Today’s children and young people are growing up in a digital world. As they grow older, it is crucial that they learn to balance the benefits offered by technology with a critical awareness of their own and other’s online behaviour, and develop effective strategies for staying safe and making a positive contribution online.
Our vision is to make the children at Bevois Town Primary School as safe and productive in the on-line world, both in school and outside of school, as they are in the real world. Online safety is therefore embedded into our school curriculum, particularly in Computing and PSHE lessons.
Our online safety curriculum follows the Education for a Connected World framework by the UK Council for Internet Safety. This framework describes the skills and understanding that children and young people should have the opportunity to develop at different ages and stages. It highlights what a child should know in terms of current online technology, its influence on behaviour and development, and what skills they need to be able to navigate it safely.
It focuses specifically on eight different aspects of online education:
Online safety is an important part of keeping children safe at Bevois Town Primary School. We have extensive security measures and safe working practices in place in school, which are monitored both internally and externally, to help safeguard pupils from potential dangers or unsuitable material.
As a community we need to recognise and guard against bullying, intimidation, discrimination and exploitation of vulnerable users amongst the online users we know as well as those we don’t ("stranger danger"). As a school, online safety incidents are dealt with in accordance with our policies and sanctions applied to deal with unacceptable behaviour.
At Bevois Town Primary School, we understand and believe in the importance of 'Protecting', 'Educating' and 'Responding':
Protect | Educate | Respond |
Protecting children means providing a safe learning environment by using appropriate monitoring and filtering to control what children can access while at school. But, this only protects them while they are on school premises. Education around online safety is the only way to ensure that, wherever they are, they know how to stay safe online.
| Empowering children at an early age with the knowledge to safeguard themselves and their personal information is something that will be nurtured throughout school to see them into adult life. Equally, we believe that it is important to empower adults, particularly parents, with the right information so that they can identify risky behaviour, or mitigate the possibility of risk. | Responding to issues is both about ensuring pupils know what to do if anything happens to put their online safety at risk, and taking direct and immediate action as a school where incidents occur.
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If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact the school. We may be able to help or direct you to get advice about keeping you and your child safe whilst online.
Please use this form to record incidents concerning online safety that occur either within school or outside of school hours.