We recommend that all parents read the free online Digital Parenting Magazine from Vodafone.  It contains excellent e-safety advice. Additional advice can be found here.

Sexting: Advice for Parents

The Internet has become an enormous part of our society and so plays a role in the lives of all young people in the UK. There are many good reasons for young people to use the Internet both for educational and social/entertainment purposes, however the Internet also poses many risks that children need to be protected from.

• This web page covers the following topics:
• Advice to Parents
• Useful Links for Parents
• E-Safety at St Bede’s 
• Information & Links for Pupils 

Advice to Parents

There is a lot parents can do. Our advice is that there needs to be a combination of communication and supervision:

Communication:

• Talk to your children about what to do if they do come across something unpleasant or upsetting online.
• Make sure they know who to talk to if they ever feel worried.
• Share your wisdom – advise on the consequences of posting things online they may later regret.
• Try not to overreact!

Supervision:

• Keep the computer in a family room
• Set both boundaries and rewards for your child. (E.g. Facebook age 13)
• Encourage balanced use: 2 hours a day
• Install filtering software such as K9 Web Protection which is FREE (but don’t rely on it)
• Get involved with your children online, tell them to show you their IM & Social Networks:
  • talk through their online friends
  • check the suitability of their picture
  • check their privacy settings
• Agree on the rules as a family

Useful Links for Parents

You can learn more about keeping your child safe from these websites: 

• “Think You Know” e-safety website for parents, set up by the Child Exploitation and Online Protection (CEOP) Centre
• “Digizen“ e-safety website for parents, set up by Childnet
• Parents guide to technology (phones, games consoles and ipads)
• NEW LINK! Learn how to set the parental controls on your home Internet
• NEW LINK! Some great ideas for conversation starters for talking to your children about using the Internet safely 
• NEW LINKS! 
• Parents guide to Snapchat 
• Parents guide to Instagram 
• Parents guide to Google+ 
• o2 and NSPCC 

E-Safety at St Bede’s

E-safety is taken very seriously at St Bede’s and we work on both educating pupils and supporting parents on this.

All pupils receive lessons in e-safety as part of both their ICT & PHSE education throughout years 7 - 13.

• Pupils are taught about:
• Dangers of the Internet
• SMART use of the Internet
• Cyberbullying
• “Stranger danger” i.e. not meeting up with people from the Internet
• Using the Internet & social networks safely & sensibly
• Judging websites for trustworthiness
• Netiquette
• Piracy (illegal downloading of songs, games & films)
• Plagiarism
• Online fraud
• Computer/Internet Addictions
• Sexting

E-safety is also taught through assemblies, tackling big issues such as cyberbullying, grooming and sexting.

As well as educating pupils about internet safety, we also set rules for them. All pupils have an acceptable computer use policy in their school planners on page 11. We also have a school e-safety policy that applies to both staff and pupils, a copy of this can be seen on request and will soon be available on our VLE.

If pupils have any e-safety concerns (about themselves or others) then we strongly encourage them to talk to a teacher, if they feel unable to talk to a teacher then we would like them to communicate their concerns via the tell us box (located in reception) or by emailing e-tellusbox@stbcc.org. 

Our school network is monitored by our ICT network manager and the Internet is filtered to limit the content that children can access from the school computers.  Many entertainment and social websites are blocked to keep pupils focused in class and for their safety adult.  Other unsuitable websites are also blocked. In addition, ICT teachers use classroom monitoring software to ensure pupils are focused on their work and not distracted by the Internet.

We recognise that technology changes fast, so we carry out an annual survey to monitor the latest trends in our pupils' Internet use so we can react and adapt our work on e-safety in accordance to meet emerging needs.

Each November we mark anti-bullying week with activities on cyber bullying.  We also mark Safer Internet Day each February with activities in ICT and tutor time on the different e-safety theme each year.

All staff receive e-safety training upon joining St Bede’s and this is topped up at staff meetings during the year to ensure all staff have up-to-date e-safety knowledge.

At the annual year 7 EPR evening parents receive a talk giving them information and advice on how to keep their child safe online. We also provide handy tips for parents in our newsletter each fortnight. 

E-safety Policy