Varna Community Primary SchoolOnline Safety
''Varna is special to me because when I am in school, everyone takes care of me and keeps me safe.''
At Varna Community Primary School, we have a strong commitment to online safety. All children are taught about keeping safe on the internet on a regular basis. We also feel that it is important that parents fully understand the dangers of the internet and how to keep themselves and their children safe.
Digital Leaders
This year, we have allocated a Digital Leader for each class.
We recently took part in a Digital Leaders workshop, where 2 of our students trained to be Digital Leaders in our school. Throughout their training, they attended workshops, delivered assemblies, launched a poster competition to raise the profile for online safety and held important meetings with SLT and our Online Safety Governor.
Smartphone Free Childhood
Smartphone free at Varna Community Primary School!
At Varna, we are committed not only to students’ academic success, but also to their emotional wellbeing and healthy development. One concern that many of us share is the increasing prevalence of smartphones—and associated social media—in the lives of young children. Research and experience suggest that introducing phones too early can contribute to issues with sleep, attention, anxiety, peer pressure, and online safety.
We believe that families and schools working together can make a real difference. To that end, we are backing the Smartphone Free Childhood Parent Pact. This is a collective initiative through which parents pledge to delay giving their child a smartphone until at least age 14, and social media until 16. It’s a simple but powerful idea: when many families band together, it reduces the “peer pressure” that a child might feel if they know their classmates aren’t all getting phones early. You can read more and sign the Parent Pact here (it only takes about 30 seconds):
Sign the Parent Pact – Smartphone Free Childhood smartphonefreechildhood.org
We hosted a Coffee Morning on Thursday 23rd October, during Digital Citizenship Week. This was to:
- To raise awareness about the effects (both positive and negative) of early smartphone use
- To share experiences, concerns, and strategies from parents
- To brainstorm and collect new ideas to support our children in developing healthy digital habits
Your voice matters in this conversation. If you believe as we do that many children are getting smartphones and going online earlier than is wise, and that a united parental approach could help, then we hope you will:
- Sign the Parent Pact (via the link above)
Together, we can create a more thoughtful, supportive digital environment for our children—one where they can enjoy technology without it overwhelming their childhood.
National Online Safety (NOS)
National Online Safety has launched their parent app. It has parent training and hundreds of guides to support you, particularly during this time when screen time is increasing. The app is available to download from Google Play and App Store.
NOS Free Training
National Online Safety have created a course for parents and carers – to provide you with the knowledge and skills you need to feel confident and empowered to keep your children safe online.
How to manage settings to control online devices
We hold a termly parent workshop, where the Online Safety Lead organises or delivers training to parents on how to control devices at home. Here are some pictures with instructions or if you require further support, please contact Miss Foulkes in school.
Where to report and get help?
Safer Internet Help
Information about what to do if a child comes to you for help and advice about how to report online concerns such as cyberbullying, inappropriate content or illegal behaviour.
www.saferinternet.org.uk/need-help
The Internet Watch Foundation
The Internet Watch Foundation is the UK’s hotline for reporting illegal content found on the internet. It deals specifically with child abuse and criminally obscene images hosted in the UK and internationally.
Child Exploitation and Online Protection (CEOP)
The CEOP is a police agency tackling child abuse on the internet. This website includes a unique facility that enables parents and young people to make reports of actual or attempted abuse online. www.ceop.police.uk
CEOP’s website contains information for children and parents, as well as a link for children to report abuse online.
NSPCC
If you have concerns about the safety of a child then contact the NSPCC helpline on 0808 800 5000 or email help@nspcc.org.uk.
Resources
Childnet
Childnet International is a non-profit organisation working in partnership with others around the world to help make the internet a great and safe place for children. The Childnet website hosts all the online resources detailed below, as well as a number of recommended resources for young people, parents, and careers.
Online Gaming
Childnet’s guide contains helpful advice and information on supporting children and young people playing games online.
You can also visit AskAboutGames for parental controls and advice linked to video consoles and games.
Social Network Checklists
Free guides produced by the UK Safer Internet Centre that contain detailed instructions and information on privacy and account settings on Facebook, Twitter, Snapchat and Instagram.
www.saferinternet.org.uk/checklists
Young People & Social Networking Sites
Aims to help parents understand the positive and creative ways young people are using social networking spaces (e.g. Facebook, Twitter and Instagram). It also points out the potential risks of using these sites and ways to minimise these risks.
Safety Tools on Social Networks and other Online Services
Information and advice on the safety tools, age requirements and terms and conditions for a variety of online services popular with young people.
www.saferinternet.org.uk/safety-tools
A Parents’ Guide to Technology
The UK Safer Internet Centre has created this guide to answer commonly asked questions and introduce some of the most popular devices used by children, highlighting the safety tools available and empowering parents with the knowledge they need to support their children to use these technologies safely and responsibly.
www.saferinternet.org.uk/parent-tech
Internet Parental Controls
The four big internet providers - BT, Sky, Talk Talk and Virgin Media - provide their customers with free parental controls that can be activated at any time. Video tutorials on how to download and use these controls are available on the UK Safer Internet Centre website.
www.saferinternet.org.uk/parental-controls
Anti-Bullying
For more information for a particular age group click on the links below:
under 5 age 6 - 10 age 10+
If you have received or sent any information, images or video to someone whom you do not know, you may want to talk about this with someone.
You can share a concern with staff at school. The named staff for safeguarding in our school are Miss Livesey, Miss Pilling, Mr Crossley, Miss Cheetham, Miss Foulkes (Online Safety Leader), Miss Bickerton, Mr Hindmarsh and Miss Bretton.
Parent Workshops
We hold termly Online Safety Parent Workshops which have been valuable in ensuring we are providing parents with support at home but also for parents to provide an insight into how to support children
If you are interested in joining our next workshop, please contact the office for more information.
The slides from our recent Safer Internet Day and Digital Citizenship Week are linked as files for your information.
Accreditations
At Varna, we pride ourselves on keeping up to date with the lastest requirments to keeping children safe online. With this, we have taken part in several accreditation proccesses to ensure that we are up to date. We have recently recieved a 360 Safe Accreditation as well as a Computing Quality Mark.
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