Oakwood Avenue Community Primary School

E-SAFETY ALERTS

Snapchat maps has recently been in the news due to the way it could show children’s locations without them knowing. There are many ways to make this safer and one is to turn into Ghost Mode. To do this, pinch your fingers together on the photo screen to enter the ‘Snap Map’. Then, click the icon in the upper right-hand corner to access the settings. Toggle ‘Ghost Mode’ to ‘on’. Alternatively, you can enter the settings on the phone itself and turn Location Services for the entire app.

The Local Authority has advised us that they have dealt with about 6-8 jobs involving the app Musical.ly within the past 6 months.  We would advise parents not to allow their children to use this app as it appears to be an application that paedophiles are looking to exploit because the main users of Musical.ly are children, aged 8-12 years old, although some are older. Please check if your child is using this app.

At Oakwood Avenue Community Primary School we are committed to keeping the children in our care safe. In today’s digital world, we are aware of the fantastic opportunities educationally and otherwise that the internet brings. However, we are extremely aware and mindful of the potential risks that children may face when they access the internet using the technology that is at their fingertips on a day to day basis.

E-Safety Officers

In school we have an E-Safety Team of children from Year 6, with deputy E-Safety leaders in Year 5 to allow for a smooth transition when the Year 6 leave. This is led by Mrs L Brown and Mrs J Frank. As with our school council, we believe that by involving children in ideas and decisions that directly affect them, they are happier with the outcomes. The children all attended an E-Safety course and receive their Officers badges that they wear with pride. This training has allowed them to see what ways they can help the children in our school to stay safe.

Curriculum

Each academic year children complete a unit of work on E-Safety which usually takes place around the February E-Safety day. This is delivered through a range of resources, including websites appropriate to their age groups. They will also be reminded of safety at the beginning of each lesson that requires the use of the internet. We teach children to follow the SMART rules:

DB Primary

Our website has a link to DB Primary Login and each child has an account. If they feel something has worried them using the account they can “blow the whistle” and their class teacher receives notification of this. DB Primary also allows the teacher to control files that have been uploaded to the children’s accounts.

Parent Information

We want to support parents and children with their understanding of e-safety so that the internet and other forms of digital media can be used in a safe and secure way.

In school, our computers are set with filters so that children cannot accidently stumble across images or content which could be inappropriate for them. At home, your computer will not use these filters unless they have been set up specifically. To ensure your children are safe online we recommend that you do the following:

• Set filters on your computer. Your IP provider (EE, Vodafone etc) can help you to set up filters on all your home devices that access the internet.

• Talk to your children about not giving out their personal details online.

• Make sure the device is in a main room of your house so you can oversee what they are looking at.

• Regularly check their search history to see which sites they have been on.

Did you know that as soon as a game becomes available to play online with other players, it gets a PEGI (video game content rating system) rating of 13.

Very Useful Free App

Cheshire Police have recently shared a link to an app which is available on both Apple and Android devices. This app is free and is called NetAware.

“The NSPCC has teamed up with 02 and designed a free app for your mobiles called NetAware. It is a simple guide for parents to the most popular social networks, apps and games. Learn about the privacy settings and safety guidelines for Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat and more. You can also read up to date reviews from parents and children for each app, game and social network.”

Key Features:

* Minimum age rating for each social network, app and game.

* Parent and child views on how easy it is to sign up, report abuse and adjust privacy settings.

* What people are saying about the top 50 most popular social networks, apps and games.

* Find out how likely your child is to come across inappropriate content.

                                            Children: Here’s a list of websites for you to make sure you keep safe:

                                                      http://www.childnet.com/young-people/primary

                                                       http://www.bbc.co.uk/cbbc/curations/stay-safe                                                      

                                                                        http://www.kidsmart.org.uk/

                                                                                                    5-7 year olds https://www.thinkuknow.co.uk/5_7/           

                                                                                                 8-10 year olds    https://www.thinkuknow.co.uk/8_10/

Here are the winning designs from our recent E Safety Competiiton