Online Safety
School Systems
St Andrew's takes the online security of its students and staff very seriously. We uses a commercial system called Netsweeper to filter all our online activity on all our devices. This includes workstations, laptops and tablets. This system also provides the school with regular reports which allows us to monitor online use.
Children will be required to use the internet at various times during their school life. This may be for specific online resources such as 'Times Table Rockstars', 'My Maths' and 'Scratch' or research related activities for specific topics or activities. Netsweeper will ensure, that, in so far a s reasonably possible, all materials will be age appropriate. In exceptional situations, where this does not occur, the school will always act promptly to deal with the matter appropriately.
As part of our day to day curriculum we do not anticipate that children will need to communicate with anybody else online. This situation differs from members of staff who will need to communicate with colleagues, various professional bodies and agencies and indeed parents and carers.
Overview of Parental Controls
Keeping children and young people safe online is one of the biggest challenges facing society today and it is all of our responsibility to ensure that children are educated to make positive, informed choices when they are online.
Following on from a report from the UK Council for Internet Safety which highlighted the challenges parents, schools and communities face in Online Safety matters, we have subscribed to a monthly online safety newsletter, which is attached to this email.
We hope you find this page and its resources both informative and helpful, and will want to work with us to promote the positive use of technology to make the online world a better and safer place for us all.
Online Safety Guides
Online Safety Newsletters
Do you know the minimum ages for different social media apps?
Children at St Andrew's use the Internet on a regular basis as part of their learning. In school, we have regular 'e-safety' activities to remind children of the importance of keeping themselves safe online. At home, we also need to be careful giving children unsupervised access to the Internet. This, potentially, allows children to access all kinds of society (both good and bad) and bring them virtually into their homes.
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Tips for Parents
- Talk to your child about what they’re up to online. Be a part of their online life; involve the whole family and show an interest. Find out what sites they visit and what they love about them, if they know you understand they are more likely to come to you if they have any problems.
- Watch Thinkuknow films and cartoons with your child. The Thinkuknow site has films, games and advice for children from five all the way to 16.
- Encourage your child to go online and explore! There is a wealth of age-appropriate sites online for your children. Encourage them to use sites which are fun, educational and that will help them to develop online skills.
- Keep up-to-date with your child’s development online. Children grow up fast and they will be growing in confidence and learning new skills daily. It’s important that as your child learns more, so do you.
- Set boundaries in the online world just as you would in the real world. Think about what they might see, what they share, who they talk to and how long they spend online. It is important to discuss boundaries at a young age to develop the tools and skills children need to enjoy their time online.
- Keep all equipment that connects to the internet in a family space. For children of this age, it is important to keep internet use in family areas so you can see the sites your child is using and be there for them if they stumble across something they don’t want to see.
- Know what connects to the internet and how. Nowadays even the TV connects to the internet. Make sure you’re aware of which devices that your child uses connect to the internet, such as their phone or games console. Also, find out how they are accessing the internet – is it your connection, or a neighbour’s wifi? This will affect whether the safety setting you set are being applied.
- Use parental controls on devices that link to the internet, such as the TV, laptops, computers, games consoles and mobile phones. Parental controls are not just about locking and blocking, they are a tool to help you set appropriate boundaries as your child grows and develops. They are not the answer to your child’s online safety, but they are a good start and they are not as difficult to install as you might think. Service providers are working hard to make them simple, effective and user friendly.