Lots of our pupils have returned to school excitedly sharing details of the fabulous gifts they received this year, including a new Playstation 5, a new PC, a Fortnite battle pass etc. As these things becomes increasingly popular for younger children, it is more important than ever to have regular conversations with your children regarding how they keep themselves safe online.

The NSPCC has created a range of excellent resources which guide parents with having age-appropriate conversations with children about online safety. Please follow tis link to find out more:

• https://www.nspcc.org.uk/keeping-children-safe/online-safety/talking-child-online-safety/

As part of our curriculum, children learn digital literacy skills and discuss ways to keep themselves safe online in class regularly, but to really raise the importance, particularly as children are indoors more at this time of year, we will focus on online safety in our Key Stage assemblies this term.

We use resources from Childnet (SMART), BBC Bitesize and National Online Safeety in our assemblies. Please feel free to explore these at home using the following links:

• The Adventures of Kara, Winston and the SMART Crew

• https://www.bbc.co.uk/teach/online-safety/z8w8bqt

As a school, we are members of National Online Safety, a resource which provides high quality, up to date information resources and training for parents and carers, and staff members. All of or families will have received an email containing a link to sign up for these resources as a member of our school community. Please sign up and have a look! We are sure you will find it invaluable.

If you ever have any questions or concerns regarding how to keep your child safe online, please don’t hesitate to contact us at school.