School and college leaders are being offered the opportunity to learn more about how they can tackle extremism and radicalism in children and young people.

The Association of School and College Leaders (ASCL) announced that it will be hosting a number of seminars this summer on the matter, to provide guidance, support and advice on this sensitive area.

It will take into account new legislation - such as the Counter Terrorism and Security Act 2015 - and concern over the impact that extremist propaganda has on children and young people.

Leading the classes will be the prominent Birmingham-based headteacher Kamal Hanif, counter-extremism campaigner Sara Khan and ASCL’s parliamentary specialist Anna Cole.

Discussing the concept of the seminars, Mr Kamal explained that the focus is enhancing understanding amongst school and college leaders of the core issues of radicalisation and extremism.

Additionally, they will benefit from information that will help them identify at risk pupils and strategies on how to resolve these situations in an “appropriate manner”.

"Young people spend a lot of their time on the web and social media and they can easily get drawn into extremist ideas without access to a counter narrative,” he continued.

“These seminars will help schools and, in turn, parents, who often have no idea that their children are accessing this sort of information, to pick up the signs, and use the appropriate channels in dealing with these concerns. They will help to equip heads with the counter narratives to some of the false claims put out by extremists."

Ms Khan added that it’s key that schools and colleges to be up-to-date with the latest insight into extremism and how youngsters can be drawn into radical ideas via the web and outside of it.

Meanwhile, Ms Cole was keen to get across the fact that the seminars are about protecting students and are not about “criminalising them”. Children and young people, after all, are particularly vulnerable and impressionable.

"The key thing is to put in place proper risk assessments and have an open culture where different views and ideas can be discussed in an open way,” she added.

"We want to reassure schools that these steps will help them meet the statutory requirements and protect young people."