Safeguarding - Hybrid Learning and Virtual Classrooms

The shift to hybrid and virtual learning, once a pandemic necessity, has now become a permanent feature of modern education.

Schools, colleges, and training providers are increasingly blending on-site teaching with online platform learning to increase flexibility, extend access, and support inclusion.

Hybrid learning now appears in many forms across education settings, including:

• Children with complex medical needs or disabilities unable to attend school full-time but who can join lessons remotely.
• Pupils receiving hospital or home tuition, ensuring continuity of education during recovery.
• Alternative provision or reduced timetables, where online sessions complement in-person attendance.
• Remote access for excluded or school-refusing pupils, allowing reintegration into structured learning formats.
• Flexible sixth form, FE or adult learning models, combining classroom teaching with virtual components.
• Curriculum enrichment, such as remote guest lectures, tutoring, or international collaboration.

Whilst hybrid learning enables inclusion and continuity, it also extends safeguarding boundaries into the home and beyond the school site, creating new layers of digital and emotional risk which must be managed with care.

Understanding the Hybrid Landscape

Hybrid learning describes a flexible approach in which pupils engage in a mix of in-person and online learning. This might include:

• Live virtual lessons or small-group tuition.
• Remote homework submission or assessment portals.
• Recorded content on learning platforms (Google Classroom, Teams, Seesaw).
• One-to-one mentoring, tutoring, or SEND interventions delivered online.

These approaches allow children who might otherwise miss education to remain connected, supported, and included. However, it is important to recognise that the very technologies that make this possible also introduce new safeguarding challenges, from privacy breaches to inappropriate online contact.

The New Risk Profile - Safeguarding

Legal and Policy Context

Under Keeping Children Safe in Education and DfE Filtering and Monitoring Standards, schools must ensure that safeguarding extends to all online environments where learning occurs.

This includes:

• Robust filtering and monitoring on all school-issued devices.
• Clear acceptable-use policies for staff, pupils, and parents.
• Secure data handling compliant with UK GDPR.
• Staff awareness of online behaviours that may indicate abuse or grooming.
• A Designated Safeguarding Lead (DSL) with oversight of all virtual-learning risk assessments.

Hybrid and remote learning are explicitly recognised in statutory guidance as locations where abuse can occur. The same reporting and escalation procedures apply as those in place for the physical school environment.

Building Safe Virtual Classrooms

To create safe online spaces, schools should embed safeguarding practice at every stage of virtual delivery:

Before the Session

• Use approved platforms vetted by the IT lead and DSL.
• Ensure waiting rooms and controlled access is maintained so only authorised participants can join.
• Remind staff to use professional accounts, neutral virtual backgrounds, and secure login credentials.
• Communicate the online code of conduct to pupils and parents e.g. camera use, chat expectations, behaviour, and privacy rules.

During the Session

• Keep cameras on only when educationally necessary and ensure no student is pressured to reveal private surroundings.
• Record sessions where appropriate for safeguarding assurance, with consent and secure storage.
• Maintain two-adult presence in live sessions where possible (teacher and support staff/moderator).
• Monitor chat boxes and breakout rooms; disable private messaging between pupils unless moderated.

After the Session

• Save and store recordings or chat logs in accordance with data-retention policies.
• Report and log any safeguarding or behaviour concerns immediately to the DSL.
• Provide follow-up check-ins for pupils showing signs of disengagement, distress, or online fatigue.

The Staff Dimension

Staff working in hybrid settings need confidence, not just competence, in online safeguarding. Training should cover:

• Recognising signs of abuse or distress through digital behaviour (e.g. abrupt withdrawal, muted cameras, change in tone).
• Professional boundaries online, such as avoiding informal messaging or late-night communication.
• Understanding new types of harm: AI-generated abuse, image manipulation, cyberbullying, radicalisation via digital spaces misogyny and INCEL subculture
• Secure file sharing and privacy management.

Leaders should model best practice using school devices, maintaining formality in communication, and being transparent in all online interactions.

Engaging Parents and Carers

Parents remain critical partners in virtual-learning safety. Schools should:

• Share clear guidance on supervision expectations during online lessons.
• Provide advice on privacy settings, device safety, and filtering at home.
• Offer digital-literacy workshops highlighting the overlap between gaming, social media, and learning platforms.
• Encourage open conversations at home about online wellbeing, stress, and screen limits.

Monitoring, Filtering and Digital Oversight

Hybrid learning increases reliance on cloud-based systems. The DfE requires governing boards to oversee filtering and monitoring arrangements to ensure they remain age-appropriate, proportionate, and effective.

This means:

• Regular audits of monitoring alerts to detect concerning trends.
• Periodic review of filter lists to prevent over-blocking educational content.
• Clear procedures for responding to alerts involving pupil or staff activity.
• Reporting to governors through such mechanisms as the SSS Learning Safeguarding Monitoring Tool and annual policy review.

Safeguarding is not only about protection from external threats but also about promoting balance and resilience. Schools can support digital well-being by:

• Building screen breaks and physical activity into timetables.
• Encouraging offline hobbies and social connection.
• Teaching pupils self-regulation, privacy management, and critical evaluation of online content.
• Including wellbeing questions in pupil voice surveys and pastoral conversations.

Governors and senior leaders must take an active role in monitoring hybrid-learning safeguards by:

• Reviewing risk assessments annually.
• Ensuring DSLs and IT leads collaborate closely.
• Asking key assurance questions:
• Are all staff trained in online safeguarding?
• How do we monitor virtual lessons for safety?
• Are our policies updated for hybrid learning?
• Do we evaluate the wellbeing impact of digital provision?

Moving forward, hybrid learning is here to stay and we must create a culture of safe connectivity. Its success depends not only on technology but on trust; the assurance that every digital space connected to a school is safe, inclusive, and well-monitored.

Safeguarding in virtual classrooms is not an add-on; it is an extension of core safeguarding principles: vigilance, professional boundaries, and the welfare of every child. As technology evolves, schools must continue to ask:

‘Does this tool keep children safe, respect their privacy, and promote their wellbeing?’

If the answer is yes, hybrid learning can be both innovative and safe, preparing pupils for a digital world whilst protecting them.

SSS Learning

22 October 2025