Online Safety
Online safety is an essential part of our curriculum at Goat Lees Primary School. We believe that online safety is one of the most important issues facing children today and so, we have planned termly online safety lessons. This means that our learners receive reminders and new information as often as possible, in regards to online safety issues and how they can best deal with these. We also stay up-to-date with current online safety issues, using Internet Matters, The Key and The UK Safer Internet Centre, so that we can update out families and the whole school community as often as possible as well.
We believe it is very important to address current issues and we use online safety to help talk about a range of areas throughout the school year. As a result, we look carefully at information technology and what is important to the children, helping to provide information and advice so children can use technology safely and responsibly while they are at Goat Lees and when they progress to secondary school and beyond.
We understand that online devices have the potential for inappropriate use and sadly, children may access unsuitable information and content. We have a duty of care to protect our learners and we do this in school by:
- Using the Broadband4 Filtering System, which robustly blocks inappropriate websites and content on sites and apps, from children and adult users in school. This can be updated immediately when new apps, websites or content is discovered, allowing us to maximise the safety of our children in school.
- Ensuring that children who are accessing the internet are supervised by school staff.
- Ensuring that all children who bring mobile devices into school, hand these in immediately to their teachers.
- Outlining our Online Safety rules and consequences clearly at the start of the year, with our children.
As a school, we believe that online devices and content are very powerful resources which can enhance teaching and learning when used effectively and appropriately. The Internet is an essential part of modern life for most of our learners, their families and our whole school community. Through teaching online safety in a variety of contexts, we strive for our children to know how to keep themselves as safe as possible online.
If your child has access to the internet at home, please follow some simple rules to ensure their safety:
- Ensure that you are present with your child and available to support them, when they are using online devices.
- Discuss and set some simple rules together, making sure that the children understand that these rules help to keep them safe and happy online.
- Make sure that you remain calm and open to discussions about online games, apps, websites and potential safety issues. If your child feels comfortable to share their online identity and safety worries with you, they are more likely to do so.
- Use the school website and communications for suitable educational sites.
- If you, or your child, need to report something unsuitable, please follow the link to ceop below.
Some useful links if you would like to find out more about current and upcoming online safety issues are:
https://www.internetmatters.org/
https://www.nspcc.org.uk/keeping-children-safe/online-safety/