Online Safety

Introduction

As with any area of interest for young or vulnerable people, safety has to be considered paramount. E-safety is a complex area as technology provides as many problems as there are solutions. To ensure child protection, good practice is as important as ANY computer aided application.

E-Safety at Kingsdown

At Kingsdown we offer the most advanced and up to date technological opportunities for all of our students. Every student has access to their own 1:1 chromebook device, fast wifi, exposure to classroom interactive panels, VR/ AR, industry standard CAD/CAM packages, 3D printing and more. With all of these opportunities also come the opportunities for misuse or exposure to risks online. For this reason we take online safety extremely seriously and do our utmost to protect and educate all students at kingsdown school.

Acceptable Use Policy - Every student is expected to personally read and sign a contract which they are then expected to also follow. This outlines our expectations of what is acceptable use of any device or service at KDS. This education then extends into our Computer Science curriculum which reinforces these critical e-safety messages and lessons about how to stay safe online.

Filtering and Monitoring - To keep all students safe, we have a very well throughout and regularly reviewed process which automatically blocks targeted harmful content. This allows us to ensure that only approved content is allowed to be accessed by KDS students. To ensure that students are being safe online and respectful digital citizens we are able to monitor students activity through our monitoring system “Impero”. This allows to record all activity and review it when needed.

Keeping children safe, secure and ready to learn: Kingsdown uses Securly for internet filtering on student Chromebooks to help keep your child safe online. This filtering works whenever your child is logged into their Kingsdown School account, whether they are in school or at home. More info can be found at HERE

E-safety at home - To ensure your child is safe both in and out of school, it’s important that you too have an understanding of e-safety. To help with this, below are some useful links to give you more information.

Resource

AI Images:
Childnet have put together a free leaflet for older students and parents which explores how generative AI can be misused.
The leaflet includes:

- Why young people might choose to use AI to create illegal images.
- Ways parents and carers can support their children.
- Where to go for further help.
- Conversation starters to use at home.
- This would also be useful for classroom conversation starters/discussions. You can view/download the free leaflet HERE

For Parents - Cyberbullying Advice:
Talking to children and conversation tips for ages 6-10, 11-13, 14-17 and vulnerable children - HERE
What is cyberbullying and what are the signs - HERE
Helpful ways to prevent cyberbullying - HERE
How to deal with cyberbullying - HERE
Parents experiences of cyberbullying - HERE
Useful resource - HERE

https://www.nspcc.org.uk/keeping-children-safe/online-safety/

https://saferinternet.org.uk/guide-and-resource/parents-and-carers

https://www.internetmatters.org/resources/online-safety-guide/

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/coronavirus-covid-19-keeping-children-safe-online/coronavirus-covid-19-support-for-parents-and-carers-to-keep-children-safe-online