Margaret Wix Primary School
Online Safety
What is Online Safety?
- Safe guarding young people (and adults) in the digital world
- Learning, understanding and using new technologies in a positive way
- Adults being educated to be able to support and help young people
- Not about restricting children, but educating them about the risks as well as the benefits, so they can feel confident and happy online
Key Advice For Parents/Carers:
- Talk to your child and understand how they are using the internet and their phone,
- Use safety tools & parental controls-if you are not sure how contact your service provider
- Please note tools are not always 100% effective
- Your child is just as likely to be a bully as to be a target. Be alert to your child being upset after using the internet/phone-they may be secretive, change relationships with friends
- Remind your child not to retaliate
- Keep any evidence of cyberbullying emails, online conversations, texts etc to show the school/police
- Report the cyberbullying
Teaching online safety
A key part of implementing our computing curriculum is to ensure that safety of our pupils is paramount. We take online safety very seriously and we aim to give children the necessary skills to keep themselves safe online. Children have a right to enjoy childhood online, to access safe online spaces and to benefit from all the opportunities that a connected world can bring them, appropriate to their age and stage.
Online safety is embedded in the Computing lessons taught each week together with some elements covered as part of the PSCHE Jigsaw scheme. To ensure complete coverage of the eight different elements of online safety, discrete online safety lessons are also taught each half-term and recorded in the class workbooks.
The school takes part in National Internet Safety Day each year and the Computing leader and class teachers plan additional internet safety lessons and activities linked to a specific yearly theme. Online safety assemblies and workshops are held for children and parents.
Online Safety Leaflet for parents and carers
At Margaret Wix all the children learn how to stay safe online. We follow a simple set of rules:
Safer Internet Day
Every year the whole school takes part in Safer Internet Day which has a different focus each year. This year the theme is 'Too good to be true?' teaching children about online scams and how not to believe everything you see on the internet.
The Digital Leaders led a whole school assembly, where we learnt about what a scam might look like and what we can do about it. We also launched a whole school competition to design a poster all about scams and top tips as to how not to get tricked. Watch this space for the winning entries which are judged by our Digital Leaders!
Parent and Carer guidance
The following are a range of useful links for more help and information:
This excellent website was developed out of a partnership between CEOP and The Parent Zone and contains lots of good eSafety advice.
Lots of useful articles and guidance for parents to help keep children safe online.
Here you will find e-safety tips, advice and resources to help children and young people stay safe on the internet.
An organisation working directly with children, parents and teachers to ensure that the issues of online child protection and the safe and positive use of the internet are addressed.
This is an essential site to visit if you are interested in esafety. This gives you the latest information on the sites you like to visit, mobiles and new technology. This site also contains information and resources that are useful both in the classroom and at home. There is also a place which anyone can use to report if they feel uncomfortable or are worried about someone they are chatting to online. This site is run by the team at CEOP - Child Exploitation and Online Protection Centre.
One in five young people have experienced bullying by text message or via email. This web site gives advice for children and parents on cyberbullying.
www.internetmatters.org
Lots of guidance and articles for parents about keeping their children safe online.
NSPCC helpline: 0808 800 5000
POSH - Professional Online Safety Helpline: helpline@saferinternet.org / 0844 381 4772