We welcomed an online safety expert, Luke Brent-Savage*, to the Junior School. He met with each year group and used engaging characters and videos to open discussions and to get the children thinking about how they use the internet. Our children love using and talking about the internet and they shared the games and apps that they use most often. He introduced them to CEOP who are the police who keep children safe online and showed them their website ‘Thinkuknow.’ This website is an excellent resource for children, parents and teachers. The children’s resources are grouped by age making it easy for them to find the appropriate information. The older children were shown the ‘report abuse’ button on this website and were informed that they can use this button if they are unhappy with content or behaviour they experience online.
In the parent session in the evening, Luke explained how important it is to have conversations with children about what they are doing online and to ensure that the correct privacy settings are in place on devices at home. If a child is using apps like Instagram and Snapchat, they must have private accounts and have any live location settings turned off. The app Houseparty was popular with the older children who were told to ensure that if they are in a chat that the room is locked. Luke was very keen to distinguish between friends in the real world and online friends. Only friends in the real world should know your personal information which needs to be kept private online i.e. full name, age, address and school.
Staff and parents were introduced to the NSPCC Net Aware website which has all the up-to-date information about games and apps. We were encouraged to do some reading about the types of games that the children are interested in and playing at home so that we can talk to our children about them. All the sessions were engaging and thought-provoking.
https://www.ceop.police.uk/safety-centre/
*Luke works for the specialist training organisation Education Child Protection.
Junior School Open Day
The next Alleyn's Junior School Open Event is from 1.30pm to 3pm on Wednesday 22 May 2024. There will be a Head's Talk at 1.40pm after which you will be offered a tour of the school with a pupil. There is no need to book a place at this Open Event - everyone is welcome.
Last updated on 20 05 24 at 09:12
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