E safety information for Parents

Welcome to e safety at Prudhoe Community High School. The Internet is a fantastic tool which provides access to a wealth of information, services and resources. There are of course dangers too. At PCHS we are extremely positive about the advantages the Internet can provide. We do everything we can in school to keep our students safe online and to help everyone to understand how to use technology responsibly.

We ensure that:

• All members of our community receive regular e safety training
• All members of our community understand the dangers they can face online, how to protect themselves and what to do if there is a problem
• How to keep personal information and confidential data secure
• All of our young people are protected in school through the use of our systems, security and filtering
• All members of our community understand how to conduct themselves appropriately online and respect others
• Robust policies around the issue of e safety are in place, regularly reviewed and shared as appropriate

The four C’s of online safety

The school identifies that the breadth of issues classified within online safety is considerable, but can be categorised into four areas of risk: 

• Content: being exposed to illegal, inappropriate or harmful content. For example, pornography, fake news, racism, misogyny, self-harm, suicide, anti-Semitism, radicalisation and extremism. 
• Contact: being subjected to harmful online interaction with other users. For example, child on child pressure, commercial advertising and adults posing as children or young adults with the intention to groom or exploit children for sexual, criminal, financial or other purposes. 
• Conduct: personal online behaviour that increases the likelihood of, or causes, harm. For example, making, sending and receiving explicit images (e.g. consensual and non-consensual sharing of nudes and semi-nudes and / or pornography), sharing other explicit images and online bullying.
• Commerce: risks such as online gambling, inappropriate advertising, phishing and or financial scams.

Educating Our Students

We educate our students in the following ways:

• Regular assemblies (at least two per year group)
• ICT lessons

Educating Our Staff

We ensure that staff are fully informed and educated through:

• Whole staff training
• Sharing and explaining of key policies

We help our parents/ carers to understand e safety issues via:

• These web pages
• Articles in our school newsletters

Monitoring and Filtering

In order to ensure the safety of all school users within the school we monitor and filter our ICT system as outlined below:

Monitoring – The school uses Senso.cloud. This software monitors and records activity according to a list of words (created by Senso). This monitors all users within the school. If a user types a word from the list this is flagged with the Designated Safeguarding Lead and the Senior Leadership Team who receive an email showing the flagged word and who the user is. Weekly reports are generated for review. Senso also allows the Senior Leadership Team and teaching staff to remote monitor all users within the school.

Filtering – The school uses Fortigate software. This filters all webpages (searched or accessed) against a set list of categories which are turned on or off for certain users. If a user tries to get onto a site from the list it will be blocked. This happens on PC’s and chromebooks. Reports are sent to the Designated Safeguarding Lead and Senior Leadership Team and are checked on a daily basis.

Information for Parents

Reporting Abuse

For Advice, help or to report abuse please click on the button below.

Reporting harmful content

If you come across harmful content please report it by clicking on the button below.

Websites and online resources

As part of their studies students will be directed by subject areas to access a range of websites and resources. A list of these can be found here.

You can get further information from the following links.

Criminal Exploitation and Online Protection (CEOP) – Help your children get the most out of the internet. CEOP is part of the National Crime Agency and their website has a range of resources around safe internet usage. Children and parents can also report incidents to the police via CEOP through this webpage.

 

Parents and carers guide – This website takes you through to a range of resources around the use of new technologies such as phones, tablets, games consoles and social media.

 

The charity provides a range of resources and information that can be found here.