Safer Internet Day

Underley Garden students have been busy on Safer Internet day!

To further embed their continued learning on how to keep safe when using devices online, they have participated in a range of activities.  This year’s Safer Internet Day theme is all about change;  how the internet has changed throughout the years and how safety measures have increased over time. The students began their day accessing an assembly where they spoke about what the internet is and how safer internet day is an annual event and held globally. They looked at this year’s theme which is inspiring change. They were able to share that reporting anything they feel uncomfortable with, to trusted adults is one way of remaining safe online. With staff, they explored how people communicated in the past before the internet using morse code, letters, pigeons etc.  ​

Classes spoke to about how important being safe online is, because there are so many things our young people assess daily that involve the technology and the internet. Students created a list of all the devices or websites they use, here are some examples given: Alexa, Mobile phone, TikTok, Online games, Facebook​, using laptops for learning, internet research and YouTube. ​

Students and staff discussed the importance of our personal information and to never disclose this to anyone online, some classes created and designed a Facebook profile identifying and learning what information was safe to share. Students shared what to do if anyone was to receive negative comments when online and what they should do and who to inform, some classes also looked at how to create a safe password to keep their personal accounts private.  The students engaged in various activities focused on information that is ok to share and information that is not. By the end of the activities the young people were able to identify what information Is and is not safe to share online.

In other classes, students watched a video about being safe online. The video was a group of children stating their opinions on topics based around the internet and technology, for example whether people are nicer online or in real life, whether technology is good for us etc. The students participated in conversations about these and expressed their opinions too, they also talked about who is in charge of keeping them safe in school and at home. They then designed an online safety character. These characters are superhero’s who are in charge of teaching people about at least one area of safety they have looked at over the past lessons, eg- safer passwords, not clicking on spam in emails etc

Afterwards they played some internet safety games on the internet legends website, and then built their character robots, which they could only build step by step after answering internet safety questions. They loved these activities. S was very proud of her finished robot. 

During class Q2’s history unit on the history of our prison and justice systems, the class had a discussion about how online crimes have increased, what they are and how they have developed in recent years. We discussed how to avoid things such as online scamming and how realistic scams have become.​

Q4 students continued working on their Open Award qualification by completing activities for their E-Safety unit. 

Internet Safety posters were also created by some students, which have been displayed around school, to inform staff, young people, visitors, parents and carers about the importance of staying safe online. 

Great work by all!