Online Safety
Online Safety at St Thomas More!
At St Thomas More Catholic Primary School Online Safety is embedded within the school’s computing curriculum. We follow the below key principles and recognise the importance of teaching our children to keep safe online, but also teach them how to behave responsibly online. Their knowledge is developed through the years groups and is age appropriate. Some children will be identified as having SEND and will need additional support to enable them to access the curriculum at an appropriate level of understanding alongside their peers (please see below for links to further information for families).
In addition to Online Safety being taught through the curriculum, we deliver assemblies and participate in Internet Safety Day every year.
Key Principles -
Creating a culture that incorporates the principles of online safety across all elements of school life
Proactively engaging staff, pupils and parents/carers
Reviewing and maintaining the online safety principles
Embedding the online safety principles
Modelling the online safety principles consistently
Online safety is taught in every year group using 'Purple Mash's' programme
SEND and online safety
Please follow the link or click on the document below for online safety for families and pupils with SEND
Age Limits on Apps and Online Games
At St Thomas More, keeping children safe is at the core of everything we do; including when using the internet. Through our curriculum, we teach them the knowledge and skills to help keep themselves safe and build digital resilience. We cannot do it without your support at home too, we really appreciate you working with us and reinforcing these messages and skills at home.
As well as parental controls and internet filters, it is so important that you monitor how much time your child spends on digital devices. It is a good idea to set up a timetable/rota to clearly identify when your child is allowed screen time. Please make sure that you are aware of what your child is accessing whilst online and have relevant parental controls or protection in place on PC’s, laptops, phones and tablets and also on streaming services on TV and games consoles.
We strongly recommend that you adhere to the age restrictions on Social Media apps and sites. Here are some of the popular ones for quick reference:
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Facebook - 13yrs |
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Twitter - 13yrs |
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Instagram - 13yrs |
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What's App - 16yrs |
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Tik-Tok - 13yrs |
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Discord - 13yrs |
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Snapchat - 13yrs |
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There are also other elements of social media use which may not be appropriate for young users.
Games have an age limit too! These games may seem harmless enough but many of them have unsuitable content. Seeing and hearing such inappropriate content could well affect your child's behaviour and wellbeing. Children have also been known to become addicted to such content.
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Roblox - 7yrs |
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Fortnite - 12yrs |
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Minecraft - 7yrs |
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For any Game or App where contact is made with others please remember that your child can be exposed to unpleasant messages and content - even from other children. Privacy settings are essential for making sure your child isn't sharing more information than they intend to.
PLEASE LISTEN to our Year 6 Online Safety Podcasts
Years 5 and 6 had the pleasure of being involved with an Online Harms assembly and workshop. As part of the workshop, Year 6 were asked to create a podcast that would advise children on how to stay safe when using the internet. Below is their podcasts which deliver a powerful message to anyone using the internet.
Well done Year 6!
