Dear Parents and Carers,

At a time when our children are increasingly using and exposed to online material, we would like to take the opportunity to offer some guidance and resources to check that your child is safely protected from any adverse experiences whilst online.

The following site may prove helpful in both identifying potential dangers and considering actions that we as parents can take to safeguard our children. This is particularly important for older children who use the internet independently.

The UK Safer Internet Centre can be accessed using the following link:

https://www.saferinternet.org.uk/advice-centre/parents-and-carers

Although not described on this website, we are increasingly aware of the need to protect our children against the dangers of harmful online challenges and online hoaxes. These are designed to encourage or influence children to take a challenge that could be dangerous or harmful (dares etc.). While many of these will be safe and fun, especially if done as a family such as the ice bucket challenge, others may be potentially harmful.

As parents and carers we can help our children to learn to develop positive and empowering online behaviours, such as critical thinking, how and where to report concerns about harmful content and how to block content and users.

For more information on staying safe online, please go to the Information tab and visit the E-Safety page of this website.