Westbury Leigh Church of England Primary School

Online Safety

Children are growing up in an increasingly complex world, living their lives seamlessly on and offline. This presents many positive and exciting opportunities, but also challenges and risks. We want to equip children with the knowledge needed to make the best use of the internet and technology in a safe, considered and respectful way, so they are able to reap the benefits of the online world.

As part of this we:

Regularly teach children about online safety
Ensure our IT systems are well managed and filters are applied
Provide regular information to staff and parents to ensure everyone is kept up to date about online safety
Ask everyone to sign an acceptable user policy

We regularly publish newsletters about keeping safe on line and recent copies can be found here:

The internet is a fantastic place overflowing with knowledge, games and communities of people, and, just like pupils across the country, the pupils here at Westbury Leigh Primary School spend a great deal of time using the internet within school and at home. This is why it is important pupils at Westbury Leigh learn how to be safe when browsing online and becoming members of online communities.

Online Safety Newsletter Feb 2021

Reporting a Concern

Any concern about online safety in terms of access or behaviour should be reported to the online safety lead: Mr John Fowler.

Keeping safe on line is really important. There are places you can go for advice and to report something you are worried about online. CEOP helps children stay safe online. You can report any concerns here: http://www.ceop.police.uk/Safety-Centre/ or by pressing the CEOP button at the top of this page.

Thinkuknow has advice for all ages about staying safe on a phone, tablet or a computer.

Keeping children safe on games and apps

A safe online environment is essential, at school and at home. Parents and carers need to set age-appropriate parental controls on digital devices and use internet filters to block malicious websites. These are usually free, but often need to be turned on.

To learn how to do this for the major providers of internet please click the text below:

Setting up internet filtering and parental controls

All games and apps come with a PEGI rating which advises on the suitability of the game for different ages. This is to ensure children are accessing appropriate content and to prevent them being desensitised to aggression and violence.

The nature of online gaming is that it encourages children to stay on and can often lead to FOMO (a fear of missing out). Parents should set clear time frames for online gaming and ensure there is a break from gaming well before bed time to aid restful sleep.

Social media is also age rated and this is to ensure children are mature enough to use this respectfully and safely. Most social media sites have a minimum age of 13 or above and are not suitable for primary age children.

There are some other sites below that can help parents with this.

Below are some guides which provide specific tips on how to help support your child to use internet enabled devices safely and responsibly, if what you need is not listed then check out saferinternet.org.uk for more information:

Sites that teach children online safety

NetSmart- Be totally cool and show your friends how much you know about Internet safety by watching the video clips on here. There are also loads of activities and games that will test your knowledge!
Newsround- Test your knowledge of Internet safety with this quiz from CBBC Newsround. There's also further information if you're not sure on anything.
Thinkuknow- is a really useful website and is the education programme from CEOP.

Resources and Support

support for parents and carers to keep children safe online, which outlines resources to help keep children safe from different risks online and where to go to find support and advice
guidance on staying safe online which includes information on security and privacy settings
Thinkuknow provides advice from the National Crime Agency (NCA) on staying safe online
Parent info is a collaboration between Parentzone and the NCA providing support and guidance for parents from leading experts and organisations
Childnet offers a toolkit to support parents and carers of children of any age to start discussions about their online life, to set boundaries around online behaviour and technology use, and to find out where to get more help and support
Internet matters provides age-specific online safety checklists, guides on how to set parental controls on a range of devices, and a host of practical tips to help children get the most out of their digital world
Net-aware has support for parents and carers from the NSPCC, including a guide to social networks, apps and games
Let’s Talk About It has advice for parents and carers to keep children safe from online radicalisation
UK Safer Internet Centre has tips, advice, guides and other resources to help keep children safe online, including parental controls offered by home internet providers and safety tools on social networks and other online services