At Ethelbert Road Primary School, we take online safety extremely seriously. It is the right of all children to feel safe and secure when using technology.

For more information on keeping safe online, please visit our Computing Page

Ethelbert Road jetted off on an exciting adventure yesterday with Captain Wonderweb and the somewhat trusty crew as they explore the distant stars and, more importantly, what makes for safe web surfing. In this adventure, we learnt all about internet safety, delivered in a fun and colourful package. Captain Wonderweb was an entertaining show with a crucial message for children growing up in the digital age.

We encourage our children to always be careful when they are using the internet. It can help them to keep in touch with their friends and help their education – but it can also cause harm – to them and to others.

we want our children to know help is always available at school if they are having any problems online.

We don’t want them to be afraid to talk to their teacher or another adult at school.

If anyone in our school community is worried about Child Exploitation, Online Protection or anything related to Internet safety please click the link below which will take you to the CEOP reporting website:

As  part of our safeguarding duty we use a robust filtering procedure and the Headteacher monitors IT use weekly.

Filtering 

• Ethelbert Road's education broadband connectivity is provided through Talk Straight (Schools Broadband) and Ethelbert Road School uses Netsweeper for its Web filtering.  
  • Netsweeper blocks access to sites which could promote or include harmful and/or inappropriate behaviour or material. This includes content which promotes discrimination or extremism, drugs/substance misuse, malware/hacking, gambling, piracy and copyright theft, pro-self-harm, eating disorder and/or suicide content, pornographic content and violent material.   
  • Netsweeper is a member of Internet Watch Foundation (IWF) and blocks access to illegal Child Abuse Images and Content (CAIC).
  • Netsweeper integrates the ‘the police assessed list of unlawful terrorist content, produced on behalf of the Home Office’ 
• We work with Structured Network Solutions to ensure that our filtering policy is continually reviewed to reflect our needs and requirements.  
• If pupils or staff discover unsuitable sites or material, they are required to: 
  • Inform the appropriate member of staff so that Structured Network Solutions can be informed and can take approiate action so that the site or seach terms are blocked as required.
• Filtering breaches will be reported to the DSL and technical staff and will be recorded and escalated as appropriate in line with existing policies, including child protection, acceptable use and behaviour.  
• Parents/carers will be informed of filtering breaches involving pupils. 
• Any access to material believed to be illegal will be reported immediately to the appropriate agencies, such as the IWF, the police and/or NCA-Child Exploitation and Online Protection Command (NCA-CEOP).

Monitoring is undertaken as: 

 Physical Monitoring - All staff in class monitor what the children are looking at and physically check. Each child is given a number and every lesson they have the same numbered laptop and IPad. This enables staff to know what the children are looking at and to trace back any incidents. Staff monitor pupil usage and check sites before children use them, screens are easily seen by adults.

Internet Monitoring - safeguarding alerts are sent to our IT provider, SNS and sent to the Headteacher. The Headteacher then investigates.

Full Monitoring - This is undertaken by the Headteacher who receives monitoring sheet weekly. She physical checks staff and children's usage and the sites they are going on. These are reviewed with others once the Headteacher is satisfied there are no safeguarding concerns. 

• Systems and processes are reviewed annually with the schools IT Technician. We check we are meeting the standard and use KCSIE tools. We also look at the sites that are blocked or not blocked.

Safer Internet Day

Safer Internet Day takes place every year and  celebrates learning based around the themes such as ‘Want to talk about it? Making space for conversations about life online’.

Coordinated in the UK by the UK Safer Internet Centre, the celebration sees thousands of organisations get involved to promote the safe, responsible and positive use of digital technology for children and young people.

In the UK, we are celebrating by putting children and young people’s voices at the heart of the day and encouraging them to shape the online safety support that they receive.

Parents, carers, teachers, government, policymakers, and the wider online safety industry are being asked to take time to listen to children and young people and make positive change together.

With your help, Safer Internet Day can be a springboard for conversations that shape how we talk about and respond to online issues, not just for one day, but throughout the whole year.

Tips for staying safe online:

• Make sure you keep new online friends strictly online. If someone you don't know asks to be your online friend you must ensure an adult knows about it.

• Know how to use the CEOP Button and how to report it to the CEOP Centre if you are concerned about someone’s online behaviour towards you.