Online Safety

Online safety is an important topic for us at Gorringe Park Primary as we want to ensure that our pupils use online resources safely and confidently. In this ever-changing world of technology children can access online content in many different ways so we all need to work together to support them when navigating the online world.

At Gorringe we reflect on online safety practices whenever we use an online source in our lessons and we teach it explicitly once a term in our computing lessons. We teach the learners to follow a set of SMART rules when going online at home and at school. See them below:

The best way to support your child at home is to talk to them about how they are using the internet.

Here are some top tips on how to keep your children safe online:

If you would like to talk to your children about how they can stay safe online, you can watch the below video with them to begin the conversation: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X9Htg8V3eik

Below are useful links on how to set parent controls on different devices as well as useful app to control screen times:

Setting up parental controls with internet matters:

https://www.internetmatters.org/parental-controls/

Apple screen time:

https://su pport.apple.com/en-gb/HT208982

Google family links:

https://familie s.google.com/familylink/

The BBC has a website and app called Own It. The website helps children navigate their online lives while still giving them a sense of privacy. The free smartphone app comes with a special keyboard which can intervene with help and support in the moments that children need it the most. It can be downloaded for free in the Google Play Store and Apple App Store. https://www.bbc.com/ownit/take-control/own-it-app

SafeToNet is an app for parents to help them protect their children from online risks like cyberbullying and sexting, while respecting their child’s rights to privacy. The SafeToNet Foundation is providing UK families with free-for-life access to SafeToNet during the coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak. https://safetonet.com/

Information of apps your children might be using:

Would you like to learn some more about the apps your children are using, use the search tool at the below link to find out more: https://www.net-aware.org.uk/

At a glance please see below the age restrictions for common apps that your children might use. Please remember that these age restrictions have been placed for a reason and if you are allowing your child to use these platforms please do talk to them about what they are accessing.