Online Safety

Online safety at Bentley Wood

Bentley Wood High School ensures that online safety is given a high profile with all students and parents, this is done through a number of methods including, an annual online safety evening. Parents attend the meeting at the school and are presented to by members of the school’s safeguarding team, local police and senior leaders. Numerous assemblies are also held within school to address online safety and potential dangers of using the internet. Additionally and as a part of the schools PSHE Curriculum, students receive age appropriate online safety guidance.

We are proud of the work we do in collaboration with our pupils and have a dedicated student led team of digital leaders, who are involved in various aspects of the schools’ online safety strategies, they support with producing materials, supporting at parents evenings as well as providing peer to support in line with our wider values of CARE.

Support links/tips below:

  • Consider setting up a family agreement regarding how their internet use will be supervised and how long they can spend online. Resources to help can be found at http://www.getsafeonline.org.uk and www.childnet.com
  • Apply appropriate parental controls to all devices: www.saferinternet.org.uk and www.internetmatters.org
  • If you are worried that your child is at risk of harm or criminal offence has been committed then you can report your concerns to the Police or Children’s Social Care. Please do not notify suspicious profiles of your actions, as this could enable them to delete material which might be required for any Police investigations. You can contact the Police via 101 or via 999 if there is an immediate risk to a child’s safety. You can also use the website https://www.met.police.uk/ro/report/ocr/af/how-to-report-a-crime/

If you have any concerns regarding online safety or questions about how you can keep your child safer online then please contact Hary Ilanko from the Safeguarding Team to discuss any queries. Or email the school office at SchoolOffice@bentleywood.harrow.sch.uk

Please view the IT Policy 

 

How to keep safe online- Cyber flashing

Parent Information

What is Cyber flashing?
Cyber-flashing is when someone sends an explicit picture, uninvited, to your phone via Wi-Fi or Bluetooth. It’s sexual harassment and is most likely to happen on public transport or in crowded places. Two of the common ways people Cyber flash is via AirDrop (for iPhone users) and via Bluetooth.

How to prevent Cyber flashing?
When you are out in public, switch off your Bluetooth (Android & Apple users) and change your AirDrop (Apple users) setting to receiving off.

Here’s how you can turn off AirDrop:

  • a) Go to Settings then General then AirDrop.
  • b) Tap on Receiving Off to switch AirDrop off.

Here’s how you can turn off Bluetooth – the steps on your smartphone might be a little bit different.

  • a) Go to Settings then find Bluetooth.
  • b) Tap on Bluetooth and switch it off.

Same like AirDrop, you can always switch the Bluetooth back on whenever you need it, but don’t forget to switch it back off after you are using it.

To report Cyber flashing, please speak to a trusted adult such as your Form Tutor, your Head of Year, or a member of the Safeguarding Team immediately.

 

Some helpful websites which offer support to staying safe online

Digital 5 A Day | Children’s Commissioner for England

The Digital 5 A Day provides a simple framework that reflects the concerns of parents/ carers as well as children’s behaviours and needs. It can also act as a base for family agreements about internet and digital device use throughout both the holidays and term time.

Digital resilience: a parent’s guide | ParentInfo

What exactly is digital resilience? And what can we do as parents to help our children develop it? By Parent Zone. Parent Info’s partner organisation, Parent Zone, began the conversation about the importance of promoting digital resilience in children and young people with its 2014 report with the Oxford Internet Institute. The Parentinfo’s guide to some of the most popular websites and apps young people use: parentinfo.org

What is Parent Info?

Parent Info was founded in 2005 and has a track record of providing information, support and advice to parents. In recent years, The Parent Zone’s work has focused on the impact of digital technologies on families.

Parent Info provides high quality information to parents and carers about their children’s wellbeing and resilience.

In line with CEOP’s Thinkuknow programme, some of the content covers internet safety, but it all starts from the assumption that young people make little distinction between their online and offline lives and the issues for parents are often the same. The aim is to help parents help their children be discriminating, web-literate and resilient.