If you are a parent or carer, we hope you will find the web links below useful to support with e-safety.

At St Mary’s C of E Primary School, we understand the responsibility to educate our pupils on eSafety issues; teaching them the appropriate behaviours and critical thinking skills to enable them to remain both safe and legal when using the internet and related technologies, in and beyond the context of the classroom.

Parents - If you have a question about parental controls or concern about a social network your child uses, expert advisors at NSPCC free helpline can help. Call Online Safety Helpline on 0808 8005002.

Pupils - If you have a concern, or see something that disturbs you, remember to speak to a trusted adult, (parents, teachers, LSAs, etc).
 

The links below contain some excellent information and resources to use to follow up on the work we do in school.

Coronavirus (COVID-19): support for parents and carers to keep children safe online

It is important to have regular conversations about staying safe online and to encourage children to speak to you if they come across something worrying online.  Keeping pupils safe during remote education is essential.  It is especially important for parents and carers to be aware of what their children are being asked to do, including:

• sites they will be asked to use

We have shared, in our Remote Learning Plan, the sites which our teachers will be using and those which your child will be using.

We regularly post E-Safety tips on the School Story element of Class Dojo and every week there is an E-Safety element on your child's timetable.

CEOP, the Child Exploitation and Online Protection centre (part of the National Crime Agency), creates resources for parents, teachers and young people to help them learn to be safe online. As we are predominantly working online during the current national lockdown, and young people are spending a considerable amount of time on the internet, CEOP has produced a special set of “Online safety at home packs” at their Think U Know website.

These are simple 15 minute activities that families can do to support their child's online safety at home. Packs are available for ages 4 to 14+.  Parents can also watch video guides on different online safety topics.  They are available at the following link:
https://www.thinkuknow.co.uk/parents/Support-tools/home-activity-worksheets/

Resources to support parents and carers with Remote Learning:

• support for parents and carers to keep children safe online, which outlines resources to help keep children safe from different risks online and where to go to find support and advice
• guidance on staying safe online which includes information on security and privacy settings
• Thinkuknow provides advice from the National Crime Agency (NCA) on staying safe online
• Parent info is a collaboration between Parentzone and the NCA providing support and guidance for parents from leading experts and organisations
• Childnet offers a toolkit to support parents and carers of children of any age to start discussions about their online life, to set boundaries around online behaviour and technology use, and to find out where to get more help and support
• Internet matters provides age-specific online safety checklists, guides on how to set parental controls on a range of devices, and a host of practical tips to help children get the most out of their digital world
• London Grid for Learning has support for parents and carers to keep their children safe online, including tips to keep primary aged children safe online
• Net-aware has support for parents and carers from the NSPCC, including a guide to social networks, apps and games
• Let’s Talk About It has advice for parents and carers to keep children safe from online radicalisation
• UK Safer Internet Centre has tips, advice, guides and other resources to help keep children safe online, including parental controls offered by home internet providers and safety tools on social networks and other online services

Prevent: Guide to protecting children from online hate, extremism and fake news

The COVID-19 pandemic has meant that children are spending more time than ever before learning and socialising online. Parents are juggling new technology alongside working and navigating the risks children face online. This interactive guide focuses on the risks that online hate, extremism, and fake news pose and how parents and carers can minimize those risks.

Podcast from the 2Johns

You don’t need to talk to your pre-schooler about online safety yet, right? Wrong. If you treat online safety just as you would treat road safety, then talking about safe internet use becomes the norm and not something that they feel needs to be hidden as they get older.

This podcast from the The 2 Johns talk about how pre-schoolers and young children view the world through the lens of the internet. There are useful tips about how to develop a healthy curiosity in children about what they see and do on the internet.

Online Gaming

Perpetrators are increasingly targeting children and young people via online gaming sites, pretending to be someone who they are not. This can often lead to bullying, grooming and sexual exploitation. The Breck Foundation is a self-funding charity, raising awareness of playing safe whilst using the internet. 

CEOP’s Thinkuknow has launched Band Runner, an interactive game for 8-10 year olds to help build their knowledge, confidence and skills to stay safe from risks they might encounter online. The game is hosted on the area for 8-10 year-olds on the Thinkuknow website.  Internet Matters - Online Gaming (The Basics)

Parents Did You Know...the security settings of off game chats are often not as good as those built into the game. Discord is a chat forum used by a lot of gamers and it’s important to be aware that strangers can contact your child especially on public or large servers and send inappropriate, mean or sexual content. Find out more about Discord and how to keep your child safe. 

This video by James Pearson, Violence and Vulnerability Unit is all about gaming. He discusses why parents need to be aware that their child’s chat can filter out of the game and onto other platforms and what they need to be discussing with their children to keep their online gaming an enjoyable experience. 

Online Bullying

This online bullying podcast looks at the pressure from social media and the impact this has on young people. The 2 Johns talk about how parents can create a relationship with their child that encourages them to tell them about these issues and the support available.

Parents, Did You Know… just under half of those being investigated for exploiting others online are children and most are the same age as the victim. If you’re worried your child might have been a victim there's more information on how to get help on our bullying page.