Online safety is an incredibly important part of keeping children safe at St Swithun Wells Catholic Primary School.  We recognise that the children live their lives seamlessly online and offline which presents many positive and exciting opportunities but also many challenges and risks.

The online world develops and changes at great speed which can make it difficult for parents and children to stay up to date with the latest devices, platforms, apps, trends and the related threats. Therefore, we believe it is important to focus on the underpinning knowledge and behaviours needed to navigate the online world safely and confidently regardless of the device, platform or app.

The knowledge and behaviours are:

1. How to evaluate what they see online.
2. How to recognise techniques used for persuasion.
3. Acceptable and unacceptable online behaviour.
4. How to identify online risks.
5. How and when to seek support.

At St Swithun Wells, we recognise that the majority of the children’s online use will happen at home so it is crucial that we help you to support your child while they are using the internet.  Here are our key points for helping you to keep your child safe on the internet:

• Set boundaries in the online world just as you would in the real world.
• Talk to your child about what they are up to online.
• Don’t leave them alone!
• Keep up-to-date with your child’s development online.
• How are they communicating with others online?
• Keep all equipment that connects to the internet in a family space.
• Know what connects to the internet and how.
• Use parental controls on devices that link to the internet, such as the TV, laptops, computers, games consoles and mobile phones.
• Lock down sites so that the information is not public.
• Take notice of age restrictions, particularly on social media sites.

There are many fantastic resources out there to support parents in keeping their child safe online. There is a free and confidential helpline for parents who would like advice, run by the O2 and the NSPCC.  Parents can also access support via any O2 store through their ‘Guru Service’.

Here are some other recommended links to help: