The Whinless Down Academy Trust believes that online safety is an essential part of safeguarding and acknowledges its duty to ensure that all pupils and staff are protected from potential harm online. The Internet and associated devices, such as computers, tablets, mobile phones and games consoles, are now an important part of everyday life, so we believe that pupils should be empowered to build resilience and to develop strategies to manage and respond to risk online.

The school has a progressive age-appropriate online safety curriculum which raises awareness and promote safe and responsible Internet use amongst learners. We expect children to follow the online rules and respect the feelings and rights of others both on and offline. We teach them to seek help from a trusted adult if things go wrong, and support others that may be experiencing online safety issues. 

We continue to build a partnership approach to online safety with parents and carers. We provide regular information and guidance on online safety in a variety of formats. We draw their attention to the online safety policy and expectations in newsletters, letters, online safety newsletters and on our website. ​

Related Policies

Our Online Safety Policy, Social Media Policy & Mobile Phone Policy can be viewed by clicking here.

National Online Safety Guides

These parent guides from National Online Safety Hub (https://nationalonlinesafety.com/) are an excellent way of familiarising yourself with the dangers of various online platforms and provide some helpful tips. 

Click to view a larger version:

Useful Links

Think You Know - A brilliant site to support your role as a parent in keeping your child safe online.

CEOP - The Child Exploitation and Online Protection Command is a command of the UK's National Crime Agency

Safer Internet Day - The website of Safer Internet Day, which is held in February each year to promote online safety

Online Safety in the Curriculum  - Lots of useful links here from The Education People