Teacher guide · Confidence Lab · Medium · about 30 min

🔐 Staying Safe Online

Pupils practise real life thinking and confidence through "Staying Safe Online": Passwords, private information and speaking up.

Lesson guide

1. Hook · 5 min
Show the 🔐 mission title and read the opening: "Which is the strongest password?". Take three quick guesses.
2. Model · 5 min
Think aloud through the first step together. Use Echo the Parrot's line as your prompt: "Say it clearly — I'm listening."
3. Do · 10 min
Pairs work through the 4 steps on screen or on the printed sheet. Circulate and ask "why?"
4. Discuss · 10 min
Use two or three of the discussion questions. Ask pairs to share different answers, not just correct ones.
5. Reflect · 5 min
Exit ticket: one sentence on how they used real life thinking today.

What was the hardest choice in "Staying Safe Online", and why?
Which is the strongest password — explain your reasoning to a partner.
Someone you've never met in a game asks where you go to school. What do you do — explain your reasoning to a partner.
Write what you'd say to a friend who's being messaged by a stranger — explain your reasoning to a partner.
Where could you use real life thinking outside school this week?
If you did this again, what would you change?

Support: Read prompts aloud, pair with a confident partner, and accept spoken or drawn answers for writing steps.

Stretch: Ask pupils to create their own extra step for a partner and explain the correct answer.

National Curriculum: Computing: algorithms, debugging and online safety
National Curriculum: English: spoken language — articulate and justify answers
PSHE: Relationships: communicating feelings and listening to others
PSHE: Health & wellbeing: resilience and managing setbacks

Pupil sheet

Name: ____________________ Date: __________

1. Which is the strongest password?
☐ password1
☐ purple-otter-42-jam
☐ your name
2. Someone you've never met in a game asks where you go to school. What do you do?
☐ Tell them
☐ Don't answer and tell a trusted adult
☐ Ask where they go first
3. Which of these is private, and which is fine to share?
Home address → ________________
Your password → ________________
Favourite colour → ________________
A game you like → ________________
4. Write what you'd say to a friend who's being messaged by a stranger.