E-safety

The online world is a fantastic place, it gives us all an amazing link to others worldwide. It enables students to do schoolwork, to take part in remote learning, to play games and to communicate with friends and family near and far. Students are accessing the online world more and more each day and that is why we need to ensure we are all educated in how to use it safely.

We are proud to be a certified National Online Safety school with a range of our staff, students, and parents all joining together to keep up to date with how to be safe online. Students of Chatham Grammar are educated about online safety in PSHE and Computing lessons throughout the academic year, and in Personal Tutor time weekly.

Digital Leaders

Online safety is very important to us all at Chatham Grammar and we are proud to have our team of Digital Leaders. We currently have 12 digital leaders with all key stages being represented within the team. These students study online modules with the charity Childnet to help keep their online safety knowledge up to date and they meet as a team at least once a term. The students work together to produce a range of activities for other students, such as quizzes, competitions, weekly tips, and they offer advice through drop-in sessions or short video clips.

If you are a student interested in becoming a digital leader, please contact Mrs Sanger, our E-Safety lead via email, we are always looking for new online safety enthusiasts: sanger@universityofkentacademiestrust.org.uk

If you are a parent and are interested in learning more about how to keep safe online then sign up to the national online safety hub. This platform offers short courses for parents/carers to work through and guides to help keep you up to date with latest APPS as they are released: http://nationalonlinesafety.com/enrol/chatham-grammar

Here are guides for the most commonly used platforms by our students at CG, more guides are available from the hub in the link above.

Here are guides to help young people in how to stay safe online, including when using group chats.

Our advice to our students - How to Stay Safe Online

Never give out personal details to online friends you do not know offline. Personal details include your email address, mobile phone number, school name, any clubs you go to, arrangements for meeting up with friends and any pictures or videos of yourself, family, or friends. Small pieces of information can easily be pieced together to form a comprehensive insight into your life and daily activities. 

Think carefully about the information and pictures you post on your profile; once published online, anyone can change or share these images of you. Do not to post any pictures, videos or information on your profile, or in chat rooms, that you would not want a parent or carer to see. 

If you receive spam or junk e-mail and texts, never believe their contents, reply to them or use them. 

Do not open files that are from people you don't know. They could contain a virus or an inappropriate image or film. 

Some people lie online and therefore it's better to keep online mates online. 

Never meet up with any strangers without being in the company of an adult you trust. 

Always tell a trusted adult (your parent/carer/teacher/family friend etc.) about something which makes you feel uncomfortable. 

Useful links for more information

Sites to visit for advice/help:

www.thinkuknow.co.uk the main UK Government website with advice on how to keep safe online.

www.ceop.police.uk the Child Exploitation and Online Protection Centre (CEOP) is the Government body dedicated to eradicating abuse of children. Concerns about inappropriate contacts between a child and an adult, including online, can be reported directly to CEOP. There is usually an option available to "report abuse to CEOPS ", on most social networking sites, like Facebook - simply click the "button".

www.childline.org.uk Childline is a service provided by the NSPCC, operated by trained volunteer counsellors. It is the UK's free, 24-hour helpline if you are distressed or in danger. You can call the free helpline for support: 0800 11 11.

If you need to report a concern to the Academy, you can email: refernow@univeristyofkentacademiestrust.org.uk 

Or you can speak to your Personal Tutor, Mrs Sanger (E-Safety lead) or Mrs Franquiera, Mrs Kadejoh, Ms Knight (our Wellbeing Team).