Online Safety
At Townsend, we take the safety of our students in the physical and online worlds very seriously.
Pupils are taught about online safety through the Relationships and Sex Education curriculum and learning covers topics such as staying safe online, privacy and location settings, trustworthiness of websites, online threats such as malware, cyberbullying, sexting, digital footprint and building a positive digital reputation.
All students sign an Acceptable Use Agreement for IT services at school, and school networks and Wifi are filtered and monitored by Herts for Learning to check for the suitability of language and what pupils are searching for. Some websites are blocked in school so that students cannot access them.
Our mobile phone policy states that students are not allowed to use their phones whilst in school. Almost all cyberbullying incidents take place outside of school hours. We explain to students that their online conduct outside hours still needs to meet the standards of behaviour we would expect and all reports of cyberbullying will be investigated and taken seriously.
We encourage parents to maintain active discussions with their children around online safety, put filtering in place at home and to impose sensible time limits on the use of devices at home.
Websites and work that is expected to be completed online is summarised in a separate document that is shared with parents via the school newsletter.
The following websites relating to online safety have useful guidelines and tips for parents:
https://www.nspcc.org.uk/keeping-children-safe/online-safety/
https://saferinternet.org.uk/guide-and-resource/parents-and-carers
