Online Safety Post

ONLINE SAFETY - KEEPING YOUR CHILD SAFE ONLINE

Good afternoon, everyone.

Recently, we have seen an increase in the number of online incidents taking place outside of school involving children from our school. These have involved inappropriate use of online Apps on phones/tablets, as well as online gaming.

Online incidents between children, which occur online at home or out in the community, do affect children in school and so it is our responsibility to investigate online issues when they are alerted to us and communicate with relevant parents/carers as well as outside agencies where needed e.g. Children and Families or the Police.

In school, we do a lot to educate children about online risks. We ensure that we are following our online safety programme of study as well as out PSHE curriculum to ensure that we are informing our children of the risks of being online and how they can keep themselves and others safe whilst online. We also send out regular online safety materials over Dojo which I do hope you use at home.

However, we do need the help of parents and carers. Here are some ways in which you can help:

- It is vital that you monitor and support your child's online activity. Please have healthy discussions with your children about their online activity. Children should know that you will regularly review their online messages and group chats. Please create an atmosphere where they feel safe to tell you about something that has gone wrong e.g. someone has sent them something inappropriate. Please ensure that you inform school about this as well.

- Please make sure that you have parental controls on your home internet. This is so important to protect your child from inappropriate or harmful content.

- Your children shouldn't be on WhatsApp, SnapChat or TikTok. These are 13 years +. However, if you choose for them to be on these platforms, please monitor what your child posts and read the posts they receive and ensure that you have all of the necessary parental controls in place. This is vital.

- Please make sure that your child knows not to be in a shared group chat with anyone that they do not know. Children often invite other friends into groups but it is vital that your child knows everyone personally. They need to know that a person might not be who they say they are.

- If your child finds others posting inappropriate content in a message or group chat, or they do not know someone who is added to the group, they should leave the group and block anyone posting inappropriate content. Again, they should inform you or school.

- If your child sees anything inappropriate being posted on messages or group chats then they should inform you as well as school school so that appropriate action can be taken. I must remind you all that no child should be posting inappropriate content online or on their group chats/messages.

We have a comprehensive online safety and PSHE curriculum which covers all the necessary content to develop the children's awareness of risk and danger online and what steps to take if they are worried by anything online. However, it is vital that you as parents and carers monitor and support your child's access to the internet which includes online gaming, and their use of tablets/phones/devices.

This is an ongoing challenge and one which we all need to be aware of.

FREE ONLINE SAFETY RESOURCES FOR PARENT/CARERS

Please visit our school website for further information:
https://www.southwarkprimary.net/safeguarding/e-safety/

We have a great online safety resource for you to access as parents and carers at NationalOnlineSafety.com. Click here to sign up for free support materials:
https://nationalonlinesafety.com/enrol/southwark-primary-school

For a short video about how to use the resource click here:
https://helpdesk.thenationalcollege.co.uk/helpcentre/parent-walkthrough-for-national-online-safety

As always, if you have any questions, please don't hesitate to contact school.

Thank you.

Mr Skirton