Online Safety

Our first priority is to keep all pupils safe within a caring and secure environment, whether researching for a piece of home learning, using apps on tablets or gaming with friends through game consoles; children have more access than ever to many types of internet communication. We therefore need to ensure that they are equipped with the skills to be confident digital citizens.

We approach online safety in two ways. The first emphasises to pupils their own responsibility for helping to create a better, safer, more respectful online community. The second is knowing what to do if anything goes wrong. These are taught through specific, age appropriate lessons in our computing and PSHE curriculums, 'Safer Internet Day' activities and school assemblies.

However, to be completely successful, we need to work with our parents to ensure the online safety messages are consistent. It is important that parents speak to their children about how they can keep safe and behave appropriately online.

Finally we have our physical safeguards: a strong filtering system from our internet provider, a safer child-friendly search engine (http://www.kidrex.org/), supervised-only internet use, posters around the school, information to parents through regular acticles in Primary Word and through this page including the following links:

• Google Safety Centre: www.google.com/safetycenter/families/start/
• Internet Matters: www.internetmatters.org/advice/
• Childnet International: www.childnet.com/parents-and-carers/have-a-conversation
• NSPCC: www.nspcc.org.uk/preventing-abuse/keeping-children-safe/onlinesafety
• 'Think U Know' CEOP: www.thinkuknow.co.uk/parents/     
• Safer Internet: https://www.saferinternet.org.uk/advice-centre/parents-and-carers 
• Common Sense: https://www.commonsensemedia.org/    https://www.commonsense.org/education
• Action Counters Terrorism (ACT!) : https://actearly.uk/                                                   

Please see the attached guides for the most commonly used apps, along with some helpful guidance on various topics. 

To view more of the most up to date guidance for parents please use the following link: 

E-safety Guides for Schools | National Online Safety