03/21

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Online Safety Newsletter

Dear <<First Name>>

We hope you're well and the return of all pupils to school has been positive for you. Welcome to the latest edition of our Online Safety Newsletter.

As ever, there are a number of Online Safety updates this month. Remember, you can copy and paste our first item in your own communications with parents.

Please get in touch with the team if you have any questions about this or if we can support you in any way.
elimadmin@somerset.gov.uk

Forward

In this months newsletter:

Item for Parents
New eLIM Packages for 2021/22 including 'Advanced Online Safety Support'
360safe - A School's Experience
eLIM 360 safe workshop
What to do if you come across child sexual abuse material
Trends: Omegle
Updated ActiveBYTES planning
Get in Touch

Item for Parents

Feel free to copy this section to keep your parents regularly updated.

Free Online Safety Parent Session

On March 30th, Google and Parent Zone's 'Be Internet Legends' Team is offering a free digital drop-in for parents to help you support your child with their online safety.

This is a 30 minute session which will 'explore how you can help your child share carefully online over the holidays. Get tips on protecting private and personal information, ask a question, share advice or just say hi. Listen in live or watch back later when you have time.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EcD7lFCrkFM

New eLIM Packages for 2021/22 including 'Advanced Online Safety Support'

We have just launched our new packages for schools in 2021-22. These include a new Online Safety Campaign to support Somerset Schools which is heavily discounted for one year only.

The four available packages are:

Advanced Online Safety
Computing Lead Support Package
Ed Tech On-Site Support Session
Ed Tech Remote Support Session

Purchasing of these packages is open now, with an early-bird discount available. Please get in touch or visit our SSE Page for details.

360safe - A School's Experience

In our new video, the Headteacher, Gemma Coward, and Online safety lead, Tammy Court, describe the ways in which the 360safe online safety review tool has empowered their whole school community at St Bartholomew’s First School, Crewkerne. We hope you feel inspired as you listen to Gemma and Tammy describe the details of their experience:

https://youtu.be/t3WmI-xGz54

eLIM 360 safe workshop

The eLIM Educational Technology Team is proposing to run a remote 360safe workshop in the Autumn Term 2021. This will be an opportunity for schools to use the tool to review their Online Safety provision, with peer support and an eLIM advisor available to answer questions and offer guidance.

The suggested date is October 6th 2021, 1:30 – 3:00pm and the workshop would be £40 to attend.

To gather interest in whether this workshop would be useful, we are asking schools to register their interest (with no obligation) at: http://bit.ly/eLIM360SafeWorkshopOct21

What to do if you come across child sexual abuse material

As a professional working with children, we hope you are never faced with discovering child sexual abuse. However, if you do become aware of material of this nature online, it is vital to have clear guidance.

This ThinkUKnow guidance details the steps staff should take if they are in this challenging situation:
https://www.thinkuknow.co.uk/professionals/our-views/what-to-do-if-you-come-across-child-sexual-abuse-material/

Trends: Omegle

The recent lockdowns have led to an increase in popularity of Omegle - a 'virtual chat room' which allows users to chat with anyone, anywhere in the world. There are a number of risks that adults should be aware of to discuss with children. We do not recommend sending home specific warnings about particular apps or games because this may raise curiosity about an experience that children would otherwise be unaware of. However, it is useful for school staff to be informed about trends such as this, and to be ready to discuss it with children and parents if it becomes an issue in your school.

This article from Internet Matters gives clear guidance about the risks and potential harms of Omegle:
https://www.internetmatters.org/hub/news-blogs/what-is-omegle-what-parents-need-to-know/

Updated ActiveBYTES planning

All Summer Term ActiveBYTE lesson plans for 'I am healthy' will be updated ready for after the Easter holiday.

Some plans have been completely rewritten and there are minor changes to many of the plans, so please let colleagues know to use the new version from the ActiveBYTE webpage rather than a plan they may have downloaded last year.

We will also be producing a new KS2 assembly for schools that may have used the previous summer assemblies.

Get in Touch

If you need any support or have any questions about Online Safety, GDPR (Data protection) or the Computing curriculum, please do not hesitate to contact us directly:

elimadmin@somerset.gov.uk

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The eLIM Ed Tech team