ESafety
Esafety is high on our agenda to ensure our pupils stay safe online. Here are some of the things we do as a school to raise the profile of staying safe online:
Curriculum
Our curriculum is carefully structured to ensure internet safety is front and centre throughout the year. Every class begins the year with a session discussing the acceptable usage rules for their key stage, and signing the guidelines. These rules are referred to regularly throughout the year and in computing lessons. Each year the children cover internet safety as one of their units of work which also goes hand in hand with Safer Internet Day which is held annually.
Safer Internet Day
Each year the school holds Safer Internet week and celebrates Safer Internet Day with a range of activities tailored for each year group. These activities are shared with parents via Class Dojo class stories.
Esafety circle questions
Each week, every class in Key Stages 1 and 2 discuss a themed question about esafety in class circle time. The question is raised, children discuss what they think and at the end the staff clarify any misunderstandings, misconceptions and add detail to the information. The questions are also published on our Class Dojo whole school story so parents and carers are clear about the issues being raised.
Wake Up Wednesday
Every Wednesday, a relevant article or poster is selected from National Online Safety or other esafety website to be shared with parents and carers via Class Dojo on the whole school story. Each article or poster selected highlights important issues for those with children and provides guidance and advice for keeping their children safe at home. Additional guides can be downloaded <here>
A Safe IT Provider
We work closely with our School's IT provider Primary Tech who are always available to offer advice and guidance on the latest issues arrising in esafety.
Following National Guidance
As a school, in line with guidance from several of the social media sites, we recommend that primary children do not have their own personal online accounts. Sites such as Snapchat, Instagram, WhatsApp and Facebook seem to be the most popular amongst children and, worryingly, some of these sites can also report your child’s location. New parental controls that can be used to block upsetting or harmful content, control in-app purchases or manage how long your child spends online, are also readily available.
Advice for parents
Parental controls are software and tools which you can install on phones or tablets, games consoles or laptops – and even your home broadband. You can also use them to help block or filter the content your child sees when searching online. When you’re out and about, family-friendly public Wi-Fi can also help. Parental controls are available to help you to:
• plan what time of day your child can go online and how long for
• stop them from downloading apps that are too young for them
• manage the content different members of the family can see.
Lots of mobiles and tablets come with settings that can help you manage what your child can and can’t see or do online. When using parental controls, remember to check things like location settings and what information your child is sharing with others. You can get more information about setting up controls on different devices from the UK Safer Internet Centre and mobile providers such as O2, Vodafone, Three and EE.
Your internet provider may offer a free filter so you can control the content that you and your family see. You’ll need to manually set-up any device connected to your home broadband. How you do this depends on your provider and you’ll need to access your home router or hub. It’s really easy and simple to do. You can get guidance from UK Safer Internet Centre and Internetmatters.org on how to do this or you can give our experts from the O2 & NSPCC helpline a call 0808 800 5002.
Most games consoles are also internet-enabled which means your child can go online and chat with other players or make in-game purchases. As with mobiles and tablets, the controls on your games console help you to manage what your child can and can’t do. Some devices allow you to:
• set up different profiles for each family member
• deactivate the internet
• turn off chat functions to stop your child from talking to strangers.
Finally, setting up filters like Google SafeSearch helps to protect your child from seeing inappropriate or adult content. Or you could use a child-friendly search engine like Swiggle and Safe Search UK as your default. As parents, just like we speak to our children about crossing the road safely and speaking to strangers, it’s important we talk to them about the potential risks of the online world. The NSPCC have produced a family agreement that parents may find useful in starting those conversations with their child. We hope some of the guidance proves helpful and we recommend a visit to the NSPCC Online Safety website to see what you can do to help keep your child safe online.
Esafety is high on our agenda to ensure our pupils stay safe online. Here are some of the things we do as a school to raise the profile of staying safe online:
Curriculum
Our curriculum is carefully structured to ensure internet safety is front and centre throughout the year. Every class begins the year with a session discussing the acceptable usage rules for their key stage, and signing the guidelines. These rules are referred to regularly throughout the year and in computing lessons. Each year the children cover internet safety as one of their units of work which also goes hand in hand with Safer Internet Day which is held annually.
Safer Internet Day
Each year the school holds Safer Internet week and celebrates Safer Internet Day with a range of activities tailored for each year group. These activities are shared with parents via Class Dojo class stories.
Esafety circle questions
Each week, every class in Key Stages 1 and 2 discuss a themed question about esafety in class circle time. The question is raised, children discuss what they think and at the end the staff clarify any misunderstandings, misconceptions and add detail to the information. The questions are also published on our Class Dojo whole school story so parents and carers are clear about the issues being raised.
Wake Up Wednesday
Every Wednesday, a relevant article or poster is selected from National Online Safety or other esafety website to be shared with parents and carers via Class Dojo on the whole school story. Each article or poster selected highlights important issues for those with children and provides guidance and advice for keeping their children safe at home. Additional guides can be downloaded <here>
A Safe IT Provider
We work closely with our School's IT provider Primary Tech who are always available to offer advice and guidance on the latest issues arrising in esafety.
Following National Guidance
As a school, in line with guidance from several of the social media sites, we recommend that primary children do not have their own personal online accounts. Sites such as Snapchat, Instagram, WhatsApp and Facebook seem to be the most popular amongst children and, worryingly, some of these sites can also report your child’s location. New parental controls that can be used to block upsetting or harmful content, control in-app purchases or manage how long your child spends online, are also readily available.
Advice for parents
Parental controls are software and tools which you can install on phones or tablets, games consoles or laptops – and even your home broadband. You can also use them to help block or filter the content your child sees when searching online. When you’re out and about, family-friendly public Wi-Fi can also help. Parental controls are available to help you to:
• plan what time of day your child can go online and how long for
• stop them from downloading apps that are too young for them
• manage the content different members of the family can see.
Lots of mobiles and tablets come with settings that can help you manage what your child can and can’t see or do online. When using parental controls, remember to check things like location settings and what information your child is sharing with others. You can get more information about setting up controls on different devices from the UK Safer Internet Centre and mobile providers such as O2, Vodafone, Three and EE.
Your internet provider may offer a free filter so you can control the content that you and your family see. You’ll need to manually set-up any device connected to your home broadband. How you do this depends on your provider and you’ll need to access your home router or hub. It’s really easy and simple to do. You can get guidance from UK Safer Internet Centre and Internetmatters.org on how to do this or you can give our experts from the O2 & NSPCC helpline a call 0808 800 5002.
Most games consoles are also internet-enabled which means your child can go online and chat with other players or make in-game purchases. As with mobiles and tablets, the controls on your games console help you to manage what your child can and can’t do. Some devices allow you to:
• set up different profiles for each family member
• deactivate the internet
• turn off chat functions to stop your child from talking to strangers.
Finally, setting up filters like Google SafeSearch helps to protect your child from seeing inappropriate or adult content. Or you could use a child-friendly search engine like Swiggle and Safe Search UK as your default. As parents, just like we speak to our children about crossing the road safely and speaking to strangers, it’s important we talk to them about the potential risks of the online world. The NSPCC have produced a family agreement that parents may find useful in starting those conversations with their child. We hope some of the guidance proves helpful and we recommend a visit to the NSPCC Online Safety website to see what you can do to help keep your child safe online.