Safeguarding including Online Safety

Online Safety, Intent, Implementation and Impact

Online Safety Intent

All children will leave Harbour with secure understanding and knowledge to be a good digital citizen, able to keep themselves safe and be kind online. They will acquire the skills to make educated and informed choices with regards to being able to navigate the online world as safely as possible and to know what to do when things go wrong.

Online safety is an important part of children’s education in today’s digital world. It is an integral part of our whole school curriculum. We have a wholesome approach to teaching online safety in our school. As well as teaching it as a discrete subject in all year groups, we use the Golden Thread principle which aims to embed all aspects of online safety into all learning that takes place in all curriculum areas. Ultimately, we want everyone in our school community to learn to use the internet and all digital media in a safe, secure and responsible way.

Our aim is to help our children understand that internet can provide a great opportunity for them to learn, socialise and play, provided they are safe. We link this to British values- Individual Liberty. Our motto is ‘With Liberty Comes Responsibility’, and we teach the children that our responsibility is to stay safe during all our online activities.

We also encourage parents to speak to their children about keeping safe and how to behave online. It’s essential to be realistic. Banning the internet will not work and it often makes a child less likely to report a problem. This means that education around safe use is essential.

Implementation

We have developed a comprehensive Online Safety Curriculum by combining resources from Purple Mash and Education for a Connected World frameworks. We ensure that all aspects of online safety are organised into a two yearly cycle and repeated throughout the children’s time in primary school. We update and develop our curriculum and its contents in line with current demands, need and any new changes that are made to the framework.

Year Group	Term 1	Term 2	Term 3	Term 4	Term 5	Term 6
Whole school additional online Safety Focus	Cycle 1 Privacy and Security	Cycle 1 Online Bullying as part of Anti-Bullying Week Online Relationships	Cycle 1 Safer Internet Day focus (not known yet) Revise the last term's units until known	Cycle 1 Copyright and Ownership	Cycle 1 Self Image and Identity	Cycle 1 Health, wellbeing and lifestyle
Whole school additional online Safety Focus	Cycle 2 Privacy and Security	Cycle 2 Online Bullying as part of Anti-Bullying Week Online Relationships	Cycle 2 Safer Internet Day focus (not known yet)	Cycle 2 Managing Online Information	Cycle 2 Online Reputation	Cycle 2 Health, wellbeing and lifestyle
Trusted Adults	Helping Hands update	Helping Hands update	Helping Hands update	Helping Hands update	Helping Hands update	Helping Hands update

Each new term, online safety coordinators lead staff training, highlighting key information about the strand that our school community will focus on. We believe that it is really important to ensure that our staff feel confident and hold the necessary subject knowledge about new trends, any possible safeguarding concerns related to online safety and are aware of resources which will support teaching and learning. We are committed to keeping safety online high on our school agenda by teaching discrete lessons, leading assemblies and weaving these principles into all aspects of school life.

The Role of School Councillors

Our school councillors play a major role in promoting online safety across the whole school. Each term, they meet twice to further develop their knowledge of online safety, gaining a deeper understanding on the strand that the whole school focuses on.

Our councillors have led additional online safety learning sessions in their classrooms, as well as in key stage assemblies. They introduced Digital Citizens to our younger learners in school. Digital citizens are great role models, who take a pledge to be safe, responsible and respectful when travelling through the online world. Our online safety leads also lead regular assemblies in all key stages each term to further embed the learning that takes place in the classrooms.

Our school councillors have introduced Digital Citizens to our younger learners in the school. Digital citizens are characters that teach the children a different aspect of online safety in a child friendly way. Digital citizens teach children songs and rhymes which carry an important online safety message. Our younger learners are beginning to show a good understanding of aspects of keeping themselves safe when online.


Use your arms when online to balance your time	Listen to your gut and stay safe online. Always speak to a grown up if you are not sure.	Use your feet carefully when leaving tracks online.	Use your legs to stand up to bullies online.	Use your head to ask questions about what you see online.	Use your heart to be kind and respectful online

Monitoring and Filtering

In addition to the teaching of Internet safety Harbour Primary School has a number of technical measures in place to help ensure the children can use the internet and technology in a safe and secure way.

Our internet connection is filtered using a Smoothwall filtering appliance, this prevents access to most inappropriate content and provides complete logging of all internet activity and Realtime reports. All children from year 1 onwards use individual accounts and where shared devices are used the times they are used are recorded and activity logged to the individual device.

Our IT suites and shared desktop computers make use of keyword monitoring software to log any safeguarding concerns. Reports are reviewed daily.

There are clear guidelines in place for all users of technology in the school, with acceptable use agreements completed by all users before access is granted.

Impact

Enhancement of our Online Safety curriculum raised awareness and knowledge about making good choices when online, keeping safe and always seeking advice from trusted adults. Regular assemblies and the use of Purple Mash, Jigsaw and Project Evolve resources, as well as having an online safety theme each short term brought an added level of consistency to our whole school view of keeping children safe online. Teachers accessed termly CPD which was closely linked to our whole school online safety overview and the national agenda and trends.

A big part of this approach is to talk about online safety in and out of class and encourage the children to speak up about their concerns and experiences. In 2022-2023, we had a slightly rise in the number of incidents we had to record on CPOMS regarding online concerns. When we thought further and looked at our survey outcomes, we were able to see that the children and parents are seeing Harbour as part of the support network for incidents that may happen outside of school. Our termly online safety newsletter further strengthened our connection with parents and carers who are supporting their children at home.

Online Safety Pupil Survey Outcomes

Which of these have helped you most with keeping safe online?
Posters and messages about keeping safe online	19
Having lessons about online safety	57
School sending and giving information to my parents about online safety	22
Having assemblies about online safety	86
Other	20

If you have been taught how to stay safe online, do you actually follow this advice?
Yes	197	a random number texted me and i deleted it straight away Don't message back strangers Always tell an adult if you are unsure online I don't play with random people
No	19

May 2023

We are pleased that a large percentage of our children follow the advice shared and the learning achieved within school.

Our Safeguarding Curriculum including Online Safety

Safeguarding Curriculum Overview 2024-2025

Online Safety Newsletters

Each term, we publish an online safety newsletter, informing you of current challenges our children are experiencing within their online interactions. In our newsletters, we also like to give you top tips and latest updates to support you further with safeguarding your children online. You can access these newsletters below.

Safeguarding our children from extremism and radicalisation

The Counter-Terrorism and Security Act 2015 obliges schools and other authorities to prevent people from being drawn into terrorism or extremism.

It important that these risks and dangers are considered for every child, right across the country. This includes those places that have not traditionally seen themselves as being at risk, such as in a primary school like ours. We recognise this fact and ensure that children are safe from online terrorist and extremist material in school, via appropriate levels of filtering, we check the suitability of visiting speakers and make sure that our staff are equipped to identify children at risk of being drawn into terrorism, as well as to challenge extremist ideas. They know how to refer children for further help.

Please remember that everyone has a responsibility to take action to report any concerning content online including our parents, staff, governors and children:

Report extremist content to social media providers. Find out more at www.seeitreportit.org and in the UK Safer Internet Centre’s guide to safety tools on social networks at http://tinyurl.com/p49pbaq
Report terrorism-related content to the police’s Counter Terrorism Internet Referral Unit (CTIRU) at www.gov.uk/report-terrorism

Prevent Action Plan