Online Safety

It is essential that children are safeguarded from potentially harmful and inappropriate material or behaviours online. We will adopt a whole school approach to online safety which will empower, protect, and educate our learners and staff in their use of technology, and establish mechanisms to identify, intervene in, and escalate any concerns where appropriate.

The school identifies that the breadth of issues classified within online safety is considerable, but can be categorised into four areas of risk:

• Content: being exposed to illegal, inappropriate or harmful content. For example, pornography, fake news, racism, misogyny, self-harm, suicide, anti-Semitism, radicalisation and extremism.
• Contact: being subjected to harmful online interaction with other users. For example, child on child pressure, commercial advertising and adults posing as children or young adults with the intention to groom or exploit children for sexual, criminal, financial or other purposes.
• Conduct: personal online behaviour that increases the likelihood of, or causes, harm. For example, making, sending and receiving explicit images (e.g. consensual and non-consensual sharing of nudes and semi-nudes and / or pornography), sharing other explicit images and online bullying.
• Commerce: risks such as online gambling, inappropriate advertising, phishing and or financial scams.

 Online Safety encompasses Internet technologies and electronic communications such as mobile phones and personal publishing. It highlights the need to educate pupils about the benefits and risks of using technology and provides safeguards and awareness for users to enable them to control their online experience. The Internet is an essential element in 21st century life for education, business and social interaction. The school has a duty to provide pupils with quality Internet access as part of their learning experience. 

Working with Families

We will build a partnership approach to online safety and will support parents/carers to become aware of and alert to the potential online benefits and risks for children by: ensuring all families have access to up to date guidance and resources on our school website and via our social media platforms. Families are invited into school for annual online safety CPD. Please have a look at the workshop video below delivered by our trusted friends at the NSPCC.

 Online Safety Curriculum Resources

The online safety element of our Computing curriculum is embedded within our weekly connection time sessions (PSHE) which are mapped across the year. As a school we have found the Project Evolve online resource most useful.

ProjectEVOLVE resources each of the 330 statements from UK Council for Internet Safety's (UKCIS) framework “Education for a Connected World” with perspectives; research; activities; outcomes; supporting resources and professional development materials. 

This vast library of content is managed by an innovative new engine, designed by the brilliant SWGfL Webteam, that not only makes navigating the content intuitive but allows users to personalise the content they collate. 

ProjectEVOLVE is a free digital literacy toolkit that supports online development in children and young people. It assists professionals in educating, guiding and supporting them through their use of technology in their online life. The toolkit covers over 600 separate resources that cover various topics and age ranges from very young children, right up to 18. It establishes some of the fundamental building blocks around the right sort of education needed for their online development and wellbeing.

See below the learning outcomes for our children across school in relation to Online Safety.

 Early Years Online Safety

• I can recognise, online or offline, that anyone can say ‘no’ - ‘please stop’ - ‘I’ll tell’ - ‘I’ll ask’ to somebody who makes them feel sad, uncomfortable, embarrassed or upset.
• I can identify rules that help keep us safe and healthy in and beyond the home when using technology
• I can identify some simple examples of my personal information (e.g. name, address, birthday, age, location)
• I can describe ways that some people can be unkind online

Year 1 Online Safety

• I know how to get help from a trusted adult if we see content that makes us feel sad, uncomfortable, worried or frightened (Project Evolve– Managing online information)
• I can explain why it is important to always ask a trusted adult before sharing any personal information online, belonging to myself or others (Project Evolve– Online relationships).
• I can explain rules to keep myself safe when using technology both in and beyond the home (Project Evolve-Health, well-being and lifestyle).

Year 2 Online Safety

•  I can reflect on how much screen time I have and if this is healthy
• I can explain and give examples of what is meant by ‘private’ and ‘keeping things private’ ( Project Evolve– Privacy and Security).
• I can describe different ways to ask for, give, or deny my permission online and can identify who can help me if I am not sure (Project Evolve– Online relationships).
• I can explain how other people may look and act differently online and offline (Project Evolve– Self image and identity).

Year 3 Online Safety

• I can explain why spending too much time using technology can sometimes have a negative impact on anyone; I can give some examples of both positive and negative activities where it is easy to spend a lot of time engaged (Project Evolve –Health, Well being and lifestyle)
• I can give reasons why someone should only share information with people they choose to and can trust. I can explain that if they are not sure or feel pressured then they should tell a trusted adult (Project Evolve– Online Relationships)
• I can explain what it means to ‘know someone’ online and why this might be different from knowing someone offline (Project Evolve– Privacy & Security)

Year 4 Online Safety

• I can give examples of how to be respectful to others online and describe how to recognise healthy and unhealthy online behaviours (Project Evolve– Online relationships)
• I can describe ways people can be bullied through a range of media (e.g. image, video, text, chat) (Project Evolve– Online bullying)
• I can explain how my online identity can be different to my offline identity (Project Evolve– self-image and identity)

Year 5 Online Safety

• I can describe how what one person perceives as playful joking and teasing (including ‘banter’) might be experienced by others as bullying (Project Evolve– Online Bullying)
• I can explain how anyone can get help if they are being bullied online and identify when to tell a trusted adult (Project Evolve– Online Bullying)
• I can describe ways that information about anyone online can be used by others to make judgments about an individual and why these may be incorrect (Project Evolve—Online Reputation)
• I can describe some strategies, tips or advice to promote health and wellbeing with regards to technology (Project Evolve– Health, Well-being and lifestyle)

Year 6 Online Safety

• I can identify and critically evaluate online content relating to gender, race, religion, disability, culture and other groups, and explain why it is important to challenge and reject inappropriate representations online (Project Evolve– Self-image and identity)
• I can explain strategies anyone can use to protect their ‘digital personality’ and online reputation, including degrees of anonymity (Project Evolve– Online Reputation)
• I recognise and can discuss the pressures that technology can place on someone and how / when they could manage this (Project Evolve– Health, Well-being and Lifestyle)