ONLINE SAFETY

Online safety is an important part of keeping children safe. We have extensive security measures in place in school, which are monitored both internally and externally, to help safeguard pupils from potential dangers or unsuitable material. Online safety is taught to all pupils explaining and demonstrating how to stay safe and behave appropriately online.

Our Computing and PSHE work has a strong focus on teaching online safety to ensure children have an awareness and understanding of how to safeguard and protect themselves and others online.  We use the 'Project Evolve' materials to help us to teach online safety to all our pupils. This programme is relevant and helps us to keep our teaching up to date as technology evolves rapidly, enabling us to help our children learn how to keep themselves safe on line, how to use technology in a reponsible way and what to do if something  online is worrying them. 

Our Acceptable Use Policies (AUPs) share the ways which children and adults can be good digital citizens and keep them selves and others safe in an age appropriate way. 

We work with parents and carers to ensure the online safety message is consistent at home and at school. We support our families and ask that carers  speak to their children about how they can keep safe and behave appropriately online and model those behaviours at home. There are some helpful guides to apps, games and technology below. Please note the age limits on some of these games, apps and sites are older than the primary school age range.  We would recommend and ask that parents and carers follow the given age limits with your children. 

Guided Access

Guided access is a helpful feature on iPads that allows you to control and limit your child’s use of the device to one app at a time. It’s perfect for keeping children focused on a single task or app, preventing accidental exits, or stopping access to certain areas of an app.

With guided access, you can:

• Disable specific parts of the screen to prevent unintentional touches.
• Lock the device to one app only.
• Set time limits for app usage.

Click here to find out how to set it up on your children's devices. 

Online advice & learning for parents / carers

We also recommend these free courses from the National College which wil help you to understand the online world for children. 

https://nationalcollege.com/courses/os-for-parents-carers-of-children-aged-3-7 

https://nationalcollege.com/courses/os-for-parents-carers-of-children-aged-7-11  

Developed by safeguarding experts and presented by TV presenter, musician and passionate online safety advocate, Myleene Klass, these courses take you on a detailed journey through your child’s digital habits, explaining the type of online world they’re experiencing now, what risks they might be exposed to and just what you can do to support.

National Consultation – growing up in an online world - Closing date end of May 2026

 The Government are holding a National Consultation about growing up in the online world for children.  Please do take a few minutes to complete this survey and share your views.  This is open until the end of May. Thank you to one of our parents who shared this link with me.

https://www.gov.uk/government/consultations/growing-up-in-the-online-world-a-national-consultation

Government Guidance about screen time and young children  - April 2026

https://www.gov.uk/government/news/new-screen-time-guidance-for-parents-of-under-5s?utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=govuk-notifications-topic&utm_source=b1634012-43b6-4d65-a558-dbf19f7b1811&utm_content=daily

New resources: gaming & online bullying  on the ‘Kids online safety’ website

https://kidsonlinesafety.campaign.gov.uk/

Together with the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology (DSIT), Kids Online Safety have published new resources to help parents and carers understand and get support for online bullying and gaming.

These new sections are designed to help families and give them more confidence in talking to their children about what they’re doing and experiencing online.

The updated content includes:

 how to spot the signs of online bullying

• guidance and support if a child is being bullied
• practical tips to help make online gaming safer
• information on age ratings and parental controls for games