During the next school week (when hopefully the weather has returned to some form of normality!) the children of St Joseph's will be focusing their learning on Internet Safety. We have some interesting and information sessions planned for both pupils and parents and the letter below (which should have gone home with the children today) provides details of this. Please take note of the parent sessions and do all you can to attend. We want to work closely with parents to make sure that we are all fully informed and able to safeguard the children in the 'online world'.

Friday 2^nd March 2018

Safer Internet week including an NSPCC Online Safety for Parents Workshop

Dear Parents,

As you are aware, this week we will be holding our own Safer Internet week in school. During this week each child will learn about how we can use the internet and technology safely and respectfully, will be able to discuss some of the ways in which technology can be inappropriately used and will be guided in what signs to look out for which could potentially be concerning, as well as how to react to them.

As parents we are often far behind in our knowledge and understanding of technology and it is very difficult to keep up in this ever changing world and so I am sure that you are as eager as we are to learn as much as possible to keep your children safe.

Therefore, there will be multiple occasions during this week where we would like to invite parents and carers into school to experience some of the things which the children will be learning about. These are:

NSPCC Parent Workshop - Tuesday 6^th March at 8.40am.

Firstly, we are very lucky to have a workshop specifically aimed at parents which will be run and delivered by the NSPCC. A letter was sent to all parents last week giving options of suitable times and the most popular choice was Tuesday 6^th March at 8.40am. So when children are dropped off at school, please make your way to Cool Cats where refreshments will be served before the workshop starts in the hall, which will last approximately one hour.

EYFS and KS1 Parents’ Overview of the children’s learning on e-safety – Wednesday 7^th March at 3.00-3.15.

During this day all children in these classes will have experienced a range of activities all about using technology and the internet safely. During this 15 minute slot, we would love for all parents to come into the hall where Mrs Russell will explain everything which the children have been doing. The thinking behind this is so you can then continue the important conversations, which the children have begun at school, at home so the message really sinks in to our children’s everyday use of technology.

KS2 Parents Learning from the children session – Thursday 8^th March at 2.30 – 3.15

During the day the children in KS2 will be revolving around a carousel of activities learning about many aspects of Internet Safety. During this session we would love for you to come into your child’s class and learn alongside and from the children. The children will ‘teach’ you everything they’ve been learning about during the day. We hope that this will then support you in continuing this important discussion with you child at home.

We are very much looking forward to seeing all of you at the above sessions, as this would strongly reinforce the importance of staying safe online to our children, and will help us to move forwards in working together to safeguard all of our children in this ever-changing new world.

Yours sincerely,

Mrs C Dunne

Headteacher