Children from St Francis School in Newton Aycliffe took part in Safer Internet Day 2016.
The internationally recognised event aims to educate children and young people about how to stay safe online.
St Francis Church of England Aided Junior School, a school judged to be outstanding in a recent review of online safety, will open its doors to parents and carers as part of this year’s Safer Internet Dat.
Deputy head teacher, Lisa Lakey, presented a special assembly to pupils, the E-Safety Committee, parents and carers.
They then all split up into teams and wrote questions for opposing teams based on the presentation.
With their parents and carers, pupils in Years 3 and 4 watched videos about online bullying and how to block and report this behaviour.
In groups of six, they discussed how to communicate online and what to do if it happens to them.
The youngsters then created information posters and video blogs which were published on the school’s website.
Head teacher Jane Wilkinson “Here in St Francis E-safety is an integral part of all areas of school life. Staff, children, parents and carers work in partnership to ensure that the most recent information is shared throughout the school and community.
“Over the past three years we have purchased Playbooks, Kindle Fire and Kobo readers so that children can be shown, in a safe environment, how to be responsible when using these devices.
“It’s really important children know the potential dangers, but most of all safety measures they can take to ensure their safety. We’re always alert to the fact that, although the internet is a fantastic tool and resource for both teaching and learning, we’ll always need to be mindful that there are dangers of using the World Wide Web too.”
To tackle E-safety Durham Local Safeguarding Children Board has created the Erase brand to tackle child sexual exploitation (CSE).
The information around Erase – which stands for Educate and raise awareness of sexual exploitation – offers parents and carers advice on how to communicate with their children with regards to who they speak to online and offline.
