The new Computing Curriculum, which began in September 2014, is now well and truly underway. Throughout this curriculum, there are many opportunities for the children to discuss and practise e-safety. We are proud of how knowledgeable and aware the children are when we speak to them about keeping themselves and others safe online.

Safer Internet Day, celebrated on 9 February, was also a huge success, with children from Key Stages 1 & 2 joining a world-wide effort to complete pledges, promising to contribute to a safer world.

• Inappropriate materials can be filtered as they enter your home network. The link below should give further advice on how to set up internet filtering using the four main internet service providers: BT, Sky, Talk Talk and Virgin Media.
• Filtering using Internet Service Providers
• Security settings are also available on each social media site. By following the link below, you can find out how to manage the specific securite settings on 14 of the most popular social networking sites.
• Managing security settings on social media sites
•  If children are taking their devices out of the home, it's worth bearing in mind that they could connect to public wifi, for example, in a shop, cafe or restaurant. Look out for the Friendly WiFi symbol which shows that the wifi has filters in place to limit access to inappropriate content. 

Monitoring of websites accessed can be achieved by checking browser history, but if you would like more detailed reports of sites visited or sites your children have attempted to access, you could download a web protection tool. K9 is one such free tool. Details are given below.

• K9 Web Protection Tool
• All mobile phones have parental control options, but they are not always switched on by default. More information about these settings can by following the link below.
• Parental controls on mobile phones
• Many of you wanted to know how and when to report e-safety concerns. Inappropriate material can be reported to your network service provider. More serious inappropriate contact should be reported to the Child Exploitation and Online Protection Centre (CEOP) who have a dedicated 'Report Abuse' button. See link below.
•  CEOP Reporting of Inappropriate Contact

ESAFETY LINKS

• CEOP Internet Safety
• Get Safe Online Free Expert Advice
• Think U Know
• Childline

SAFER INTERNET DAY

Tuesday 9 February 2021 was Safer Internet Day. This year's theme was "An internet we trust-sharing reliability in the online world." The children completed various activities from the website www.saferinternet.org and had an assembly on how to keep themselves safe online. This website also has useful information for parents. Vodaphone have produced an online Digital Parenting magazine which is available on http://vodafonedigitalparenting.co.uk/ . This has a number of useful articles for parents on how to support children in the online world.