The Two Johns

Please see the links below to find out more from The Two Johns: 

Facebook Page: EST E Safety Training.      Website: www.esafetytraining.org        

The Two Johns update these pages very regularly, keeping you up to date with the latest apps and ways to help ensure your child is safe online. 

Safe use and understanding of the Internet is a requirement of the National Curriculum for England, as well as being a vital tool for staff and children. The school’s curriculum provides varied and repeated opportunities to use the internet for structured and meaningful activities. This promotes pupils’ skills, experience and understanding of the internet and its services enabling them to become discerning and competent users of the technology, more able to protect themselves. 

ICT safety is about being safe online. What is online safety?

Online safety is concerned with safeguarding young people (and indeed adults!) in the digital world.  It is about learning to understand and use new technologies in a positive way.

Online safety is not about restricting children, but educating them about the risks as well as the benefits so they can feel confident and happy online. Adults must ensure they are educated to be able to support and help young people.

How does our school ensure our children and adults are safe online?

We have made online safety a priority across the school.

All staff have regular and up to date training, they can recognise and are aware of online safety issues.

We have school reporting processes that are clearly understood by the whole school, allowing the pupils to report issues to staff. Children are therefore aware of how to report a problem.

An online safety policy is in place and runs alongside our behaviour, safeguarding and child protection policies.

We have a home school agreement that relates to our ‘Acceptable use policy’ which we ask all parents to read and sign

We are teaching a progressive curriculum that is used to promote online safety through teaching pupils:

• how to stay safe
• how to protect themselves from harm
• how to take responsibility for their own and others safety

Positive sanctions are used to reward positive and responsible use of the internet.

How can you ensure your child is safe online at home?

• Build trust: if they see something online that they do not think is right, encourage them to share it with you. 
• Make sure your child knows to always keep private information safe and watch what they say on the internet. People may not be who they say they are online and it’s not always possible to control who can see your child’s information.
• Your child should know not to give out information like: their full name/ photos/ postal or email addresses/ school information/ mobile or home telephone numbers/ details of places they like to spend time
• Make sure your child knows that they shouldn’t arrange to meet people that they have only met online. Even if they have been chatting with someone for a while, that person is still a stranger.
• If you have an older child who uses social networking sites, then you can help keep their information safe by setting privacy settings. This can restrict access to personal information and photos on social networking sites.
• You should also encourage your child to use a nickname instead of their real name in chat rooms or on instant messaging services.
• To stop people accessing your child’s online accounts, encourage them to keep their passwords secret, and to change them regularly.
• If your child is using e mail, then ensure they know how to block people who send offensive messages and tell them not to open unknown links and attachments. They should delete any suspicious emails or attachments as they may contain something offensive or have a virus that can cause damage to the computer.
• One of the main ways children can come across inappropriate content online is through search results. Most search engines include a ‘safe search’ option that excludes results containing inappropriate images or key words.
• You can also install parental control software to filter out harmful and inappropriate content for computers and some mobile phones and games consoles.
• The final rule is that your child should come to you or a trusted adult if they are worried or unhappy about anything they see online. They should also do this if a friend they have made online has asked to meet them in the offline world.
• If your child does experience inappropriate content online, report it to the website it appears on.
• CEOP has developed an internet safety web page with more information.

Rules and Boundaries

Discuss with your child rules for being online and draw them up together, including which websites, games, apps, social media sites etc., are acceptable. If certain materials are off-limits, try to explain why, for example, because of excessive violence or bad language. If your child uses online gaming, consider setting rules, such as only talking to people you know and having the conversations on speaker, rather than through headphones, so you can monitor it.

Information Sharing

Talk to your child about what information should be kept private; for example, name(s), date of birth, address, contact details, school name etc., should never be given out to strangers online. Remind your child not to give out their passwords and ensure they change it occasionally. Teach them to unclick the ‘remember me’ option on public computers such as at school and the library.

Supervision, Monitoring and Parental Controls

Ensure all devices used by your child are kept in a communal space, or a space where they can be supervised whilst using their devices. You can check what your child has been doing by looking at the history in your internet browser, Set parental controls which are designed to help parents/carers manage their child’s online activities. However, do not rely on parental controls on devices over you offering support and advice to your child online, as they are not always 100% effective and some children know how to bypass them. The use of ‘SafeSearch’ is highly recommended for use with children. Most web search engines will have a ‘SafeSearch’ function, which will allow you to limit the content your child is exposed to whilst online. Look out for the ‘Settings’ button on your web browser homepage (often shaped like a small cog).

For further information on setting up parental control see the following link:
https://www.thinkuknow.co.uk/parents/articles/Parental-controls/
For further information on how to set up parental controls on different devices see the following link:
https://www.internetmatters.org/parental-controls/

Reporting and Blocking

Make sure your child knows how to report or ‘block’ unsuitable content, messages or people online – show them how to block on the websites or games they frequently use and explain that they can always tell you, a teacher or another adult if they experience anything which makes them feel uncomfortable. If a parent/carers is worried about online sexual abuse or the way someone has been communicating with a child on line a report should be made to the Child Exploitation and Online Protection (CEOP) team. CEOP is a command of the National Crime Agency and can investigate what is happening – with the assurance that the safety and wellbeing of children is paramount at all times.

To make a referral to CEOP see the following link:
https://www.ceop.police.uk/safety-centre/

Please read our online safety tips below. Talk about them with your child. We will be reminding you regularly of the tips in our weekly newsletters.

Online safety tips for Nursery and Reception pupils:

• To recognise that people you don’t know are strangers.
• To be nice to people on the computer, like you would on the playground.
• Keep your personal information private.
• If you ever get that ‘uh oh’ feeling, then turn off the monitor and tell a grown up they trust.

Online safety tips for Key Stage One pupils:

• Always ask a grown up before you use the internet
• Don’t tell strangers where you live, your phone number or where you go to school. Only your friends and family need to know this.
• Don’t send pictures to people you don’t know, you don’t want strangers looking at photos of you or your family
• Turn off the monitor, then tell a grown up if you feel scared or unhappy about anything.
• Keep passwords safe, and don’t tell them to anyone else

Online safety tips for Key Stage Two pupils:

• Never give out personal details of any kind which could identify them or their location
• Never meet up with someone they have only met on line
• Be cautious when accepting texts, e-mails etc. from unknown sources
• Understand that some information may not be reliable
• Tell an adult if at any point they are uncomfortable, worried or unhappy about anything they have experienced online.

Children are taught online safety in school through:

• Specific online safety assemblies with follow up class teacher led lessons
• Inputs by class teachers at key points during pupils’ use of the internet
• Reminders and references in all classrooms regarding online safety in the form of posters and displays.
• The school uses the S.M.A.R.T. acronym with the pupils (Safe, Meeting, Accepting, Reliable, Tell).

Useful Websites/links

There are lots of useful websites that offer more advice for you and your child about how to stay safe on line. Here are some links you may find useful.

The link below provides full details of our Online and E Safety Policy in school: