Our Online Safety Curriculum Leaders are Mr M Barker and Mrs A Buckler.
Online safety is an integral part of children’s education in today’s digital world and is embedded in their learning at school.
We also want to help our parents and children improve their own understanding of online safety issues so they can learn to use the internet and all digital media in a safe and secure way.
We ensure that our pupils are well equipped with an online safety curriculum that is purposeful and provides pupils with the necessary knowledge and skills to keep themselves safe whilst using technology. To deliver our curriculum, we follow the National Curriculum and use Teach Computing as a planning tool for lesson delivery. This is a progressive planning tool that ensures that online safety is taught as a prerequisite and then woven in line with the Computing curriculum, in order to have optimum impact. Online safety coverage is carefully planned within the Safeguarding curriculum as taught in school, in addition to PSHE and Relationships and Sex Education – ensuring that pupils at all age ranges understand this aspect of learning as a core element of keeping themselves safe.
Children are taught about online safety in a variety of different ways: through dedicated online safety weeks where pupils complete a range of tasks and learning around keeping themselves and others safe using technology; within assemblies for both the whole school and within key stages within computing lessons; through the safeguarding curriculum; through school displays and discussions.
We share via our academy newsletter and Twitter any important notices and updates for our parents and carers to ensure that everybody remains well informed. We encourage children to understand the huge benefits that technology can have and how, when used safely and sensibly, is a wonderful tool for learning and entertainment. We encourage the children to take ownership of their internet and technology use and instil a simple procedure to follow:
Zip it: make sure that your own online activity is sensible – do not say anything that you know is inappropriate or unacceptable.
Block it: if someone has said something that makes you feel uncomfortable, block it so no further communication can be had.
Flag it: most importantly of all, tell someone you trust who can help you.
At Home
As a parent, you’ll know how important the internet is to children – they use it to learn, play, socialise and express themselves – and, as your child grows older, how important and influential the internet will continue to be. It’s a highly creative place of amazing opportunities. Often, the technology children use every day can seem a bit daunting and you might worry about the risks your child can face online – such as online bullying, contact from strangers or the possibility of them seeing illegal or inappropriate content.
At Gawthorpe Community Academy, we believe it is vital engage with your children regarding their use of the internet while at home. Take a look at some conversation starter ideas from Child Net to help you discuss online safety with your children:
Net Aware in collaboration with the NSPCC and O2
Search Engines
Please note that no search engine is ever 100% safe, but below provides some links to some “safer” search engines:
Research searching
nICE
CBBC
Kids Yahoo
Google offers a safer search option for children searching on the Internet. You can find out how to do this by downloading the instructions at the bottom of the page.
Image Searching
Pics4Learning
picsearch
Gaming
When children are accessing games via Xbox LIVE, privacy settings can be set up. This is an integral element to ensuring your childs’ safety and welfare online.
Additional Resources
Please have a look at the link below for fantastic resources and advice to help keep your children safe.
