What an exciting time across EYFS, KS1 and KS2! This afternoon, pupils spent time having discussions all about Online Safety. The focus of this year’s Safer Internet Day was:

‘Want to talk about it? Making space for conversations about life online’.

• What issues really matter to children and young people?
• What changes do they want to see?
• How can we all work together to advocate for them moving forward?

In EYFS, children spent time reading stories from Smartie the penguin and were beginning to consider what good choices needed to be made to stay safe online. KS1, read stories, problem-solved and identified what steps they had to take when faced with a dilemma. KS2 had discussions, played games such as Alpha-net and even completed an assault course that explored their understanding of online identity, privacy, consent and self-image. Pupils across KS2, particularly, were able to articulate their understanding of the benefits of certain online platforms and were able to provide sound reasoning for their choices. For example, why they preferred tablets or game consoles, or recording a funny video vs. being a part of a funny video.

The purpose of all of the activities was to elicit rich discussions from our children and to provide each of them the space to explore their ideas and beliefs about the online world. Pupils shared a wealth of understanding and were excited at the idea of being able to action change that would lead to a safer and better world that is not separate, but rather is an extension of real life.