Staying Safe Online over the Summer: Template Online Safety Letter for Parents/Carers
As the Summer holidays approach, many children may be looking forward to having more free time to spend chatting with friends and playing games online. Schools may find this to be an ideal time to highlight some simple online safety tips to help parents/carers balance their children's time online with offline fun too! To help support educational settings, the e-Safety Development Officer has created a template letter that Designated Safeguarding Leads, headteachers or managers may wish to adapt and share with their communities.
The letter is based around four top tips:
- Talking to your children
- Be share aware
- Manage screen time
- Making it enriching
Whilst the template letter is predominantly aimed at Primary schools, other educational settings may still find the letter useful to amend and adapt for their own communities. Schools may wish to use the letter in its entirely or may choose to share specific extracts within their regular end of term communications such as emails, newsletter etc. If schools/settings use social media as a communication tool, then they wish to get involved with or encourage parents/carers to participate in the Internet Matters #Screensafe Campaign. Internet Matters have produced a short video for parents/carers.
Other additional links that schools may find helpful to share with parents/carers include:
- UK Safer Internet Centre: Get creative with technology this summer
- Internet Matters: #Screensafe summer tips
- Childnet: Staying Safe Online this Summer
- NSPCC #Share Aware Campaign
- Pokémon Go: links for schools to share with parents
- LSE Parenting for a Digital Future Blog: The trouble with ‘screen time rules’
If schools and settings have any queries relating to online safety, then please contact the Education Safeguarding Team.
