E-SAFETY

At St. Mary’s School we believe that the educational benefits of Internet access far outweigh the possible risks and that good planning and management will ensure appropriate and effective pupil use.
Click here for our e-Safety Policy

How do we ensure E Safety at St Mary's?

Our E-safety rules are sent home at the beginning of each academic year. Parents and carers are asked to read and talk about these with their children. Parents, carers, pupils and staff are required to sign to confirm that they will follow the e-safety rules.
E-safety is now taught as part of the curriculum and is designed to educate our pupils about the safe use of computers across all year groups. These activities cover what to do if children do not feel safe on the internet.
Parent Zone magazines are distributed to parents. This is a publication advising parents about online issues and advice on keeping children safe.
We invite speakers from other establishments to share their expertise. Our last visitor was Andy Williamson, Principal Deputy Head from More House School.
Participation in Safer Internet Day (see below for details)
Member of staff with designated responsibility for E safety is Mrs Jennifer Downing.

Parents can also find useful information and advice at the following websites, some with age relevant videos and games for their children to engage in:

	Safer Internet Day An annual event held each February comprising a range of activities for parents, carers and children alike to help them find out more about keeping safe on the internet. This is an initiative run by a the UK Safer Internet Centre, a partnership of three leading organisations: Childnet International, Internet Foundation and SWGfL.
	Childnet International This website contains an award winning suite of resources and information on e-safety.
	Thinkuknow CEOPs (The Child Exploitation and On-line Protection Centre) ThinkUKnow website provides advice both for parents and children by age-range.
	Internetmatters.org A website designed to inform parents and help them to understand the internet so that they can talk to their children. Links from this site to help parents to set up parental controls on devices. It also includes the youth-led code of conduct supported by the Duke of Cambridge aimed at tackling online bullying.
	K idsmart An award winning practical internet safety programme website for schools, young people, parents, and agencies, produced by the children's internet charity Childnet International. It is aimed at primary school children and includes the adventures of the SMART crew and Smartie the penguin.
	Digitally Confident is the Northern Grid for Learning's e-safety resources. It includes up to date briefing documents on areas of e-safety and a wide range of resources.
	https://www.cloudwards.net/how-to-protect-your-kids-online/ is a useful article which gives tips and advice to help you to ensure your children stay protected when they are online.