Safer Internet Day - Tuesday 6th February 2024

The theme for Safer Internet Day this year is "Inspiring Change? Making a Difference, Managing Influence, and Navigating Change Online,"

To help schools get ready, the UK Safer Internet Centre has recently released an exclusive collection of short films, designed to captivate and educate children and young people aged 3 to 18 years old. These films serve as starters for meaningful conversations, making them perfect for educators and professionals eager to participate in Safer Internet Day activities across various environments such as schools, nurseries, youth groups, libraries, and beyond.

You can access the films here: https://swgfl.org.uk/magazine/uk-safer-internet- centre-releases-safer-internet-day-films/

Don’t forget to consider children who may have received new gadgets at Christmas and how to support the whole family in safe use.

We also have the use of AI to consider too! Make sure teachers are having conversation with children about these matters. As with the internet, many exciting and beneficial aspects of AI will have an enormous positive impact on our children’s lives, the way they learn and communicate. However, the safeguarding concerns of this same technology will and are also becoming known. Keeping up-to-date with emerging concerns is an aspect of DSL CPD including how all staff receive updates and training to recognise how AI can be a source of abuse.

Low level concerns:

Low level concerns are important to discuss with your teams. Does everyone understand what constitutes a low level concern?

Where do you record low level concerns? What would you do if that low level concern was about a one-off visitor?

HR and the Education Team are updating our allegations policy and writing a low level concern policy to help with these areas of work.

Nikki Prentice - School Improvement Lead, St Christopher's Academy Trust