Online Safety at Villiers Primary School

Online Safety is an integral part of children’s education in today’s digital world and is embedded in their learning at school. We also want to help our parents and children improve their own understanding of e-safety issues so they can learn to use the internet and all digital media in a safe and secure way.

It's important to remember that the legal age to have an account on most social media - Instagram, Facebook, Youtube, Snapchat - is 13 years old.

At Home

As a parent, you'll know how important the internet is to children - they use it to learn, play, socialise and express themselves. It's a highly creative place of amazing opportunities. But the technology children use every day can seem a bit daunting and you might worry about the risks your child can face online - such as bullying, contact from strangers or the possibility of them seeing illegal or inappropriate content.

You can download a simple checklist here that may help you start to protect your children online and decrease the risks they face. Or you can engage with your children regarding their use of the internet while at home.

Here are some conversation starter ideas from www.childnet.com

Ask your children to tell you about the sites they like to visit and what they enjoy doing online.
Ask them about how they stay safe online. What tips do they have for you, and where did they learn them? What is OK and not OK to share?
Ask them if they know where to go for help, where to find the safety advice, privacy settings and how to report or block on the services they use.
Encourage them to help. Perhaps they can show you how to do something better online or they might have a friend who would benefit from their help and support.
Think about how you use the internet as a family. What could you do to get more out of the internet together and further enjoy your lives online?

At School

As part of your child’s curriculum and the development of computer skills, we provide access to the internet only in teacher supervised lessons. We strongly believe that the use of the web and email is hugely worthwhile and an essential tool for children as they grow up in the modern world. But because there are always concerns about children having access to undesirable materials, we have taken positive steps to deal with this risk in school. Our school internet access provider operates a filtering system that restricts access to inappropriate materials.

At the start of each Computing topic, each class discusses how we can all stay safe online and the dangers we may face on the internet with respect to the project they are working on. We also share with all children their respective Acceptable Use Agreement (see the resources section) so that we know they have read and understood our school's rules on staying safe.

If an incident occurs

In the case of an e-Safety incident, we follow the flowchart as published in our e-Safety policy. This is available to view from the resources section.

Resources

Online Safety Parent Checklist

SHINE Online Safety Policy

Villiers Online Safety Policy

Social Media & Networking Policy

Acceptable Use Policy

FS & KS1 Acceptable Use Agreement

KS2 Acceptable Use Agreement

Online Safety Whole School Progression

Jessie and Friends

To see the latest information fro parents on how to keep their 4-7 years olds safe on line, please click here

Smartphone Safe

If you would like to know more information on how to keep your child safe when they are using a smartphone here is a very useful and informative link here

Internet Safety Resources

There is a great new online safety tool designed for parents launched by the Department for Education called Parent Info. It's has advice on everything from keeping children safe from online trolls to WhatsApp - a guide for parents.

Online Safety Quick Links

Here are quick links to a range of Internet safety sites that you may find useful too...

Social Media Advice - ZocDoc

Online Safety - A Child's View

We enjoy celebrating Online Safety at Villiers. It is a theme we often talk about and something which is threaded through our taught curriculum.

We also celebrate and mark Online Safety Days. Here you can see how we celebrated #SaferInternetDay 2023: