At Home

As a parent, you’ll know how important the internet is to the children. They will access it regularly to learn, play games, consume media content, socialise and be creative. The possibilities of the online world are virtually endless but this level of access can also be somewhat daunting and you might worry about what the children can face online – bullying, contact from strangers, inappropriate or even illegal content and so on. Our main provider of computing resources, Purple Mash, have produced a useful guide for parents.

Parenting in a digital world 

You can always engage your children in conversations regarding their use of the internet at home. Childnet has a list of suggested openers such as:

• Ask your children to tell you about the sites they like to visit and what they enjoy doing online.
• Ask them about how they stay safe online. What tips do they have for you, and where did they learn them? What is OK and not OK to share?
• Ask them if they know where to go for help, where to find the safety advice, privacy settings and how to report or block on the services they use.
• Encourage them to help. Perhaps they can show you how to do something better online or they might have a friend who would benefit from their help and support.
• Think about how you use the internet as a family. What could you do to get more out of the internet together and further enjoy your lives online

Childnet also produces a leaflet for parents with guidance on keeping young children safe online. Keeping young children safe online. 

And here you can access the DofE advice on cyberbullying.  Advice for parents on cyberbullying.

You can also access the DofE online parents support, Parent Info. 

At School

We will only provide access to the internet in teacher supervised lessons. We strongly believe that the use of the web and email is hugely worthwhile and an essential tool for children as they grow up in the modern world. But because there are always concerns about children having access to undesirable materials, we have taken positive steps to deal with this risk in school. Our school internet access provider operates a filtering system that restricts access to inappropriate materials and social media sites.

At the start of the school year, each class discusses how we can all stay safe online and the dangers we may face on the internet.  We will also ask children in KS2 to sign an Acceptable Use Agreement so that we know they have read and understood the school’s rules for staying safe. We also have a similar Acceptable Use Agreement for EYFS and KS1 children that simplifies the language and expectations.

Useful Links

Childnet is a great website resource for parents and children on online safety.

Think U Know has a great section for parents and covers topics such as gaming and talking to strangers.  You can also search by topic or age range to find information that is relevant for your family.

Internet Matters is another great site to use – it has advice on cyberbullying, how to talk to your children about internet safety and quick guides to different types of social media such as Instagram, Tik Tok and Snapchat.

Here are quick links to a range of Internet safety sites that you may find useful too:

NSPCC Net Aware

Safer Internet

CEOP Police