E Safety
At our school, we take the safeguarding of our pupils very seriously. We have key policies to help keep our pupils safe when in school and we welcome parents to read and comment on these documents. Each term, the Headteacher meets with the Safeguarding Link Governor and the Health and Safety Link Governor to monitor that everything is in place to ensure the safety of our whole school community.
A key aspect of safeguarding is within the remit of keeping children safe online. E-Safety forms a key part of all computing lessons and is embedded within our Computing Curriculum. We also use the National Internet Safety Day to raise awareness through assemblies and whole school teaching. Whilst we want to maximise the amazing opportunities for children growing up in a fully connected world – we must also take steps to minimise the risks.
Within school we have careful filtering to prevent inappropriate material being accessed by children, and policies and procedures to deal with any issues that may occur.
All children staff and parents are expected to sign our User Agreements on entry to the school.
We hope the information provided on this website keeps you informed of what we are doing and offers further advice for parents to support you at home in ensuring your children use technology within a time restrained and informed way.
Overuse of technology or misuse of technology – such as the playing of video games that are for older children – forms part of the safeguarding procedures and it is important that a positive partnership between home and school is in place to best protect our children.
If you would like to talk about any individual concerns or want further support or advice please call for a meeting with the Headteacher or Deputy Headteacher
General advice for parents:
The BBC have a website for 9-12 year olds. www.bbc.co.uk/ownit covers everything from online privacy and avoiding malware, to dealing with everyday dilemmas children face online.
This link is from CBBC and is good to share with your child: https://www.bbc.co.uk/cbbc/shows/stay-safe
https://www.thinkuknow.co.uk/parents/
https://www.nspcc.org.uk/preventing-abuse/keeping-children-safe/online-safety/
http://www.childnet.com/resources/know-it-all-for-parents
Digital Resilience Toolkit – See how parenting styles can affect a child’s digital resilience
https://www.virginmedia.com/blog/parental-controls
It’s not just our children we need to be concerned about. It is ourselves too.
A group of top level Silicon Valley technologists have come together to challenge the companies they had a hand in creating – because of their alarm over the negative effects social networks and smartphones are having on society and mental health. There is a link between heavy social media use and depression.
They recognise the fact that what is best for capturing our attention and making companies highly profitable, isn’t best for our well-being:
For example:
- Snapchat turns conversations into streaks, redefining how our children measure friendship.
- Instagram glorifies the picture-perfect life, eroding our self-worth.
- Facebook segregates us into echo chambers, fragmenting our communities.
- YouTube autoplays the next video within seconds, even if it eats into our sleep.
These are not neutral products.
They are part of a system designed to addict us.
If you want advice on how you can take back control of your phone, click this link.
Advice around Gaming:
https://www.internetmatters.org/hub/news-blogs/social-networking-in-gaming/
https://www.internetmatters.org/hub/news-blogs/child-addicted-online-gaming/
Minecraft advice: http://minemum.com/minecraft-parent-problems