ySafe | What’s the Return on a Full-Day Cyber Safety Program?

Schools often hesitate to devote a whole day to cyber safety education, and that’s understandable. Single sessions are less demanding in terms of time, commitment, and cost, and they are quicker and easier to organise.

But when you compare what happens in a one-hour presentation to what unfolds over a full day, the difference becomes obvious.

The key question, then, is: “What’s the return from a day versus a session?”

The truth is, the more time you invest, the greater the return. A day gives you far more than an individual session ever can.

So how do you measure the value of that difference? How do we measure ROI in cyber education? Let’s explore this.

Three parts that make up the total return on investment

1. Tangible return
What you see, what we do, and what stays behind

This is the value you can point to right away: the visible, measurable outcomes that make an investment feel real. Like:

An expert on campus, all day
Across the day, your staff, students, and parents have direct access to someone who lives and breathes this space. Someone who understands the online world and speaks your students’ language. They’re there to guide sessions, answer staff questions, and help your community navigate real issues as they come up.

The Online Safety Hub
Your year-round resource to help staff, students, and parents have meaningful conversations about digital safety and wellbeing.

Written by cyber safety experts and packed with practical guidance, the Online Safety Hub gives your whole community a trusted destination to learn, explore, and stay up to date. It includes:

• Guidance for teachers on key digital wellbeing topics, helping them lead rich, informed discussions in class.
• Expert app reviews with age ratings and safety settings, so parents and staff can keep up with the latest platforms and trends.
• A staff resource library of curriculum-linked lessons covering online safety and wellbeing topics.
• Reassurance for your community that your school takes digital wellbeing seriously and is backing that commitment with expert support.

The Hub bridges the knowledge gap between adults and young people, helping everyone stay confident, informed, and connected long after the day itself.

These tangible returns are why schools engage experts like ySafe in the first place.
Like a Healthy Harold visit or a police talk, they give schools something visible and valuable.

But a ySafe day doesn’t end when the expert leaves. It leaves behind resources, language, and confidence that carry on long after.

2. Scalable return
Is it realistic to expect returns to be scalable over time? The answer is yes.

This is the kind of return that compounds over time.

A single session can raise awareness, but its impact fades quickly. Students might remember a few key messages, but without reinforcement or real engagement, habits slip back and the conversation ends when the bell rings.

A full day changes that.

With more time comes flexibility
With more time, schools can go beyond a presentation. They can design a day that reaches everyone in the community, each in a way that’s relevant to them, not squeezed into a one-size-fits-all talk.

• Students take part in interactive workshops that unpack real-world issues they face: group chats gone wrong, social pressure, risky content, or digital identity. With time for reflection and Q&A, these sessions move from “awareness” to understanding.
• Staff join practical PD sessions that help them recognise early signs of online issues and respond with clarity and consistency.
• Parents attend sessions like Parents vs Teens where they can compare digital habits, hear what’s really going on, and learn strategies to have better conversations at home.

Our experts can reach these audiences in ways that a single session can’t allow, activities like app-risk analyses, round-table discussions, or student-led forums that bring digital wellbeing to life in authentic, school-specific ways.

Impact that continues long after the day ends
That night, families talk at home about what students learned. In the staffroom, teachers share what came up in their sessions and reflect on how students responded. Across year groups, common language and shared understanding begin to take hold.

When everyone hears the same strategies and stories, they start reinforcing each other instead of working in silos. Teachers reference the same phrases in class, students echo them in conversation, and parents build on them at home.

The result isn’t just awareness; it’s alignment. And alignment is what shifts behaviour.

Schools that run full-day programs tell us they can feel the difference.
And over time, that compounds.

3. Intangible return
What brings the highest value can sometimes be the hardest to measure.

This is the return that’s hardest to measure, but it’s the one that matters most.

Because the real return of cyber safety education isn’t just awareness; it’s behaviour change.

"There was a real buzz afterwards" - NSW School
After a ySafe day, schools tell us they can feel the difference.

Students are more thoughtful about what they post. They pause before they share. They look out for each other online. Teachers notice calmer classrooms and more honest conversations about what’s really happening in students’ digital lives.

But the most meaningful change often happens quietly.

"We have seen an increase in reports from students" - WA School
Students begin to come forward, not because there are more problems, but because they finally feel safe to talk about them. They share what’s been going on in private chats, mention a friend being pressured, or admit to something that made them uncomfortable online.

One wellbeing lead told us that after their ySafe day, several students disclosed issues that had been building for weeks. Another shared that their reporting numbers spiked, not because behaviour got worse, but because students now trusted the adults around them.

"I feel completely sure about what to do and how to act online" - QLD Y7 Student
And sometimes, the value lies in what doesn’t happen, because issues don’t escalate, relationships stay intact, and students feel supported rather than ashamed.

This is the intangible return of a full-day program: behaviour change you can feel across your school, in the corridors, classrooms, and conversations that follow.

Cyber safety education is worth a day, and even more than a day

So when you ask yourself, “Is a full day really worth it?”, the answer lies in what you value most.

A session can raise awareness. But a day gives your community the time, space, and trust for real change to happen. You see it when staff feel more confident responding to digital issues. You hear it in the conversations that keep going on in classrooms, staffrooms, and homes. And you feel it when students start asking for help earlier, or stand up for each other when something doesn’t feel right.

That’s what makes a full day worth the time. Because the real return on cyber safety education isn’t measured in hours, it’s measured in behaviours.