Sandfield Close Primary School

At Sandfield Close Primary School, we take the safety of our pupils very seriously and this includes their safety whilst they are online. As a school, endeavour to ensure that our approach to e-safety is spread to the home environment too so that parents and carers can remain up-to-date in the digital world so that you can guide your child accordingly. 

Online safety is an ever-growing and changing area of both interest and concern. The internet and related technologies, including mobile devices such as phones, gaming media and watches are developing rapidly and are an integral part of our daily lives. 

If used correctly, these technologies can be used to enable students to engage creatively with their learning. However, socially, children often use the internet for entertainment, interaction and communication with ‘friends’ – bringing about new risks. 

It has never been more important for schools, parents and carers to understand how their children use the internet and associated technologies, so that they can help to manage the risks that exist and reinforce the important online safety messages that we should all be promoting. 

You can find out more about how children use social media, the apps they use, the risks they face, how to use privacy settings and advice about how to talk to your child at: 

• https://www.childnet.com/parents-and-carers/ 

• https://www.internetmatters.org/ 

• https://www.nspcc.org.uk/keeping-children-safe/online-safety/ 

• https://www.thinkuknow.co.uk/parents 

• https://parentzone.org.uk/ 

• https://www.askaboutgames.com/ 

• Talk together and have fun learning together.  

• Keep virus and firewall software up to-date.  

• Remember that passwords should be kept private and not shared with others. Many e-safety incidents relate back to the sharing of passwords. 

• Involve everyone and agree guidelines and rules. Remind children that sometimes what is acceptable for an older child is not necessarily acceptable for a younger child.  

• Regularly discuss online safety and go online with children. Communication is the key to ‘staying safe’ online.  

• Enable ‘browser safe’ search options and/ or use internet filtering software, walled gardens and child-friendly search engines.  

• Critically view all content as some websites are not what they appear.  

• Keep computers and devices in areas where it is easier to monitor what children are viewing. 

• Do not let your children have webcams, or similar when unsupervised. Remember any image, sound or text can be copied and viewed by everyone.  

• Talk to children about why they should not give out their personal details.  

• Discourage children from using chat rooms, and advise them to never meet up with an online ‘friend.’ 

• Time spent online should be monitored to help prevent obsessive use of the internet.  

• Encourage children to tell you if they feel uncomfortable, upset or threatened by anything they see online.