At Northcroft, we recognise the significance of educating our pupils about online safety. Given their vulnerabilities and diverse needs, it’s essential to remain vigilant in protecting their well-being. While young people often appear tech-savvy, they lack the life experience of adults. Engage in open conversations with your child, set boundaries for screen time, and educate them about risks. Stay informed about popular apps and help configure privacy settings. Be a positive role model, demonstrating responsible online behaviour. Your involvement is crucial in ensuring their safety in the digital world.

 

Northcroft's Report and Recording process for e-safety is as follows :

The breadth of issues classified within online safety is considerable and ever evolving, but can be categorised into four areas of risk:

• Content: being exposed to illegal, inappropriate, or harmful content, for example: pornography, fake news, racism, misogyny, self-harm, suicide, anti-Semitism, radicalisation, and extremism.
   
• Contact: being subjected to harmful online interaction with other users; for example: peer to peer pressure, commercial advertising and adults posing as children or young adults with the intention to groom or exploit them for sexual, criminal, financial or other purposes.
   
• conduct: online behaviour that increases the likelihood of, or causes, harm; for example, making, sending and receiving explicit images (e.g. consensual and non [1]consensual sharing of nudes and semi-nudes and/or pornography, sharing other explicit images and online bullying.commerce: risks such as online gambling, inappropriate advertising, phishing and or financial scams. If you feel your pupils, students or staff are at risk, please report it to the Anti-Phishing Working Group (https://apwg.org/)

 

 

Please look at the documents below for useful information that helps to ensure our children are accessing the Internet correctly and safely. There is also lots more information to be found on Online Safety Training for Special Schools (nationalcollege.com)