Parent Guidance about eSafety

To view our e-Safety Policy please click here.

If you are worried about online sexual abuse or the way someone has been communicating with you or your child. Report it by following the link https://www.ceop.police.uk/safety-centre/

Please click here to read our Computing Information booklet

At St. Mary's Esafety takes high priority, and we use the document ‘Education for a Connected World’ by the UK Council for Internet Safety to help structure our lessons and discussions. To read the full document, please click here.

Each half term, we will focus on a different strand of online safety:

Autumn 2

This half term, we will be talking to your children about Managing Online Information. In Reception, children will begin to understand how we find information out online, and which devices we can use to do this. In KS1, we will build on this by thinking about the different digital technologies we can use to find information out online (search engines, voice activated devices such as Alexa and Siri etc), discuss how we navigate web pages to find the information we need, and think about how reliable and trustworthy information online is.

In KS2, children will think about the limitations and problems that may occur when searching online. We will think about the phrases we need to enter into search engines in order to gather the most accurate information, and to think about the reliability of information by identifying whether something is a fact, a belief or an opinion. We will look at some of the ways people are encouraged to buy things online (through targeted advertising offers. In-app purchases and pop-ups), identify what ‘fake news’ might look like and discuss when it is important to be ‘sceptical’.

 

Autumn 1

This half term, we are talking to your children about self-image and identity. In KS1, we want children to recognise that people both online and offline can sometimes make others feel sad, embarrassed or upset. We want children to understand who they can speak to if they become worried, uncomfortable or frightened by anything they may encounter online. Children in KS1 will also be able to explain how people may look and act differently online and offline.

In KS2, children will think about how people can represent themselves in different ways online and will question why some people sometimes pretend to be something or someone different online. In upper KS2, we will discuss how identity online can be copied, modified or altered and demonstrate how to make responsible choices about having an online identity (through gaming etc).

 

In addition, the Stockport Online Safety Hub is now live and can be accessed here: https://stockport.onlinesafetyhub.uk/  This is a new online resource with lots of expert advice and guidance to help you manage your child’s safety online as a parent. It includes information on the latest topics when it comes to keeping children safe, such as how to manage your child’s screen time, understand the latest gaming platforms, what they mean for your child’s safety and lots more.

There is also a fantastic website – with worksheets and videos to guide discussions with children and young people across a range of ages about how to stay safe online! https://www.thinkuknow.co.uk/

Have a look at this website from Virgin Media – https://www.virginmedia.com/blog/online-safety/childrens-internet-safety-test/

We know that children, particularly younger children, can be bothered by things they see online, and filters can be a helpful tool in reducing the chances of coming across something upsetting. Below is a link to guides to setting up filtering on your home computers to help ensure inappropriate content cannot be accessed. Please check back regularly as new guides will be added as they become relevant.

Parental controls information

BBC Own It App

The BBC Own It website contains some great resources for both children and parents. This link contains some useful information to enable you to support your child in making the most of their lives online:

https://www.bbc.com/ownit/dont-panic/support-for-parents-and-guardians

zoom advice

Houseparty Advice

Advice about TikTok

Advice about Fortnite

Advice about gaming

Advice about cyberbullying

Advice about keeping young children safe online

Advice about social networking

Advice about Snapchat

Advice about Instagram

Advice about live streaming

Please complete our Parents E-safety Survey and hand in to our school office to help us target our e-safety training specifically to support you: E-Safety questionnaire

 

Internet Safety Day

We take E-Safety very seriously at St. Mary’s and Internet Safety is at the core of our Computing lessons each week. Each class thinks carefully about some serious aspects of E-Safety.

Our Reception children looked at Smartie the Penguin, who helped them to come up with ways they can keep themselves safe when using tablets.

Our Year 1 children looked at asking permission before using technology and also touched on the dangers of giving out personal information on websites. They completed an E-Safety course on Education City and earned themselves a certificate.
Year 1 Internet Safety activity

Year 2 discussed making the correct choices when using the internet. They helped Zap and Zoom make the correct choices when playing online games.
Year 2 Internet Safety activity

Here is what Year 3 got up to:
Year 3 Internet Safety activity

In Year 4, the children moved to stations around the hall in order to answer questions about online safety. This was interesting as it was all based on personal opinion and sparked lots of discussion.

They then filled in two t-shirts with information – one that could be worn publicly and one that could only be worn privately. This helped the children to decide which information we should and should not share online. Then the children took to our blog to have their say on different scenarios.

Year 5 discussed the issue of cyber bullying and made some ‘Power of online positivity’ posters to remind people how to respect each other both online and offline.

Year 6 focused on the power of social media and the impact it can have on others

Cyber-bullying

To coincide with Anti-Bullying week, our Digital Leaders got together to plan and deliver a Cyber-bullying workshop for the children in our school to highlight the issues of bullying using technology. Cyber-bullying is rife in the world at the moment, so we wanted to ensure children in our school knew the dangers of it and how to spot the signs, in case a friend is taking part in the bullying or becomes a victim of it. Each class in KS2 got the chance to spend 25 minutes with our Digital

Leaders taking part in various activities that made them think more about bullying in this way.
The workshop began with a powerpoint from 2 of our Year 6s, who introduced the issue with some thought-provoking points:

Then children were invited to visit different stations hosted by our Digital Leaders.

We had some cyber-bullying scenarios on our blog for children to read and respond with what they would do in that situation:

We asked people some questions to see if they have ever cyber-bullied without knowing:

We presented children with some text messages and asked them a series of questions to decide whether they should send it or not:

We asked children some cyber-bullying related questions and if they gave the correct answer, they were able to take a move on Connect 4:

We also had a table that contained some cyber-bullying quizzes and word searches. At this table, children were also invited to create an acrostic poem with the word ‘CYBER-BULLYING’:

We concluded the workshop with a Kahoot quiz where each class were split into their House Point teams and asked questions related to Cyber-bullying:

Well done to our Digital Leaders for leading a fantastic, worthwhile workshop that really got our children thinking about cyber-bullying!

Family E-Safety Workshop

Our Digital Leaders helped plan and lead our biggest E-Safety workshop to date this March, when we invited families to join their children at an E-Safety workshop after school. We planned lots of activities that were split between various rooms and for each activity, people were able to earn a sticker which became an app on their Ipad pass. 4 stickers earned them a slice of pizza!

Once families had signed into our workshop, they followed digital footsteps to rooms that contained different activities. In one of the rooms, parents and Year 5 and 6 children were invited to watch an E-Safety film whilst the younger children took part in E-Safety games and quizzes in the ICT Suite with Mrs Redman and some of our Digital Leaders. There were E-Safety clips in all other rooms too… Here is a brief summary of the other activities on offer:

Apps and Adverts

This room was aimed towards KS1 children but everyone was welcome. It centred around Smartie the Penguin and what he should do when unwanted pop-ups appeared online.

Online Security

In this room, children and their families devised a super safe password and checked it with an online password checker, designed a webcam cover and had the opportunity to create a Parent / Child contract on using the internet at home.

Social Media and Cyber-bullying

Here, families played a game of matching pairs – matching the social media apps to their legal ages. They were also able to design two T-shirts – a private one which would only be worn indoors and a public one which would be worn outdoors. This enabled people to think about the kind of information that shouldn’t be shared publicly. Many families also enjoyed finding out more about cyber-bullying and completing wordsearches and acrostic poems.

Youtube and Gaming

Children enjoyed using Ipads to create a vlog explaining how to keep safe online when filming and posting videos, and working with their families to create a map of their real-life family and friend connections using a mapping tool on Purple Mash. Parents were also introduced to our school blog where they could work with their children to answer E-Safety scenario questions.

Thank you once again to our Digital Leaders and to the families who attended. We hope you found the evening useful and took something away from it! We have received lots of positive feedback through our feedback forms and the E-Safety questionnaire many of you carried out. Please have a look at our photos below – can you spot yourself enjoying the activities?