Online Safety
We take online safety very seriously at Hollybush Primary School. We are responsible to ensure the school's online procedures keep children safe, and to teach them about online safety, both in and outside of school. For a detailed look at how we ensure our online procedures keep children safe please do look at the following policies:
Child Protection Policy (Section 10 - online safety and filtering)
Teaching children about online safety takes place regularly at Hollybush. The Teach Computing curriculum, which we follow, currently covers all the requirements in the National Curriculum for online safety. However, we have added to our online teaching in a variety of ways to make it more robust and adaptive to the needs of the children.
Every Thursday each class has a time set aside called, 'Thoughtful Thursday'. Discussion topics alternate between online safety or a PSHE. Teachers follow the UK Council's for Internet Safety framework called Education for a Connected World. This framework sets out eight different aspects of online education: 1. Self-image and Identity 2. Online relationships 3. Online reputation 4. Online bullying 5. Managing online information 6. Health, wellbeing and lifestyle 7. Privacy and security 8. Copyright and ownership. Teachers use a resource called Project Evolve to help them prepare for the online safety element of Thoughtful Thursday.
When using iPads or Chromebooks children are reminded to 'STOP, CLOSE, TELL' if they see anything inappropriate online at school or at home. Online safety is also taught through some of our PSHE units and over the last two years (2023 and 2024) Year 5 have had online teaching as part of the Mini Police Programme.
The school also regularly sends out online safety information to parents - see below. A recent addition to supporting parents is to include an up to date and relevant online safety section in the school's fortnightly Hollybush Bulletin. You can see the most recent entries below.
There are many websites that offer online safety/e-safety guidance. Two we recommend as a school are: