Online Safety
From the earliest opportunity, we support and teach our children to understand how the safe, appropriate and proportionate use of technology can enhance their lives and how balancing this with real-life experiences and off-screen time support a balanced and healthy lifestyle.
Through our use of Common Sense Media curriculum resources, children will learn how to become responsible digital citizens by focusing on the following themes:
- achieving a healthy balance between time online and offline
- standing up for the respectful use of online tools
- learning to be honest and truthful online
- discerning and testing what is true and accurate online
- recognising and responding safely to uncomfortable content
- discovering about our digital footprints and the impacts they leave
Children also learn about the evolving world of AI and how they can engage with this ethically and safely whilst always maintaining a critical view of AI output.
Smartphone Free School
We believe that keeping our children safe online is the whole community's responsibility. We aim to lead and support parents in navigating this difficult work by setting a standard that is safe and appropriate for everyone to follow. In response, we are a Smartphone Free School. This means we will not allow children to bring any form of internet-connected device to school and we strongly discourage any family from providing these devices to their children. It is not in their best interests and it is very difficult to protect children from the damaging and addictive nature of online content until their brains are more fully developed – ideally no earlier than age 16.
We will support our families to develop children's real-world independence and acknowledge that it is important children can call for help when they really need it. In response, we are happy to support children in Years 5&6 by taking care of their "brick phones" during the school day, so they can travel to and from school safely and independently.
Working in Partnership
We provide regular advice, guidance and signposting to families, working in partnership with schools across the Xavier Catholic Education Trust, to keep the community up-to-date and responsive to the latest changes and challenges in the online world. You can find the Xavier advice to parents leaflet below, setting out the different types of screen time and how these should be balanced.
Here are a number of excellent online resources that families will find helpful reference points:
NSPCC
https://www.nspcc.org.uk/keeping-children-safe/online-safety/
ParentKind
https://parentkind.org.uk/online-safety-toolkit#
Internet Matters
https://www.internetmatters.org/
CEOP