Online safety – supporting appropriate behaviour online

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Behaviour online, both whilst at school and at home, is an increasingly important area where we need to work together with parents to ensure that our children are able to use the internet safely.

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On enrolling at Portway, all parents sign an Acceptable Use Policy (a copy is available as a download on this page). This document ensures that children understand the way in which we expect them to behave when using ICT resources at school.

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Online bullying (often called cyberbullying) is also something that we ensure that all parents and children are aware of.  The most recent DfE guidance - Advice for parents and carers on cyberbullying - helps parents to protect their children from cyberbullying, and provides advice on how to tackle it if it happens.

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Online safety at home

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As a school your child’s safety is of paramount importance to us. We also accept that a large majority of children in key stage 2 are using the internet at home, including accessing programmes that can be dangerous if not used in the correct way. As a school it is our duty to ensure that children and their families are using the internet safely and understand how to monitor its use.

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If your child has access to the internet at home do you know…

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What your child is doing when using the computer?  The dangers of using a chat site or email account?  How old a child must be to have a Facebook account?  How to monitor your child’s use of the internet? 

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If you answered no or are unsure about any of the above questions we can help! Please speak to the School Office for further information.  We also recommend the site ThinkUKnow, on which you can find a number of useful guides.  Childnet International is another useful site; the UK Safer Internet Centre also has a number of useful resources that we recommend.  

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Online safety tips and links for parents

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1. Support your children at home - Check you know what they are doing on the computer, especially chat rooms and games played with others online. Ask who their “friends” are. Get them to teach you about how things work.

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2. Support the school – Sign the Acceptable Use Policy and take an active interest in what your children are doing in ICT at school.

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3. Support their learning - It helps to keep the computer in a family room not tucked away in a child’s bedroom. Help your children to use the Internet for home work and leisure interests.

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4. Agree some family rules – How long to stay playing computer games, where to keep the mobile phones, which websites can be used....

 

Above all, be ‘SMART’:

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SAFE – Keep safe by being careful not to give out personal information – including full name and email address - to people who you don’t trust online.

 

MEETING – Meeting up with someone you have only been in touch with online can be dangerous. Only do so with your parent’s/carer’s permission and even then only when they can be present.

 

ACCEPTING – Accepting e-mails, IM messages or opening files from people you don’t know can be dangerous – they may contain viruses or nasty messages!

 

RELIABLE – Someone online may be lying about who they are, and information you find on the internet may not be true. Check information and advice on other websites, in books or ask someone who may know.

 

TELL – Tell your parent/carer or teacher if someone or something makes you feel uncomfortable or worried, or you or someone you know is being cyberbullied.

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For further information, please see the document to download on this page, that provides a list of useful websites for parents and children.

 

*This page was last reviewed in May 2022.

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