We’re pleased to announce that tootoot’s online platform, which provides 24-hour support to young people who are victims of bullying or online abuse, will be rolled out to hundreds of schools thanks to the support of a £4.4million government fund.

Cyberbullying gives bullies the cover of anonymity but tootoot’s app counteracts this by allowing children to report bullying incidents anonymously themselves. They can screenshot abusive messages or even take photographs of bullies in action, then send them via the app. The reports will then be read by staff at the child’s school, but no one else.

We’re pleased to announce the first Pupil Voice Week running from 26th – 30th September 2016.

Following the success of tootoot’s first year we are launching the first Pupil Voice Week with the theme ‘It’s Good to Talk!’. The week aims to highlight the importance of talking about bullying and providing all pupils with a safe and accessible way to report their concerns.

Pupil Voice Week calls upon pupils, parents, carers, teachers, social workers, councils, companies and policy makers, to join together and explore ways that we can empower pupils, giving them the knowledge and tools they need to feel confident to talk about their concerns.

As the summer term has come to an end we have had a chance to reflect on how far we have come and what a fantastic year it has been for tootoot!

We have had a very busy year and reached many exciting milestones. Tootoot are currently providing over 200,000 students with a voice and assisting over 9,000 members of staff in recording and reporting safeguarding issues in 550 schools across the UK and internationally. In the last 12 months tootoot has spread its wings and is now in schools as far afield as Nepal, Hong Kong, Russia and New Zealand.

Tootoot is proud to have worked alongside many local authorities, including South Tyneside, Derby, Wigan, Rochdale, Salford, Broadland and Middlesbrough, all of whom have seen the benefit of tootoot to their schools and orchestrated its roll out in their respective areas. Tootoot has also been rolled out among all 38 Cognita schools after a highly successful two-day workshop, with all schools in the trust having attended.

We are delighted to announce that we were voted winners of the best Educational Product and Service 2016 at the first Digital Safety Awards, a brand new innovative awards scheme that recognises the best products, services and initiatives that help keep children safe online. The awards ceremony took place at EY’s More London Place offices on 24th May where we celebrated alongside the best of online safety in the UK.

Recently we attended Academy Transformation Trust’s safeguarding conference. The organisation, which supports a range of academies throughout the Midlands, the East of England and the South East, sponsored the conference to share key guidance on techniques and strategies, ideas from leaders in the field as well as the latest innovative approaches to keeping pupils safe – and we were invited along to present tootoot.