To report any safeguarding concerns about a child please contact the Designated Safeguarding Lead, Mr Burr via main reception during school hours.
E-safety is covered throughout the curriculum in a number of areas, primarily in PSHE, the tutor programme and Computing at KS3 and KS4.
As part of the statutory relationships, sex and health education in secondary schools which we deliver through PSHE, students are taught about online safety and harms. This includes being taught:
We address online safety and appropriate behaviour in an age-appropriate way that is relevant to the students’ lives.
In addition, we also teach students how to use the internet safely and explore:
This complements the computing curriculum, which covers the principles of online safety at all key stages, with progression in the content to reflect the different and escalating risks that students face. This includes:
It can seem difficult to keep up-to-date with the technology that children use. You can find out much more information and support about digital technologies by clicking here.
Keeping your children safe online:
Antivirus with parental control
Online Content
Online Conduct
Be Kind Online
Online safety tips for children
Social pressures linked to appearance
Social Media and Mental Health
Hacking
Follow the links below to view the social media parent guides:
Facebook
Instagram
Kik
Momo
Snapchat
X (formerly known as Twitter)
The National Crime Agency and CEOP Education have launched a website aimed at 11-18s year olds about exploitation/relationships and its advice from the National Crime Agency. This has some useful information around health relationships, online safety, sending nude photos, etc. Visit the website by clicking this link.
It is important to note that students may access the internet from a number of different devices including: mobile phone, laptops, home computers, tablets, iPads and games consoles as well as some smart TVs.
Within school students are protected by an internal filtering system which prevents them accessing inappropriate sites and they have all signed the home school agreement and acceptable user policy which outline the appropriate use of IT within school and at home. But it is important that parents and guardians take appropriate precautions to protect their children at home. These include: filtering, dialogue and monitoring.
Writhlington School recommends the following in regard to the appropriate use of technology at home:
The most effective way to ensure your child is as safe as possible at home is to ensure that you have parental controls or filtering set up on both your home wireless network and your son or daughter’s mobile phone. This can be done by contacting your ISP (Internet service provider), which might be BT, Virgin or Sky, for example, or in some cases via your wireless router.
It is also possible to set up content filtering on the Internet at home through your existing router by signing up to OpenDNS, the world’s leading DNS (domain name system) service, which is totally free for home use, can prevent Internet outages and make your Internet faster.
Find out more about OpenDNS by visiting www.opendns.com
It is important to be able to talk to your child about their use of the Internet and how to use it safely. We run parent workshops in conjunction with SWGfL (South West Grid for Learning) and Avon and Somerset Police each year to help parents and carers to develop their understanding of e-safety.
You can find out more about e-safety by visiting the websites below.
SWGfl
Safer Internet
ISSUU
Google Safety Centre
National Crime Agency
One of the key ways to ensure your son or daughter uses the Internet appropriately is to encourage them to go online in family areas of the house rather than alone in their bedrooms so that you can talk about their Internet activity and monitor what they are doing in a non-threatening way.