Online Safety

Intent

Today’s 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.

At Rode Heath Primary School, 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.

This advice brings together information that helps Rode Heath Primary School deliver online safety content within the curriculum and embed this within the wider whole school approach too.

Furthermore, children are encouraged to make links to other subjects which create an interconnected curriculum. In order to achieve this, long-term curriculum plans and a wide variety of resources are in place to ensure the effectiveness and accuracy of this subject area.

The online safety curriculum operates in conjunction with other important policies in our school, including our Mobile Phone, Digital Device and Social Media Policy, Behaviour Anti-Bullying and Child-on-Child Abuse Prevention Policy, Data Protection Act 2018, UK General Data Protection Regulation (UK GDPR), RHPS Child Protection and Safeguarding Policy, ICT and Computing Policy, Education for a Connected World, Teaching online safety in school, Sharing nudes and semi-nudes: advice for education settings working with children and young people, Harmful online challenges and online hoaxes, Health and Safety Policy, Equality and Diversity Policy, Complaints Policy and Statutory guidance for schools and colleges - ‘Keeping children safe in education’ DfE September 2023.

Implementation

At Rode Heath Primary School we strongly believe that prior knowledge is very important. The lessons are part of the Hearts and Minds scheme of work, which ensures that all lessons build on prior learning and there are many planned opportunities for analysis and evaluation of recall. This is very important in ensuring progression across the curriculum and Key Stages.

The scheme of work is continually analysed and revised to ensure that lessons are kept up-to-date with the fast paced nature of advancements in technology and social media.

Lessons are taught each half-term so that children are continually given the necessary tools to cope in a digital world. Whole school events such as assemblies promote the importance of staying safe online.

Children across KS1 and KS2 learn about online safety based around the following themes:

• Internet safety;
• Privacy and security;
• Relationships and communication;
• Cyber-bullying;
• Digital footprint and reputation;
• Self-image and identity;
• Information literacy;
• Creative credit and copyright.

As a school we:

• create a culture that incorporates the principles of online safety across all elements of school life and curriculum areas
• disseminate information to parents via newsletters
• constantly review and maintain online safety principles
• model online safety principles consistently

Impact

Learning, understanding and application is monitored via numerous strategies including: formative and summative techniques.

Click on the images below to find out more about online safety and access educational games and stories for the children along with parental information:

Virgin Media O2: Children's Online Safety Test

https://www.virginmedia.com/blog/online-safety/childrens-internet-safety-test/

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