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 newsletters are distributed to parents. Each newsletter contains advice, ideas and information to help parents feel more confident in the digital world.
We invite speakers from other establishments to share their expertise. Our last visitor was Kerry Rusk from the Breck Foundation.
Participation in Safer Internet Day (see below for details)
Member of staff with designated responsibility for E safety is Mrs Lucy Allan.

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 is 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.
	The Childnet website contains an award winning suite of resources and information on e-safety.
	The National Crime Agency's CEOP Education team provides an eduaction programme with a dedicated online area for parents and carers.
	Internetmatters.org is 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.
	Parentsafe provided by NGfL offers advice for keeping your children safe online and beyond.
	Internet Safety for kids: How to keep your child safe online in 2023 is a useful article giving tips and advice to help you to ensure your children stay protected.
	You can complete a Children's Online Safety Test to get you up to speed on the things you should be keeping an eye out for and help you to keep on top of how your children are making use of the world wide web.