This is just one of the questions our Year 7 pupils discussed in assembly this week as part of our Safer Internet Week focus. All Prep School year groups looked at one of the SMART rules: Safe, Meet, Accepting, Reliable, Tell.
Managing screens and internet safety is as important now as it has ever been and this week we will be covering many aspects of staying safe online with all our pupils during year group assemblies and our Learning4Life form times
Mrs Pollock, Head of Pastoral Care.
A Year 3 pupil said: "We thought about the all the great things that the internet gives us and talked about our favourite things to do online. It is great the way it allows us to log in and be at school each day, even though its not as good as real school." Year 3 also thought about how the internet is brilliant for learning, exploring and widening knowledge and horizons. The children had lots of tips of their own: ‘don’t use your real name’, ‘don’t play for too long’, ‘don’t chat to someone you don’t know’ and ‘don’t tell anyone your passwords’. They went on to watch a video which explained the A of the SMART rules, which one pupils summarised afterwards as: “don’t open an email if you don’t know who it is from. Don’t open or click on the attachment."
Year 6 watched a video about meerkats in which the facts were incorrect and discussed how could discover whether it was reliable or not. Who made the video? Was it on a trustworthy website? Year 6 pupils said: “You have to think and decide, do I trust this."
Mrs Pollock organised a live webinar with Alicia Drummond from Teen Tips for Westbourne House parents. The webinar focused on 'managing screens' and was extremely well received. The webinar covered understanding the positives and negatives of a child’s online world, how to help your child become a responsible digital citizen, social media, gaming and cyber bullying. The webinar also explored the latest guidelines on screen time, screen use and common pitfalls.