Online Safety
We believe that when children go online to learn, to communicate or to play, they should be able to do so safely. That’s why we provide our pupils with the knowledge they need in order to tackle new and evolving online risks.
We teach our children regularly about how to be safe online and in a recent external monitoring visit we had linked to computing, the children’s awareness and knowledge about online safety shone through. Each year group could talk about ways to be safe online and they knew the rules.
Parents and carers, you play a crucial role in empowering and supporting children and young people to use digital technologies responsibly, respectfully, critically and creatively. Indeed, parental influence, guidance and education have a significant and long-lasting impact on children’s safety and wellbeing in the online world.
Our top tips for parents when allowing children to access the internet are:
1. Get your child to use the computer/iPad in a room where other people are. This could be the lounge or another room that is used frequently by the whole family. Never let your child use the internet in their bedroom on their own. If something happens online that makes your child uncomfortable, they are more likely to talk to you about it if you are there and parents will see and hear things that go on online if they are in the same room.
2. Talk to your child about what they can and can’t do online. Be open and honest about what could happen online and what your child should do if something happens that they don’t like.
3. Set up restrictions on the equipment your children are using.
4. Follow guidelines on age appropriate social media, websites and games.
5. Ensure your child knows to only talk to people they know online.
6. Ensure your child knows that you have access to everything that they do online.
7. Don’t let your child use headsets to speak to people they don’t know during gaming.
8. Never presume that websites you think are safe, actually are. Child friendly games and apps can still be accessed by all and many of them have ‘chat’ areas.
9. Know all the information you can about being safeonline and attend any training offered. If you would like to find out more about how to support your child when using the internet please visit http://www.thinkuknow.co.uk/
Skill yourselves up by using some of these resources to talk to your children about online safety:
Visit National Online Safety https://nationalcollege.com/institutions/national-online-safety
- Download a free parent app
- Get hundreds of free guides to games and apps your children are using https://nationalonlinesafety.com/guides
- To take part in a short free online safety course to better equip yourself with the current guidelines.
- Download a free e book to share with your child.