ONLINE AND COMPUTER SAFETY UPDATE

Safety Online!

Screen Addiction

e-Safety is an important part of keeping children safe at Loanhead Primary School . We have extensive security measures in place in school, which are monitored both internally and externally, to help safeguard pupils from potential dangers or unsuitable material. Any e-Safety incidents are recorded and managed.  e-Safety is taught to all pupils explaining and demonstrating how to stay safe and behave appropriately online.

We can only be successful in keeping children safe online if we work with parents to ensure the e-Safety message is consistent. It is important that parents speak to their children about how they can keep safe and behave appropriately online.

Recently, many of the children have been talking about the Momo challenge and have been increasingly worried about it.  Like many of these online phenomenon the publicity and hype has made this a lot bigger than it needs to be.  For a quick briefing on it see the link below.

https://parentzone.org.uk/article/three-minute-briefing-momo-challenge

MOMO INFO

It’s essential to be realistic – banning the internet or technology will not work and it often makes a child less likely to report a problem. Education around safe use is essential.

Search engines

Please note that no search engine is ever 100% safe but below provides some links to some “safer” search engines:

Research searching

nICE
CBBC
Kids Yahoo

Google offers a safer search option for children searching on the Internet. You can find out how to do this by downloading the instructions at the bottom of the page.

Image searching

Pics4Learning
picsearch

Gaming

When children are accessing games via Xbox LIVE, privacy settings can be set up.  To read more, click here

FORTNIGHT BATTLE ROYAL – WHAT PARENTS NEED TO KNOW

Social Media Platform Guides

Click here to access to modern and relevant information on the most popular online phenomenons and social media platforms

https://nationalonlinesafety.com/resources/platform-guides/

Insta advice

Snapchat Info

WhatsApp Info

YouTube Info

 

Screen Time and Concentration – P7

Recently, they hot topic in class has been a game called “Fortnight” or similar.  Pupils are admitting that they are trying to pull “all nighters” without their parents knowing, some even claim to get up at 5.30 to play each other on line and many are spending fortunes on parent bank cards without permission.

I have had a few parents speak to me about their concerns relating to this obsession but also the language that pupils are using to converse with each other over phones/headsets while playing.  Some pupils are coming to school red eyed, tired and really distracted and when spoken to they are blaming too much screen time but are reluctant to stop.  Mrs Donnelly has advised that ALL parents be made aware of this.

While we do not wish to tell you how your child should spend their free time, we would like you to support is in promoting healthy lifestyles and good sleep hygiene which is not promoted by too much screen time.   If pupils are overstimulated and tired, it has been proven that this has severe effects on learning and concentration.

Most difficulties that arise in school come from social media or gaming and we ask for your support in this matter. We conducted a survey in P7 about screen time….there are some surprising results e.g. 52% of pupils s[end 5+ hours on a screen (Not inc T.V.) each day! (click the link below)

When speaking to specialists, some recommendations are:

  • Turn off the Wifi at a set time each night (be strong!)
  • No screens in bed rooms
  • Appropriate down time at least 2 hours before sleep
  • Passwords for all consoles, phones, tablets should be shared with you.

For more information please see below for some guidance:

https://www.techadvisor.co.uk/feature/digital-home/how-much-screen-time-for-kids-3520917/

http://home.bt.com/tech-gadgets/internet/tablet-smartphone-screen-time-advice-parents-kids-11364191314228

Reebops in P7 Science

In Science this week, P7 investigated inheritance and variation through Reebops -imaginary animals, made from play  dough.

The new proud parents learned the relationship between genes and inherited traits and how hereditary information is passed from one generation to the next, and how the physical appearance of offspring can be determined by combinations of genes received by parents.

Have a look at some of our adorable offspring 🙂

Chromatography in P7 Science

In Science Primary 7 have been looking at methods of separation.  They looked at distillation and filtration as ways of separating some materials and were set a challenge to separate ink particles using chromatography.

They learned that the ink separates through water at different speeds due to having different weights – this is how the patterns are created.

Their challenge was to guess the black pen I used out of 4.  Most groups solved the puzzle correctly 🙂 Well done.

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