Online Safety

We make a point to teach all students about the importance of online safety and the practical steps they should each take to stay safe online. We share a monthly online safety newsletter with parents to keep families up to date on the latest online issues and websites that we feel parents should be aware of. Please find these in our School News section.

Being online is an integral part of children and young people’s lives. Social media, online games, websites and apps can be accessed through mobile phones, computers, laptops and tablets – all of which form a part of children and young people’s online world. The internet and online technology provides new opportunities for young people’s learning and growth, but it can also expose them to new types of risks.

These risks broadly fall into three categories

Content: being exposed to illegal, inappropriate or harmful material
Contact: being subjected to harmful online interaction with other users
Conduct: personal online behaviour that increases the likelihood of, or causes, harm.

As a school we not only seek to ensure our own online systems and procedures keep students safe, but also to teach each one of them about online safety, in and outside of school. This online safety can best be described as the safe and responsible use of technology and includes such things as the use of the internet as well as other means of electronic communication and social media.

We also want all parents and carers to be aware of the potential risks that exist around the use of the internet and social media so that collectively we can help and encourage our young people to be safe when they are online.

Adults also need to be aware of the potential use of the internet in Child Sexual Exploitation (CSE) and Radicalisation

What can you do to support your child?

Nothing is more important than knowing what your child is doing online and how they use chat, messaging, blogs, forums and social networking sites.

A great idea is to get them to show you how it all works, and you shouldn’t be afraid to ask them, but don’t panic if you’re not quite sure, take a note of what programs and sites they use and do a bit of investigation later on.

Try setting up some rules which you are all agreed on, make sure that your child is happy with how to protect themselves when online and what they should do if they feel at risk.

I want to block these sites!

If you are convinced that your child is accessing a website where you have serious concerns and you feel that there is no alternative other than to block the site, you can install filtering software but be careful, there are often ways around these and your child may feel they have to hide what they are doing from you.

The school has extensive filtering solutions that are overseen by a highly trained team of IT network engineers: home solutions are generally not as advanced but that doesn’t mean they won’t work!

GetNetWise has a list of programs and information on how you can protect your children AND your computer. Top Ten Reviews has a side by side comparison of filtering software. While we can’t say exactly what is right for you, CYBERsitter and CyberPatrol have received positive reviews and been used by many parents.

One problem that no filtering companies have yet been able to overcome is Proxy Avoidance Sites. These sites, which can be set up very easily, allow someone to bypass any filtering that is in place. The website ‘gets’ the banned site and displays it without actually sending you to the site itself. Unfortunately there are dozens of these sites appearing every week and all the filtering providers can only ban them when they are found; there isn’t a way to simply block them all up front.

There’s something nasty on…

If you have come across bullying on a site (e.g. on a social media site) then you should report it to the site directly. You can also remove messages and prevent non-friends from leaving messages. Check out the help pages on the site concerned.

If it’s a bit more serious than that, you can report it to CEOP or the police if someone is in immediate danger. CEOP is an excellent site with advice for parents and should be a must read. See below for details.

Please bear in mind that access to these sites is banned in school and we therefore cannot provide technical support with external misuse or problems.

Online Bullying

StopBullying.gov and the Anti-Bullying Alliance both provide excellent information for teachers, parents and young people on how to deal with online bullying. You can access their websites through the links below.

Please remember to talk to your child about your concerns and support them in staying safe and how to use the Internet wisely!