E-Safety Teaching

At Parkfield, we ensure that pupil's wide-ranging and expanding e-safety knowledge builds over time. This is detailed in our Computing attainment expectations progression document and the knowledge organisers, which show the expected knowledge (and linked vocabulary) that children should know by the end of each year group or primary phase.

Whilst children regularly interact with digital devices and the web at home, it is still essential that they are discretely taught in school how to behave responsibly online and how to best react if they were to encounter possibly unsafe/upsetting suggestions - these behaviours can't be presumed to already be secure.

Through delivering several specific e-safety Computing lessons each year - at least one per term - followed by the inclusion of lots of e-safety questions in the retrieval quiz that children must answer at the start of every Computing lesson, children's e-safety knowledge is frequently built upon and their ability to recall it improved, so it is  secured in their long-term memory. 

Pupil's e-safety learning journey - or 'path' - begins in Reception, where they have discussions about their own online life experiences and listen to stories about silly mistakes made by characters from which basic rules can be learnt. 

Our bespoke e-safety lessons in Years 1 to 6 are then planned to cover a wide range of age-appropriate e-safety topics, inspired by and using material created by: National Online Safety, Child Exploitation and Online Protection Command, Now>Press Play, BBC Bitesize and Project Evolve, along with custom-made activities/resources to meet our pupil's needs and to ensure work produced is both varied and interesting to make. This makes the content more engaging and memorable for our pupils - not just always making a rules poster, for example; instead: creating keyrings with slogans on, taking part in an audio adventure drama, having discussions about a scenario shown in a video clip, making pop-up leaflets, designing a paper smart watch/wristband with rules inside etc. Plans are also regularly reviewed so they can be adapted or supplemented with additional material to cover the latest trends and issues.

It is our aim that all children will be able to enjoy and use the Internet to enhance and support their lives both inside and outside of school, without risk of harm. They should be well-prepared for safely and responsibly accessing and contributing to online platforms outside of school and as they progress to secondary education.

All users of the school’s computer network have clearly defined access rights, enforced using a username/password login system. Account privileges are achieved through the Rochdale School's Network Active Directory Group Policy and file/folder permissions, and are based upon each user’s particular requirements – children have much more limitations in place through a standard key stage login than individual staff members do with their personal logins, for example. This helps to protect the network from accidental or malicious attempts to threaten the security of it or the data accessible using it. Guests are requested to login using either the standard Key Stage login or given supervised access to a staff account.

 A  permanently-enabled  filtering  system  is  provided  by Network  Connect ,  which  is  designed  to  filter  out  material  found to  be inappropriate for use in the education environment. As an additional safety measure, each individual web page is also dynamically scanned for inappropriate content as it is requested, categorised by its content and then access prevented to it if necessary.  Access to make changes to over-right the base-default setting to allow or deny access to a particular website URL can be achieved by using the Network Connect filtering console (logged in by the headteacher our IT technician). All changes made to Internet filtering are  listed to help prevent abuse of the system. The Network Connect console also offers the ability to monitor the history of devices accessing the Internet - the name of the user, their device IP address, the sites they have visited and when. A weekly summary report of this is also emailed to the headteacher.

All Parkfield staff are expected to be aware of issues children might encounter online and receive regular training on a variety of e-safety topics that to ensure their knowledge is kept updated. This includes knowing how to respond correctly to incidents, in line with the school's Behaviour and Safeguarding policy documents. Examples of training include undertaken by our staff include:

• attending an annual staff meeting sharing updates to the DfE's Keeping Children Safe in Education delivered by our designated safeguarding lead, followed by a quiz to check for understanding;

• completing an annual Certificate in Online Safety for Education Settings on The National College platform, followed by a quiz to check for understanding;

• watching the National Cyber Security Centre's training video for school staff;

• completing an annual Certificate in the Prevent Duty on The National College platform, followed by a quiz to check for understanding;

• having Mental Health First Aid training delivered by MHFA England;

• reading any online safety updates shared on the staff room TV noticeboard slide.