Online Safety

 If you have experienced anything that has worried you when online, please fill out the form below so we can help you resolve it quickly.

Did you know?

78% of parents/carers at Barlborough Primary School (who responded to the questionnaire) have rules for internet and device usage at home?

Thank you for the amazing 51 parents who sent in the responses to the online safety questionnaire sent out two weeks ago.

I have calculated the data and listened to the responses. These can be found on this terms newsletter attached. I will producing these termly to hep provide you with information of interested noted on these questionnaires.

Happy reading. 

Due to the success of the school litter pick when celebrating the King's coronation, this half terms Family Learning Project is all about working together to do little jobs that will spread kindness.

How many ways can you make someone's day and stay off the screen on Saturday 27th May? (Or a day in half term that suits you)

-Can you wash someone's car?
-Have a spring clean and donate some old toys or clothes to charity.
-Write little thank you notes to people and hand these out to the postman, window cleaner or family members.
-Walk someone's dog (taking into consideration the safety implication this could have) or help look after someone's pet.
-Decorate a stone with a bright design or a message of kindness and hide these around the village to make whoever finds them smile.
-Volunteer your time and help a neighbour, friend or some family with a task.


Thank you to all of those families who have taken part in previous family learning projects. To help me make these even better, please fill in this questionnaire below. It should only take a few minutes of your time and would be very helpful. Thank you to all those who have already completed this. It appears last year's recipe book was a real winner so watch this space!

https://www.allcounted.com/s?did=goo57oiyd5491&lang=en_US 

Doxxing means someone on the internet has posted private information about someone else for the world to see. This information is personally identifiable and therefore sensitive. As such, someone can use it to figure out who someone really is, where they live and how to contact them. Being doxxed is a form of cyberbullying.

The information can be the victim’s real name, home address, phone number, email address, photos or other personal information.

Find out more and how to prevent this from happening here: What is doxxing and how can you keep your child safe? | Internet Matters

31 children said they had received nasty messages or content online. Although that may sound a low number- receiving such things at such a young age can be very worrying and really affect their mental health.

What would you do if your child received a nasty message or comment online?

Here is a fantastic leaflet with some simple information outlining some good strategies to use if your children inform you that this has happened to them : https://resources.finalsite.net/images/v1575644855/brightonacademiestrustorguk/terymbh98o6bacomwv6y/TSLA_PDF_e-safety_nasty_messages_parents_and_carers_guide.pdf

Thank you to all of those families who took part in the family learning project. To help me make these even better, please fill in this questionnaire below (hopefully it works this time!) It should only take a few minutes of your time and would be very helpful.

https://www.allcounted.com/s?did=goo57oiyd5491&lang=en_US

To help you step away from the screen throughout the Easter holidays, can you tick off as many activities from this spring checklist?
Complete as many as you can, bring in your checklist along with photos of your completed activities (or upload these to Dojo) and you could win a prize. 

 Easter weekend is just around the corner, and young people’s screen time will have likely increased – why not take the opportunity as a family to readdress the importance of online safety before terms restarts?

Childnet have a plethora of resources, activities and games for the whole family to get stuck in and encourage safe and positive usage of the internet.

Whether regarding devices and screentime, social media, or parental controls – we are here to help you stay calibrated top of all things online safety.

Family agreement

Who is this for? The whole family!

This resource could be a fun and collaborative opportunity to kickstart the Easter weekend.

Our family agreement template helps you all to set clear expectations for positive and safe internet use, especially as device and internet usage will likely go up without school in the day.

Encouraging participation from all in the family, it’s a great opportunity to set the rules together, without someone feeling left out.

You can then stick it on the fridge as a reminder of the rules you have set as a family!

Find out some more activity ideas here: 

5 Eggciting online safety Eggtivities to enjoy this Easter weekend | Childnet

10 fun things to do this Easter | Internet Matters

Swiggle is a search engine designed to provide a safer environment for kids taking their first steps on the road to safe online searching.

Powered by Google Custom Search, the results are filtered using Google SafeSearch and educational resources prioritised.  They also filter the search terms to check that Swiggle is not being used to search for inappropriate content.

While no kids safe search engine can prevent access to everything that's inappropriate, and allow access to everything educational and beneficial, they have worked hard to balance this and provide a safe kids search engine that's free of advertising and free to use.

Find it here: Swiggle.org.uk - Child Friendly Search Engine for Kids

 Happy Safer Internet Day

Did you know that half of our students think that there are no rules when using the internet or devices at home?

Derbyshire Police and Cyber Crime will be hosting an online webinar to help you use the internet and email more safely and try to think of ways you can implement rules at home to ensure safe internet use.

This is a non tech awareness session to warn the public of cybercrime, fraud and scams - and how you can protect yourself and your family online.

This session is of benefit to anyone who uses the internet and email.

Session will cover :

• Device safety/protection
• Password Guidance and account security
• Protecting your Personal Information
• Using social media safely
• Social Engineering and phishing emails/texts
• Online shopping & Online Banking safely
• Keeping youngsters safe online
• Safer Internet Day – Want to talk about it? Making space for conversations about life online - signposting to tools and resources to help
• Signposting to further sources of support and resources
• Where to report

The session is being run twice – Tues 7th Feb, 1830h
https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/517467377857

And repeated on Weds 8th Feb, 1330h
https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/517638228877


If you prefer not to click on links, run a web search for Eventbrite Derbyshire Police Cyber Crime Unit.

These events are free of charge, but you are required to book a ticket via Eventbrite to reserve your place and be provided with the link to the online meeting.

💻 Safer Internet Day Family Learning Project 👨‍👩‍👦‍👦

With Safer Internet Day Tomorrow I wanted to link this half terms family learning project with this and have a little bit of a twist this time...

Want to talk about it? Making Space for conversations about life online.

We are doing things differently with this family learning project and want you to get online with your children- making it a safe space to discuss their life online.

Saturday 11th February

Can you stay Online for the day?

Activity 1

What is your child's favourite app and why?

Together fill in the 'Recommend an app sheet' to help you learn more about what app or game is your child's favourite and why. Ask them to show you it. Talk about what this app/ game lets you do, why they like it, do they learn anything on it, is there anything they would change about it and why. Has anything worrying happened on it. What would they do if… Share your favourite too.

Bring this into school for these to be shared with other parents (if appropriate!)

Activity 2

Internet Legend Gaming Competition.

Work as a family to answer questions all about internet safety and become Internet Legends. How many islands can your character get to?

If your family completes all the islands, bring in your certificates for each level and you will be put in a prize draw.

https://beinternetawesome.withgoogle.com/en_uk/

Activity 3

Family Rules Story

As many of the children from the questionnaires did not think or did not know if there were rules at home to promote safe internet use, now is the chance to have a chat about this. Have a family meeting and talk about what rules there are in place, how these encourage safe internet usage and if the children think they are positive. Use some of the resources below to consider what new things you could put in place too. Work together to make a presentation, e-book, comic strip or even a video, talking about the family rules and also discussing what you can all do if you come across something that worries you. We would love to see what you come up with.

Band runner- https://www.bbc.com/ownit/take-control/thinkuknow-band-runner

Online Guidance for parents- https://swgfl.org.uk/resources/online-safety-guidance-for-parents/?gclid=CjwKCAiAleOeBhBdEiwAfgmXf82YqJr_Wz6YSpZ2WjTBNwv6YR9BPcGOqIzGGVhB4w3Xl4yYaHG4cxoCYTkQAvD_BwE

Conversation starters- https://www.internetmatters.org/safer-internet-day/#:~:text=Safer%20Internet%20Day%202023%20takes,support%20your%20child%27s%20digital%20journey.

Did you know...?

What would you do if your child sees something online that worries or scares them?

Do you think they would tell you?

There is some fantastic advice here:
https://www.abc.net.au/everyday/what-to-do-if-your-child-sees-something-disturbing-online/10915842 

Just a reminder: Family Learning Project- Sunday 18th December
Can you step away from your screen?

Activity 1- Ice Sculptures: Explore the process of freezing and melting by creating your very own ice bricks to use to make sculptures. Pour coloured water into ice cube trays, let these freeze and then have fun stacking these to build something. You could have times races with family members to see who can stack the most, or work together as a team.

Once built you could then become scientists to experiment with how different materials make ice melt faster for example salt.

Activity 2- Winter Scavenger Hunt If you want to get out and about and help the children keep occupied, download a copy of this scavenger hunt and see how many things you can find. Find it here: https://www.cbc.ca/parents/play/view/printable-winter-scavenger-hunt

Activity 3- Make some Christmas cards or winter cards. Get out your craft materials and get creative with your designs. Write a positive message, poem or story in these and take them to a local care home or hospital.

This is guaranteed to get a smile and make someone very happy.

Remember to send in some photos of how you spend time with your family away from the screen on this day. 

 Online Safety Questionnaire Fact

Every term the children complete questionnaires about their internet usage so we can tailor our curriculum to suit their current interests and target anything that may be concerning them. These offer a great insight into how and why children are using technology.

I will be sharing some of your children's responses.

Does your child go on a device when they should be asleep? How can we support children switching off and getting a good night's sleep?

A new family learning project to see if you can stay off the screens for the day will be shared by class teachers over the next couple of days- look out for this.

There is so much fun you can have with children in Autumn. Autumn is the perfect time for outdoor adventures. There are muddy puddles for muddy puddle nature walks and golden leaves to kick and scrunch and plenty of Autumn Nature Crafts to make during Autumn too!

Can you last a whole day without going digital on Saturday 29th November?

Activity 1
Make a Den
After an Autumn walk collecting materials, could you make a den? Why not try making it a competition between kids? Who can make the best den for their teddies or toys? For older children you might want to call it a ‘shelter’ and give points for shelters that are the most waterproof or the most hidden.

Activity 2
Make a Mandala
Collect some Autumn treasures and turn them into land art by making an Autumn Mandala. You could design these on paper before creating these with natural item

Activity 3
Make a Hedgehog House
Can you research hedgehogs and their habitats? After that design and make a hedgehog house using some of the natural materials collected.

Remember to share what you get up to with your class teachers on Class Dojo. 

 YouTube have been making improvements and there are a number of new features that are available to parents, not only in the main YouTube service but also for YouTube Kids.

YouTube Kids have made the following changes:
-Parent Allowlisting.
-Select content based on child’s age.
-How to approve what your kids can watch.
-Limiting screen time.

Main YouTube have made the following changes:
-Supervised Experience (for children 9+).


YouTube Parent Allowlisting is particularly exciting as it allows parents to share YouTube content to your child's YouTube Kids account. From talking to parents and children (particularly those in KS2) they no longer use YouTube kids as the content that they want to watch is not available on this, therefore they will use YouTube itself which obviously opens them up to viewing lots of inappropriate content.

To make it easy for parents to explore these changes a little more, some of the official YouTube videos that explain these new features can be found here: https://www.esafety-adviser.com/youtube-parental-restrictions/

Family Learning Project for this half term.

Jubilee staff off the screen day on Saturday 4th June.

Activity 1
Design and make your own Jubilee flag.
Can you get creative and design a flag showing the many changes that the Queen has seen during her reign? You could use books to explore different eras or ask family members what times were like when they were little to help you. You could also see if you know anyone who remembers the coronation.

Activity 2
Have a pudding or sandwich competition.
Can you put on a picnic or special Jubilee lunch and go head to head to see who can make the tastiest sandwich or pudding? Someone will have to have the tough job of being the judge! (They could even wear a crown!)

Activity 3
Hold your own Platinum Jubilee Pageant
As part of The Queen’s Jubilee celebrations, there will be a Platinum Jubilee pageant where artists, musicians and performers will entertain crowds of people, including the Royal Family.
Why not host your own pageant, where your family can demonstrate their interests, skills and talents?

Have fun! 

 Children are spending more time than ever online. As adults, we need to do everything we can to keep them safe in the digital world. But with new apps, games and platforms emerging every day, how can you stay in the know?

Say hello to the new National Online Safety mobile application. Created by experts!
With all online safety knowledge available at your fingertips, the NOS app empowers parents and teachers to understand and address online safeguarding risks – any time, anywhere.

The world’s most comprehensive online safety app, it’s packed with insightful courses, explainer videos, webinars and guides on topics that will help you protect the kids you care about when they’re online.

It is fantastic and I highly recommend it. 

Get Cooking: We would like you to get creative by inventing and making your very own recipes. These will then be sent to Miss Jolly and made into a real life recipe book for everyone to download.

Can you go a whole day without going digital on Saturday 26th March?

 I have had some lovely feedback about the family learning project and children and parents trying to step away from the screens. Families were very creative and went for long dog walks, played lots of board games, made slime and found out about the games their family members used to play. Thank you to those who took part and those who were honest and said it was a bit tricky to do! 

 The teachers have all been so enthusiastic with the 'train your teachers' day and have already been conducting research on the apps and games your children have said they enjoy so that they have a little bit of prior knowledge on them before your children take the lead on educating us. Some teachers have been playing the games themselves, others getting their own children to show them what to do and some even reading gaming manuals! Today is going to be fantastic.

As part of our Online Safety curriculum, we ensure children consider the importance of thinking about their screen time and becoming responsible with recognising when they feel they need a break from technology. This is something I think even some of us adults struggle with. With this in mind, I am going to promote some half termly challenges which encourage you and your families to put down the screens and take part in activities which encourage precious family time. This half term it is all about playing board games- please see the flyer attached for more information if it is something you would like to take part in. Next half term we will be working together as a school community to make an e-recipe book which you will all be able to download (if we have enough submissions of course!) I hope lots of you manage to join in and have a tech-free day if you are up for the challenge.

If you too would like to take the time to learn something new today about the things your children may get up to online, there are some fantastic websites below which you could use to generate discussions at home tonight-

https://nationalonlinesafety.com/guides
https://saferinternet.org.uk/guide-and-resource/parents-and-carers
https://www.nspcc.org.uk/keeping-children-safe/online-safety/

 Children are accessing technology and the internet at a younger age than ever before. It’s never too early to talk to your child about what they do online and who to tell if they come across anything online that makes them feel worried, scared or sad.

Jessie & Friends is a series of three animations that follow the adventures of Jessie, Tia and Mo as they begin to navigate the online world, watching videos, sharing pictures and playing games. There’s also a storybook for each episode, to help you and your child keep the conversation going.

Please find these videos for 4-7 year olds here- Jessie & Friends (thinkuknow.co.uk) 

 Children regularly use different websites and apps from their parents, and it can be hard to keep up in this ever-changing digital world.

But the things that help keep children safe online are often similar to the things that keep them safe offline.

Talk about what they think is normal online and what behaviour to expect from others and from themselves.

Encourage them to think critically and question what they see online. Talk to them about where they go to get information they trust, talk about fake news, fake followers and scams. Help them develop a healthy suspicion of whether people are who they say they are.  

Share your knowledge and experience of relationships. For example, sometimes people seem nice at first and then they turn out to be mean. Let them know that you know this, they can talk to you about it. And that you won’t panic or punish them if they do.

Show them how to report any worrying behaviour they see online – for example through Child Exploitation and Online Protection Command or the Internet Watch Foundation.

We are helping prepare our children for their futures if we help them go online safely and responsibly. Many people worry about amounts of screen time, but there can be lots of positives about what your child is doing online – entertainment, keeping in touch with friends and researching homework – so quality screen time is what’s important.

Please watch this video for lots of ideas so support online safety at home. There is lots more information here: Parents Protect - Internet Safety

 Safer internet day was a little different this year due to many of us learning from home due to lockdown. Despite this, we still dedicated the day to celebrating all of the wonderful things we can do online and learning all about how to recognise if information we come across is real or made up. The children were set a challenge to help teach us teachers all about the things they had learnt throughout the day and we had some wonderful advice. Please see the video below showing some of the best entries we had and well do to all of those who sent in a video. I would love to share them all, however we had so many. 

 While we all have to stay at a home due to corona virus,  a lot of us will be keeping in touch with friends and family using video group chat apps.

This is great fun, but sometimes things can go wrong. So BBC Newsround has got some useful tips for staying safe. Watch the video and find out more information here-https://www.bbc.co.uk/newsround/52228461

 This is a fantastic video the Digital Leaders shared on Safer Internet Day during their assembly. 

To help you parents get your head around cyberbullying too, the Digital Leaders and I have created a newsletter with this as a focus. Please view it below. 

 The Digital leaders have been very busy learning all about cyberbullying and spreading this message across the school to the children and also staff. They created assemblies to teach their peers all about what cyberbullying can look like and to also make them aware of the many ways to seek help if this happens. 
I had great feedback from the teachers who were conducting these assemblies, stating that the messages the Digital Leaders were giving were very clear and thorough. With this in mind, I thought it would be useful to share the presentations with parents too, so the community has similar messages and approaches if you ever have to deal with this.

What is Threads App from Instagram? 

Threads is an app for keeping up with your close friends. It’s the place for you to quickly share photos, videos, statuses, and Stories with your Instagram Close Friends list. Instagram Close Friends allows you to share a story only with people on that list. You can create or edit your Close Friends list using the Instagram app.

Who is using it?

Since it’s launch in October 2019, it is still a relatively new app and so it is hard to suggest the age group of users. However, we do know the app is aimed at users of Instagram.

What is Threads minimum age limit?

Threads has been given a minimum age limit of 12 and over in App stores but the minimum age rating for Instagram is 13 and over.

How does Threads app work?

To share and receive messages on Threads you’ll need an using existing Instagram account or there is an option to sign up to Instagram if you don’t have an account.

Close friends only

Threads works using your Instagram Close Friends list. If you have not created a Close Friends list on Instagram then you still have the option to create this via the Threads app. You can edit your Close Friends list at any time through the settings.

Auto status

There is an option to turn on ‘auto-status’ which gives permission for Threads to track and update your status based on your location, movement, battery level and network connection when you’re not using the app. Only people you’ve selected within your Close Friends list can see your status.

Sending and receiving messages

To take photos and record videos – you will need to allow Threads to access your camera and microphone on your device. Once access is given, you can take pictures and videos as well as upload existing media from your camera roll and share with all users of your Close Friends or specific people. Your Close Friends do not need to download the Threads app in order to receive your messages.

Posts you create in Threads will appear on your Instagram stories and your Close Friends will receive an Instagram and/or Threads notification (depending on if their notification settings are enabled).

Depending on your Instagram settings, you can access previous direct messages that you’ve sent to people in your Close Friends list.

For more information about this, please visit the Internet matters site. https://www.internetmatters.org/hub/news-blogs/what-is-threads-app-from-instagram/

We have had a number of parents expressing their concerns over their child hearing or using obscene language when playing online mode in games, particularly when on Fortnite. With this in mind, please take a look at this video which shows you how to disable chat. There is more information available about this here.

There has been a disturbing image appearing in the news recently due to it making its way in some YouTube videos and children viewing it. In order to refrain from encouraging pupils to research this we are not handing out information directly to the pupils to bring home to you or linking things to help articles on here. Instead there are letters for adults to pick up about this which will help you discuss it with your child if they have seen it, or educate you on it a bit more. There is also a link to these on Class Dojo. 

Here is a wonderful story to share with your children which is not only bright and inviting, but also has a very good message about the importance of ways to stay safe when using devices. It is great as a conversation starter and working together to see what Digi should do.  

 Thank you to those who attended the Safer Internet Day, it was a great success with lots of positive feedback from adults and we hope it gave you lots of insight into what your children are using their devices for by giving them the opportunity to show you first hand. It was then wonderful to round all our learning up from this day with the workshop we had on Monday.

There were a few people asking for guidance about setting up certain devices with parental locks, so here is a leaflet with some more information about these.
 

 This information, along with more specific instructions for safety settings with devices and apps can be found here: https://www.internetmatters.org/parental-controls/ 

Please take a look on individual class pages to see more photos of our day.  

As Safer Internet Day looms it is worth considering how confident other adults involved in our children's lives are when it comes to dealing with online safety issues. With this in mind I thought I would share this helpful leaflet with you which may be useful to pass on to other family members who may feel that technology is a little beyond them.

It may also be worth getting your children to teach these family  members about what they are using and how some of their favourite apps work. You never know, you may also learn something new! 

Autoplay has been added to many of our favourite video watching apps to encourage you to continue to stay on it, in turn making the company more  revenue. Here is a short video to show you how to disable this on some of the popular applications.

In this new addition of the magazine, the following will be covered;
Captology – computers as persuasive technologies
Parents – scare or prepare?
Reporting harmful content
Secrets
Internet safety at pre-school
Passwords
Fortnite scams
Strip Fortnite
and more…..

To celebrate Safer Internet Day 2017 the Anti- Bully Ambassadors have put together a short film to help you remember a few important tips when using the internet to share images or videos.

The most important things you can do in order to help your child have fun and stay safe are the following;

1. Set up a family agreement for internet usage. Limit the time spent on devices with access to this.
2. Talk to your children openly about what you are doing and what they are doing on the internet.
3. Keep your security settings up to date, checking them regularly as they often change when apps are updated.
4. Turn off geotagging services.
5. Ensure your children understand what could be dangerous to include in any images they upload, for example school uniforms, street names or car registrations.
6. Talk to your children about where to report things they find on the internet which they don't quite like, or conversations sent that they are not comfortable. The IWF and CEOP are the main places to do this.
7. Watch videos on the Think You Know website which are regularly updated to tackle current issues and also split into age categories.
8. Continue to relay the message that the internet is a very fun way to lea

This work was produced by 4P and is on display in their classroom. They even made some games to go with it. 

 This display was created by the 'SMART crew' of class 3/4E and is on display just outside their classroom.

 Class 2/3W worked hard to produce this display which is on display in their classroom.

 These displays are on display in the foyer outside 2G and 1W and show how the children of these classes know how to make the internet a safer place to be.

 Even the very youngest members of our school looked at staying safe. This display was produced by RVG and is on display in their classroom.