Category: Well-being

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Online Safety and Well-being

We will post important, relevant and up-to-date information on online safety and wellbeing here. As with all aspects of your child’s education, learning and wellbeing, close school/home relationship is the best way to support children, parents and carers. Navigating the internet so your family can benefit from all it has to offer, while protecting your young people, can be complicated and time-consuming. These resource should help. Please feedback with successes and particular issues so we can inform other parents and carers.

InEQE publishes a weekly electronic safeguarding newsletter – “Safeguarding Hub Newsletter” . If you would like to receive these into your email box please sign up here. https://ineqe.com/safeguarding-hub/. I’ll copy or post the features relevant to families (with younger and older children).

14th October 2024

Dear Parents and Carers

Roblox made headlines again this week and Colin Stitt, Head of Safer Schools at INEQE Safeguarding Group, spoke to the Mail Online about actions that parents, carers, and safeguarding professionals can take to make the gamers in their care safer online.  He said The report is a stark reminder that we can’t simply assume a platform is safe for children just because it looks child-friendly. Parents and carers need to be proactive and educate themselves about the potential risks their children may face online, including exposure to inappropriate content, online predators, and harmful social interactions. It’s crucial for parents and carers to have open and honest conversations with their children about online safety, empowering them to navigate digital spaces responsibly.

This includes teaching them how to block and report users and content, and encouraging them to talk to a trusted adult if they encounter anything upsetting online. Remember, safeguarding our children in the digital world requires a collaborative effort. Parents, carers, educators, and platforms like Roblox all have a role to play in creating a safer and more positive online experience for young people.’

The link to the Daily Mail Online article was sent out in an email to parents and carers on 14.10.24. (The link is not included here as the article contained references to topics and images which are not appropriate for children.)

With kind regards

Katharine Gibbons

23rd February (sent out as Parent Mail Monday 26th February)

Online Safety Update – 23rd February 2024

Being informed about online safety can include awareness of activity that, as parents and carers, we’d rather not think about. But this awareness will help our children make the most of online life without getting in trouble.

The INEQUE Safeguarding Group Newsletter has recently highlighted two different aspects of online safety.

  1. Computer Misuse Act 1990

A recent survey showed that 20% of children between the ages of 10-16 violate the Computers Misuse Act, which criminalises unauthorised access to computer systems and data. In gamers this rises to 25%. It’s important that children aged 10 and over understand what this criminal behaviour is as they may not realise that it is illegal and, as the age of criminal responsibility in England, Wales and N Ireland is 10, could get them into trouble with the police. This video explains the risks to young children if they abuse the Computer Misuse Act 1990 – https://youtu.be/smkXHZ6Qf3s. It shows how young people can break the law without realizing it and how that can jeopardise promising careers in Computing or other areas.  

This website sets out what is illegal clearly – https://nationalcrimeagency.gov.uk/cyber-choices.

Examples of activity which 10-year-olds may not realise is illegal, under the 1990 Computer Misuse Act:

  • “Saltburn” – and proliferation on social media and online

The film contains highly explicit content and has spawned many videos, memes etc which young people can become aware of. For example, there are TikTok videos with up to 3.5 million views discussing and showing clips from the most graphic scenes. These scenes can be accessible even when logged into an account assigned to a 13-year-old. Also, reaction videos and images have been shared across platforms such as X, Instagram, TikTok, YouTube. There are gaming adaptations on platforms such as Roblox. . This link details the potential risks of “Saltburn”, should you need more information on it: https://ineqe.com/2024/02/15/safeguarding-risks-saltburn-movie/

10th February – ESports – The Esports industry has seen tremendous growth over the years, and you might have a young gamer in your care who is interested in participating or watching esports tournaments. However, are you familiar with the world of Esports?

Our informative shareable will help you understand what you need to know in the world of Esports, including the potential risks and explanations of commonly used buzzwords.

27th January – Instagram introduces new “night-time nudges” to reduce teens’ time on the app – https://tcrn.ch/3vDotns (copy and paste this link to go to the short article).

20th January – This week they include a guide to online group chats for parents and carers – https://drive.google.com/drive/home

HfL produces a termly newsletter to update parents and carers on current online safety issues. The latest edition will be published here.

HfL Autumn 2023 Online Safety Newsletter for Parents and Carers – https://thegrid.org.uk/assets/hfl-online-safety-newsletter-autumn-23-parents-or-carers.pdf

The organisations below publish authoritative, relevant information on online safety and their websites are updated. Together with ChildLine, they are the first places to go to to if you have queries or worries about your child or young person online.

Internet Matters has some guides for parents around setting up devices at home, and enabling home broadband filtering for each specific provider. https://www.internetmatters.org/setupsafe/

Broadband & mobile networks

ThinkUknow has up-to-date parental guides

https://www.thinkuknow.co.uk/parents/ https://www.thinkuknow.co.uk/professionals/parent-and-carer-help-sheets/

New Year Digital Resolutions – A feature with good internet usage tips

(As suggested by Ineqe Safeguarding Group). Any links in the text below (in blue or not) can be found here https://ineqe.com/2023/12/20/new-digital-resolutions       

There’s no denying that the way we use tech continues to evolve. Let’s pledge some New Year resolutions to take on tech with a new approach, where we’re in control and can enjoy the advantages it brings.

Resolution 1 – We will speak more kindly online

Words matter. Whether spoken out loud or posted online, what we say to each other has an impact. This resolution means that, as a family, you’ll avoid online conflict (like engaging in arguments on Facebook, saying mean things out of frustration while gaming, or criticising a stranger’s outfit on Instagram), and instead pledge to say kind or encouraging things whenever possible. You can use our ‘What Are Your Words Worth’ activity pack to find more information, ideas, and ways to explain to the whole family what this resolution is all about. Find it here.

Resolution 2 – We will have healthier screentime habits, including mobile phones

If your family rules got thrown out the window over Christmas, you’re certainly not alone! Now that the New Year is here, it’s time to get everyone back on track. A lot of New Year resolutions fail because the expectations aren’t reasonable, so keep any ideas for new screentime limits realistic. A good example would be to have a device-free dinner time including all mobile phones. Use our Family Screen Time activity pack to help the whole family make better screentime decisions all year round.

Resolution 3 – We will be cyber-secure

Being privacy and security aware is one of the greatest tools for creating a safer online experience for the whole family. This resolution could include doing things like creating better passwords, learning how to spot dodgy links and emails and keeping scam aware. To help you on your way, check out our Cyber Security Toolkit for children. You’ll find more helpful articles and ideas in our Online Safety section.

Resolution 4 – We will use tech together to learn and explore

What are your most visited sites, platforms, or apps? For most of us, the answer is probably a social media site but there’s also a whole online world full of interesting platforms that can help us learn new and exciting things. You could learn a new skill to try together, like making simple origami or learning a new language. Watch our video for more hints about learning a language online.

Resolution 5 – We will stay in the loop of safeguarding news and alerts

Through our Home Learning Hub, and Safer Schools App (available for download on the Apple App Store and Google Play Store), you can use practical tools to help you stay in the know. You can also listen to our weekly Safeguarding Soundbytes podcast. It’s free, easy to access, and delivers the latest safeguarding news in a ‘byte sized’ way. You can also sign up to our Online Safeguarding Hub newsletter. For the young people in your care, we have recently launched the brand-new Online Safety Show. Find it on our Safeguarding Apps and on Teach Hub.

Well Being Team

At St Adrians’ we believe our emotional, social and mental well being is very important. Therefore, we have a team of children in the Wellbeing Team ready and raring to go. They will be supported by Mrs Hart and Mrs Parrett and will be organising some fun and thoughtful events for us over the course of the year.

Thank you children.

In November, we take part in activities for Anti Bullying Week.

•Our Wellbeing Team delivered this assembly as part of  Anti-Bullying Week.

•The children across the school all wore odd socks and brought in £1 donation to raise money for the Antibullying Alliance charity

•We remembered all about our school values.

•They are as follows:

•To SHOW MERCY

•To SPEAK THE TRUTH

•To PRAY FOR PEACE

•To WORK FOR JUSTICE

•We celebrated wearing odd socks and reflecting how we are all different but we are all made in God’s image and that we must do as Jesus said and ‘Love one another as I have loved you’

St Adrian’s Show Respect – Anti Bullying Assembly 2024

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Well Being Team 2023-2024

At St Adrians’ we believe our emotional, social and mental well being is very important. Therefore, we have a team of children in the Wellbeing Team ready and raring to go. They will be supported by Miss Osman, Miss Taylor and Mrs Parret and will be organising some fun and thoughtful events for us over the course of the year.

Thank you children.

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Practice Makes Progress

Year 3 celebrated Wellbeing Week on Friday by reflecting – and dancing about – growth. The amaryllis now on the classroom window-sill is a metaphor for the growth which everyone experiences. We asked the question “Can all growth be seen?” We’ll see how the amaryllis grows taller (quickly), but it will also grow in other ways which we won’t be able to see, resulting in a beautiful flower. We discussed how growth is exciting and leads to fantastic new skills, but it isn’t always quick or easy. To think more deeply about this, we considered a skill we’d already learnt, such as swimming. We thought about the steps and breakthroughs taken along the way to gain this skill, as well as the things which went wrong. It’s these little steps and mistakes which, over time, lead to success and pride. This goes not just for the subject learning at school, but the growth we experience in our relationships with family members, friends and other people at school. Everyone in year 3 is growing, in lots of ways; and has much to be proud of. Here are some of the fantastic records the children made to show their understanding. A great motto for life which the children in year 3 shared is “Practice makes progress”.

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Safer Internet Day – 8th February 2022

Safer Internet Day takes place every February. It’s a great opportunity to celebrate all the amazing things we all do online; and also to find a different way, each year, for everyone to safe online. This year the theme is being respectful and maintaining good relationships when playing games online.

As a show of hands in the morning’s “kick-off” assembly showed, nearly everyone in the school loves playing online games: there was palpable excitement as the children thought of it! And every device is used to play games on. All the more reason to make sure we can all enjoy a favourite hobby while keeping ourselves and everyone else safe!

We want gaming to be a fun, respectful way of spending some time, according to each family’s rules. What we do online should make our online friends post emojis like these

We discussed the questions “Should you behave as well towards your friends online as well as you do offline? Why?“, “If you’re online and no-one knows your identity, can you behave how you like?” and, perhaps the most difficult one, “If someone else makes the wrong choice and doesn’t show respect, what can -or should – you do in response?”

Following are some photos of children completing activities in their classrooms and a few photos of the sharing assembly at the end of the day. As well as developing understanding of online safety, the activities provided opportunities for collaborative learning and creative writing.

There are lots more resources from the organisers on the website – https://saferinternet.org.uk/safer-internet-day/safer-internet-day-2022.

We hope you enjoy finding out about what the children have learnt about the essential topic of internet safety.

At the end of the day the children shared what they had learnt with the rest of the school.

Reception learnt the Smartie the penguin song which tells us, “Before you click, click, click, make sure you think, think, think – and tell someone.”

Year 1 learnt about what it’s OK to share online and what not to. You can share non-personal things, such as the colour of your socks, or your favourite fast food, but not your full name or where you go to school.

Year 2 wrote “spells for internet kindness”. They learnt that whenever we play online games, we need to be prepared to show respect even if other people make wrong choices.

Year 3 wrote “gaming guides”. Some advice about what you can do online is the same as what you can offline – for example, don’t give out personal information like your address to someone you’ve never spoken to before or met.

Year 4 played “roll a story”, where they acted out given scenarios – such as your friends have fallen out during an online game – and then found ways to resolve the problem.

Year 5 discussed good and bad decisions in online behaviour, including how hard it can be to make the right choices. 

Year 6 also considered the different scenarios in “roll a story” and made posters informing people how to resolve situations, based on these predicaments.

All the activities provided the children with opportunities to discuss the issues, focusing on solutions and remembering that online games are a source of fun and communication for nearly everyone.

Year 4
Year 2

Year 2 wrote some spells for a kinder internet.

We all stirred up the spells in our cauldrons and recorded them. Here are some of our spells. Can you think of any other ingredients we should add?

Year 2 spells for a kinder internet
Year 6 presenting at the end of the day.
Year 4 presenting at the end of the day.
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Online Safety and Well-being

We will post important, relevant and up-to-date information on online safety and wellbeing here. As with all aspects of your child’s education, learning and wellbeing, close school/home relationship is the best way to support children, parents and carers. Navigating the internet so your family can benefit from all it has to offer, while protecting your young people, can be complicated and time-consuming. These resource should help. Please feedback with successes and particular issues so we can inform other parents and carers.

Could your family do with a “reset” on digital use? To start 2024 there are some New Year Digital Resolutions below….

HfL produces a termly newsletter to update parents and carers on current online safety issues. The latest edition will be published here.

HfL Autumn 2023 Online Safety Newsletter for Parents and Carers – https://thegrid.org.uk/assets/hfl-online-safety-newsletter-autumn-23-parents-or-carers.pdf

The organisations below publish authoritative, relevant information on online safety and their websites are updated. Together with ChildLine, they are the first places to go to to if you have queries or worries about your child or young person online.

Internet Matters has some guides for parents around setting up devices at home, and enabling home broadband filtering for each specific provider. https://www.internetmatters.org/setupsafe/

https://www.internetmatters.org/parental-controls/broadband-mobile/

ThinkUknow has up-to-date parental guides

https://www.thinkuknow.co.uk/parents/ https://www.thinkuknow.co.uk/professionals/parent-and-carer-help-sheets/

New Year Digital Resolutions

(As suggested by Ineqe Safeguarding Group). Any links in the text below (in blue or not) can be found here https://ineqe.com/2023/12/20/new-digital-resolutions       

There’s no denying that the way we use tech continues to evolve. Let’s pledge some New Year resolutions to take on tech with a new approach, where we’re in control and can enjoy the advantages it brings.

Resolution 1 – We will speak more kindly online

Words matter. Whether spoken out loud or posted online, what we say to each other has an impact. This resolution means that, as a family, you’ll avoid online conflict (like engaging in arguments on Facebook, saying mean things out of frustration while gaming, or criticising a stranger’s outfit on Instagram), and instead pledge to say kind or encouraging things whenever possible. You can use our ‘What Are Your Words Worth’ activity pack to find more information, ideas, and ways to explain to the whole family what this resolution is all about. Find it here.

Resolution 2 – We will have healthier screentime habits, including mobile phones

If your family rules got thrown out the window over Christmas, you’re certainly not alone! Now that the New Year is here, it’s time to get everyone back on track. A lot of New Year resolutions fail because the expectations aren’t reasonable, so keep any ideas for new screentime limits realistic. A good example would be to have a device-free dinner time including all mobile phones. Use our Family Screen Time activity pack to help the whole family make better screentime decisions all year round.

Resolution 3 – We will be cyber-secure

Being privacy and security aware is one of the greatest tools for creating a safer online experience for the whole family. This resolution could include doing things like creating better passwords, learning how to spot dodgy links and emails and keeping scam aware. To help you on your way, check out our Cyber Security Toolkit for children. You’ll find more helpful articles and ideas in our Online Safety section.

Resolution 4 – We will use tech together to learn and explore

What are your most visited sites, platforms, or apps? For most of us, the answer is probably a social media site but there’s also a whole online world full of interesting platforms that can help us learn new and exciting things. You could learn a new skill to try together, like making simple origami or learning a new language. Watch our video for more hints about learning a language online.

Resolution 5 – We will stay in the loop of safeguarding news and alerts

Through our Home Learning Hub, and Safer Schools App (available for download on the Apple App Store and Google Play Store), you can use practical tools to help you stay in the know. You can also listen to our weekly Safeguarding Soundbytes podcast. It’s free, easy to access, and delivers the latest safeguarding news in a ‘byte sized’ way. You can also sign up to our Online Safeguarding Hub newsletter. For the young people in your care, we have recently launched the brand-new Online Safety Show. Find it on our Safeguarding Apps and on Teach Hub.

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Well-being ambassadors

We have a dedicated group of students from Year 5 and 6 who are supporting the well-being of their peers and friends by positive problem solving and finding solutions.

This an important life skill which will support everyday life from now until adulthood. 

ELECTRIC UMBRELLA WORKSHOP

As part of Children’s Mental Health Week, we invited Electric Umbrella in to entertain with an inspiring message – There’s no such thing as normal! is their motto. ‘ Sing like no one’s listening, dance like no one’s watching, give like no one’s giving and laugh like no one’s judging!’ We certainly did all of that! The group create amazing live music experiences with learning disabled people. In doing so, they help change the way the world looks at them – and others.

‘On Thursday, we were treated to a workshop called Electric Umbrella, it is about how people with disabilities come together and enjoy life.

There was lots of singing and dancing, it was a lot of fun. They made our teachers sing, dance, and have a fun time too.

They picked children to tell very funny jokes to make everyone laugh.

We were able to see how having a disability doesn’t mean you cannot have fun.’ By Jessica

‘My experience of Electric Umbrella was a beautiful moment. The funny thing was the lady asked who would like to sing but i thought she said who would like to pay the guitar so I put up my hand. Then I realised my mistake but my friends wanted me to sing like noone was listening. Then I sang like a proper singer. After I sang, I wanted to play the guitar an the small melody I played made everyone smile, I hope!

I hope Electric Umbrella will carry on making people happy and inspiring them and i hope i will see them once again as they have inspired me to sing my heart out and to never be shy and I have realised it does not matter who you are or what you look like. Anyone can achieve anything if they have the right approach and guidance to do what they want to do- practise makes progress! I hope Electric Umbrella will continue their legacy together making people happy and I wish them all the best!’  By Gabriel