Online Safety
Children at Manor Park use the Internet for all sorts of activities to support and enrich their learning. We acknowledge that we have a commitment to ensuring that all of us – staff, governors, parents, carers, children and the wider community – are well informed about keeping safe online and about being good digital citizens. In school, we have regular activities to remind children of these important issues and reinforce 3 simple steps that children can use if they see or hear something that makes them feel uncomfortable:
1: Shut the lid
2: Tell an adult
3: Don’t worry
We have an open dialogue with the children about all their online activities and interests, from browsing YouTube and researching for home learning to playing Minecraft and console gaming.
Of course, families play a crucial role in supporting children through their digital journey. The most important thing you can do is share your children’s online activities and keep talking. There are many resources full of useful tips and tools that can help you navigate your way around current online safety concerns for children. Please see the useful links section below for a few of our favourites.
We will be running regular online safety workshops for parents and carers but if you have any questions or concerns about any of your children’s online activities, please call in.
Safer Internet Day is an national event coordinated by the UK Safer Internet Centre and designed to raise awareness of online safety issues and help us all to be great digital citizens. The theme for 2017 is ‘Be the Change: Unite for a better Internet’. You can get more information about the key messages behind the day on the Safer Internet website.
If you have any ideas or thoughts about online safety issues, we’d love to hear them.
Useful Links
These are some of the places we go to for useful advice and help about online safety –
Thinkuknow.co.uk – Has many relevant age specific activities as well as advice for grown-ups. The recently updated parents section contains the very latest information and advice from the CEOP team.
Digizen.org – A useful site with tips and ideas for parents, carers, teachers and children about being a good digital citizen.
Vodafone.com – A free resource that has advice from experts on the new computing curriculum and using parental controls as well as family experiences and a Moshi Monsters Web Skills pack for children.
SaferInternet.org.uk – A parents guide to technology that has advice on how to set up parental controls on many devices as well as a simple guide to sharing your child’s online activities.