and security. Read SWGfL’s summary

FAQs

Questions PSHE and Computing leads ask

Does it cover the whole RSHE curriculum?
No. Cloak for Schools teaches the technology side of the Online safety and awareness and Wellbeing online strands: scams, privacy and data, security, AI chatbots, deepfakes and misinformation. It is also mapped to the online-safety outcome in each Computing programme of study. The relationships, sex and health content of those strands stays with your RSE and health education, along with the rest of RSHE.
Can a non-specialist teach the lessons?
Yes. Every lesson carries clear objectives, discussion prompts and teacher notes, so a form tutor or cover teacher can teach an unfamiliar online-safety topic with the plan in front of them. Students do the practice themselves, at their own pace, with feedback after every answer. See part of a real lesson plan.
Which Computing outcomes does it cover?
The online-safety outcome in each Computing programme of study. At key stage 3: using technology safely, respectfully, responsibly and securely, protecting online identity and privacy, recognising inappropriate content, contact and conduct, and knowing how to report concerns. At key stage 4: how changes in technology affect safety, new ways to protect privacy and identity, and how to report a range of concerns. It does not teach the rest of the Computing curriculum. A statement-level mapping is available for due diligence, just ask.
Can we change the order?
Yes. The sequence across key stages 3 and 4 is the default. You can adapt, delay or switch off topics for a class or a year group to fit your own long-term plan, and hold a topic back from an individual student where that is the right call.
All curriculum questions →

See the platform behind the mapping.

Interactive lessons students complete at their own pace, a lesson plan on every lesson, and a teacher dashboard that records what was taught — offered as a per-school annual subscription.

Talk to us about your school → Explore Cloak for Schools →