Safer Internet Day promotes key ways to keep children safe online, as nearly 70 percent of teens now use Facebook and Snapchat. This year it took place on Tuesday 9 February, with the aim of teaching school children and teens how to operate more safely online.
This year’s Safer Internet Day teachers and students of The Webber have focused on how we can decide what to trust online. It is important for parents and teachers to support students to question, challenge and change the online world for the better.
Students in all year groups also looked at the impact navigating a misleading online world can have on young people and why it is important to create a supportive, critical and questioning culture online that encourages debate and discussion.
We want to enable our students to be ‘Webber Warriors’ and have the skills to support one another and the strategies to spot and speak out against harmful and misleading content online.
In Tutor time, PSHCE and in other lessons students have been participating in quizzes, watching online assemblies and discussing how to ensure resources they access online are safe to access and provide the best information. The House Competition was to create a mini video clip of how to use the internet safely or to create a poster with an online slogan.
Our Year 4 pupils created Safer Internet Posters outlining ways to stay safe online.
It is important to continue the conversation about being safe online at home. To help you with this you may be interested in downloading the free Safer Internet Day resource pack for parents and carers which is available here:
https://www.saferinternet.org.uk/safer-internet-day/safer-internet-day-2021/i-am-parent-orcarer
There are also top tips, a quiz and films which you can use at home with your child.
Some other resources which you may find helpful in supporting your child online are:
● Advice for parents and carers from https://www.childnet.com/parents-and-carers
● Tips, advice and guides for parents and carers from the UK Safer Internet Centre https://www.saferinternet.org.uk/advice-centre/parents-and-carers
● Guides on popular apps and games from NetAware https://www.net-aware.org.uk/
● Reviews and information about games, apps, TV shows and websites from Common Sense Media https://www.commonsensemedia.org/
● Help on using parental controls and privacy settings from Internet Matters https://www.internetmatters.org/
● Information and reporting of online grooming or abuse from CEOP https://www.ceop.police.uk/safety-centre/
Online safety is an important issue which as a school we are committed to teaching our young people about. Especially as we are having to rely on the internet more than ever during Virtual Webber!
If you have any concerns or questions about keeping your child safe online, please do get in touch with your child’s class teacher, myself or Ms Chessum our Designated Safeguarding Lead.
