DIGITAL PARENTING

The role that we as parents play in supporting our children to develop the life skills and knowledge they need to use the online world safely and confidently, is crucial.

As our children grow and inhabit an online world that can sometimes be very different to the one we use, we may require support and advice in order to keep them safe.

It's highly advisable that parents engage children in a conversation about their use of devices, apps and the online world. Questions such as: where do you go online? what do you do online? and who do you know online? are very effective for prompting a discussion with your child or children.

Please click here to download Parent Zone's digital parenting magazine to help support you in ensuring that your child/children stay safe online.

Screen Time

The UK Chief Medical Officers have made the following guidance and advice available to parents:

Online Safety & Digital Awareness in School

Online Safety is integral to our responsibility to ensure that children are kept safe in a rapidly changing digital world. Digital parenting is also a key aspect to maintaining children’s safety at home.

The development of children’s digital awareness is woven throughout the Computing curriculum and also forms a part of our RSE (Relationships and Sex Education) and Health Education provision.

Online Safety Books

Children across KS1 and KS2 are drawn into discussions through the use of texts and narrative such as ‘Webster's Friend’ and 'Webster's Email'. You can share a narrated version of this book with your children home by clicking here.

In Year 4, the children considered the importance of kindness and respect when online, linked to the text 'Troll Stinks' by Jeanne Willis and Tony Ross. The children shared their advice about showing kindness and respect online, in role as the characters. Children in Year 6 explore scenarios and dilemmas they might face in a modern digital world, through the discussion of appropriate online behaviours.

Children in Year 5 have explored the text ‘When Charlie McButton Lost Power’ by Suzanne Collins. The narrative engages children with the implications of our increasing use of technology for our personal relationships and questions whether the impact this has on us is always positive.

The children analysed the feelings, thoughts and actions of Charlie McButton and this stimulated a debate about the role of technology in our everyday lives.

Children have also engaged with Google’s ‘Interland’ which forms part of their ‘Be Internet Awesome’ campaign. This gave the children the opportunity to enhance their digital literacy skills by assessing and evaluating online behaviours across a range of online scenarios. The children can engage with this at home too, by clicking here.

Additional Links

To find out more about Online Safety please click here.

Here are some helpful links covering Online Safety advice and support for parents:

https://parentzone.org.uk/advice/parent-guides