Online Safety
As children spend more time online, the importance of helping them to keep safe becomes increasingly important. We are conscious that we have a key role in educating the children but also that parents have a key role to play but don't always know where to find guidance.
Online safety in school
Online Safety is taught in all year groups throughout the year at our school. Every computing lesson contains an additional online safety element, with 5-10 minutes spent covering the online safety element. There are also aspects of online safety taught through our Relationships and Sex Education curriculum.
There are a range of potential harms that come with using the internet. Categories include:
- Content
Being exposed to illegal, inappropriate, or harmful content. For example: pornography, fake news, racism, misogyny, self-harm, suicide, anti-Semitism, radicalisation, and extremism. - Contact
Being subjected to harmful online interaction with other users. For example: peer to peer pressure, commercial advertising, and adults posing as children or young adults with the intention to groom or exploit them. - Conduct
Online behaviour that increases the likelihood of, or causes, harm. For example, making, sending and receiving explicit images, sharing other explicit images and bullying. - Commerce
Risks such as online gambling, inappropriate advertising, phishing and financial scams.
We cover all of these aspects as the children progress through the school. More details can be found in our Online Safety policy
Supporting your child to stay safe online
The school network has very strong safeguards to prevent children accessing inappropriate material but children are likely to have fewer barriers when accessing the internet at home.
To support you in helping to keep your children safe online, we have compiled some useful links for adults and children.
For parents/carers
For children
- UK Safer Internet Centre
- Childnet - Online Safety for 4-11 year-olds
- BBC Bitesize - How can you be safe online?
Keeping safe online - cBBC Bitesize Adverts
Using computers and being online can be great fun and really helpful. But there is a lot you need to be careful with and things you shouldn't click on. This is part of the Personal Development and Mutual Understanding (PDMU) section of BBC Bitesize Foundation level.