Keeping Ourselves Safe
At Home
As a parent you'll know how important the internet is to children - they use it to learn, play, socialise and express themselves. It's a highly creative place of amazing opportunities. But the technology children use every day can seem a bit daunting and you might worry about the risks your child can face online - such as bullying, contact from strangers or the possibility of them seeing illegal or inappropriate content.
You can download a simple checklist here that may help you start to protect your children online and decrease the risks they face. Or you can engage with your children regarding their use of the internet while at home. Here are some conversation starter ideas from www.childnet.com
- Ask your children to tell you about the sites they like to visit and what they enjoy doing online.
- Ask them about how they stay safe online. What tips do they have for you, and where did they learn them? What is OK and not OK to share?
- Ask them if they know where to go for help, where to find the safety advice, privacy settings and how to report or block on the services they use.
- Encourage them to help. Perhaps they can show you how to do something better online or they might have a friend who would benefit from their help and support.
- Think about how you use the internet as a family. What could you do to get more out of the internet together and further enjoy your lives online
In our endeavour to keep online safety at the forefront of all we do, we would like to share this great resource with our families which has been recommended by the Calderdale Safeguarding officer - Steve Barnes;
Parental Support – Digital resilience
Help your children to keep safe with this link from Internet Matters. These are age-specific resources to support parents when having conversations with their children about how to stay safe online: https://www.internetmatters.org/resources/digital-resilience-toolkit/
Online safety is always part of our conversation in school and we also regularly cover this within our PSHCE and Computing curriculum. If you ever would like more information about what your child is learning in school, please visit the class pages on the website.
SAFER INTERNET DAY 8TH FEBRUARY 2022
Click below for useful resources and easy-to-follow videos to work through together with your child.
SMART Video Lessons | Childnet
At School
We recognise the importance of its children being digitally literate, responsible and safe users of online technologies. There are planned focusses on e-Safety at the beginning and end of each academic year, plus around Safer Internet Day each February. During the year children will be taught and reminded about good practice whenever appropriate and internet safety threads throughout our curriculum. We have specific areas of our computing curriculum where it is taught explicitly but this also part of our daily conversation about keeping safe.
Our school internet access provider operates a filtering system that restricts access to inappropriate materials.
Please have the following policies to support our message and delivery of online safety.
- Acceptable Use of Digital Technology Policy
- Keeping Children Safe In Education documentation
- Child Protection and Safeguarding
- Anti-Bullying Policy
- Positive Behaviour policy
In July, the children took part in 'Flat Stanley' first aid workshops. The workshops have been designed specifically for children. They are enriching, engaging and fun. We know young children can make a difference when introduced to these essential life skills.
Parent Fact Sheets & Guides To Popular Social Media
Click on the following links to find some useful parental guides to the following social media
Internet Safety Resources
Online safety advice
Understanding online safety is tricky for all ages. The NSPCC have advice to help you learn about staying safe online as a family.
Keeping children safe online | NSPCC
Childnet is also a great website resource for parents and children on online safety. Click here to watch an interactive video on how to keep your child safer online.
Think U Know has a great section for parents and covers topics such as gaming and talking to strangers. You can also search by topic or age range to find information that is relevant for your family. You can find the site here
Internet Matters is another great site to use - it has advice on cyberbullying, how to talk to your children about internet safety and quick guides to different types of social media such as Instagram and Snapchat. You can visit their pages here Internet Matters.
Here are quick links to a range of Internet safety sites that you may find useful too...
Virtual Reality headsets
The NSPCC have published new safety advice in response to evolving safeguarding risks around children being exposed to the ‘Metaverse’ through new gaming devices and peripherals such as Virtual Reality headsets linked to new high powered gaming devices such as new and more powerful gaming PC’s and Microsoft PlayStation 5.
Some of the risks involve:
Experiencing physical injury
Negative impact on mental wellbeing
Experiencing unwanted contact
Encountering harmful content
Oversharing private information
Spending real money
The following NSPCC link covers this in more detail: Virtual Reality Headsets | NSPCC