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St Mary's Walk, Shirehampton, Bristol BS11 9RR

0117 903 1447

shirehamptonp@bristol-schools.uk

Shirehampton Primary School

Online Safety

Technology is everywhere and will play a pivotal part in children’s lives. At Shirehampton Primary School, we aim to educate children on how to use technology positively, responsibly and safely. It is essential that all children gain the confidence and ability that they need in this subject, to prepare them for the challenge of a rapidly developing and changing technological world. We recognise that the best prevention for a lot of issues we currently see with technology and social media is through education. Finding the right balance with technology within education is key to a healthy-life style. We will ensure that children are aware of the possible risks when using the internet through a series of online safety assemblies and specific lessons as well as making sure the rules are displayed in each classroom.

Every organisation that works with children needs to have an online safety policy statement, which sets out our commitment to keeping children and young people (as well as staff and volunteers) safe online. You can access ours below:

e safety policy sept 2023.pdf

Acceptable Use Agreements are used to inform children and young people of behaviours which are appropriate and others which are deemed unacceptable. This will allow children and young people to take some degree of responsibility for their own actions, understanding the risks and likely sanctions. Our Pupil Acceptable ICT Use Agreement is below:

pupil acceptable use policy class charter.pdf

 

23-24 Term 3 Update

Safer Internet Day 2024 at Shirehampton Primary School was a success! The theme for this year was 'Inspiring change? Making a difference, managing influence and navigating change online.'  As a school, we celebrated children's role in creating a safer internet and the ways they can navigate in an ever-changing digital world. Children of all ages, from EYFS to Year 6 and Canberra Class, took part in celebrating this important day. Some children produced writing inspired by Safer Internet Day. Across the school, Year 1 and Year 2 took part in a Boo Gets Cyber Smart workshop and KS2, including Canberra, attended a live performance of Caught in the Net. Both the workshop and performance were delivered by Big Foot Arts Education. A big thank you to the PTA for their generous donation to help educate children about how to be safe online. 

 

This term, EYFS, KS1 and KS2 also attended an internet safety assembly. We looked at how rules are in place to keep children and adults safe. Children developed a greater awareness for age restrictions that can be found on films, TV shows and online platforms including games and social media.                     

 

22-23 Term 5 Update
Children in Year 4 and Year 5 had great fun creating their own short-films or animations inspired by the Safer Internet Day 2023 theme: Time to talk! Making space for conversations online. Ire, a pupil in Year 4, thoroughly enjoyed creating a short-film as part of his Term 5 home schooling project. Ire's dedication and commitment to raising awareness for online safety is second to none. We encourage you to watch Ire's short-film to see for yourselves why we are proud of Ire's achievement this term.

/docs/VIDEO-2023-05-11-13-48-22.mp4 

 

How to support your child at home

At Shirehampton Primary School, we understand that online safety can be daunting for parents and carers, as you may have concerns about your understanding of the topic and their knowledge of latest developments. It is important for parents and carers to understand that e-safety is more about their parenting and communication skills than technology. At our school, we recognise that it isn’t enough to protect children from online harms by simply banning sites or installing firewalls and filters. It is crucial to maintain an open and ongoing discussion about online safety at home/as a family/with children. (Assiter, Avery and The Education People, 2018b).

We know that social media services are popular with young people of all ages. Parents have an important role in helping prepare their children to go online before they start to use social media platforms. Together you can look at the key things they need to know about staying safe online. It is important to educate children and ensure they understand that it always better to wait until the required age to join any social media service. These rules around age relate to privacy, but also are relevant to safety. The following social media sites are age restricted:

WhatsApp - users now need to be 16
Tiktok - 13 (and anyone under the age of 18 must have parents' permission)
Facebook - 13
Snapchat - 13
Instagram - 13
Twitter - 13
Skype - 13
YouTube -   13 or older to have their own YouTube account (there are no age restriction for watching videos on YouTube but children should be closely supervised)

Many parents are keen to support their children to become safer internet citizens, but are unsure of where to go for advice. Below, you will find links to really useful websites.


National Online Safety (NOS) - What parents need to know
https://nationalonlinesafety.com/guides The guides are updated weekly. The guides can be accessed via their online website or social media pages. You might even find one or two of the guides in Shirehampton Primary School's newsletter!

NSPCC - Talking to your child about online safety
https://www.nspcc.org.uk/keeping-children-safe/online-safety/talking-child-online-safety/

NSPCC - Helping your child to manage their mental wellbeing online
https://www.nspcc.org.uk/keeping-children-safe/online-safety/online-wellbeing/

NSPCC - Setting up parent controls to help keep your child safe online
https://www.nspcc.org.uk/keeping-children-safe/online-safety/parental-controls/ 

 

Harmful behaviour or inappropriate content
If you need to support your child with any harmful behaviour or content they have seen online the following website are really helpful.

Internet Matters: Get tips on how to use tech tools to filter and block inappropriate content on children’s device and what conversations to have to keep them safe online.

NSPCCSometimes, innocent searches can lead to not so innocent results.  And sometimes, children may look for things because they're curious. It’s important to know how to reassure children and young people and help them know what to do and where to go for support if they see inappropriate content online.

Childline: Getting images removed.

Our safeguarding and child protection policy and behaviour policy can be found on our policies page on the website.

 

Please see attached a tool for how to and where to report harmful content you see on the internet. This is useful platform to raise concerns about harmful content online.  IWF Reporting Tool