Safeguarding

SSPO

We have committed to you that we would not be complacent and continue to work to ensure that your child receives the best possible educational experience at Outwood Academy Hemsworth. With this in mind, and a focus on behaviour and community relationships we have employed a Safer Schools Partnership (Police) Officer (SSPO).

The post of a SSPO is in some of our other academies, and having seen the benefits that this post brings to the students and the community, I am delighted that we have secured this post through West Yorkshire Police for Outwood Grange Academy. PCSOs can help and support the whole community in relation to building links and establishing a culture of proactive policing. Others have worked on some key issues in terms of sexualisation of young people and anti-social behaviour. We hope that the relationship long continues.

Introduction

ICT is an everyday part of people’s lives and schools are making increasing use of new technology.
At Outwood we have systems in place to protect your children. Outwood Academy Hemsworth urges all parents / carers to enable security settings on home devices to help protect your children online.
We recognise that we encourage students to go online for work out of school where there is less supervision and they have more freedom.

Golden Rules to Safe Internet Browsing

*Children should ideally only add on social media sites people they know and trust in real life. Some predatory paedophiles can convincingly pose as another teenager and may spend months or years ‘grooming’ the victim until they meet face to face.
*Children must always be accompanied by an adult if meeting an online friend in person.
*Don’t ban children from these sites; they will just use them at friends houses or on their phone, personal media player or hand-held games console.
*Take an interest and suggest they add you as a friend so you can keep an eye on them when they first join.
*Have the main computer in a communal area of the home where there is passive supervision and be reasonable about time online.
*Talk if you feel it’s getting out of hand (but remember how many hours you spent watching TV when you were their age – the internet is at least active not passive and they can learn a lot from it.
*If they have a wireless laptop and you want to stop them going online after a quota of hours is up, unplug the ‘router’ where the phone line comes into the house.

What to Look for on a Website

*The CEOP report button is the online equivalent of dialling 999.
*We need to train young people, just like we do with 999, to recognise it and know how to use it if they need to.
*Look out for good websites that have the button built in.
*Some websites refuse to add the button, so visit direct: www.ceop.police.uk

Online Bullying/Cyber Bullying

*Cyber bullying is the use of the Internet and related technologies to harm other people, in a deliberate, repeated, and hostile manner.
*Children can be unkind to each other online. Bullying is not new but the technology has changed making it is easier to track and prove who is responsible.
*If you suspect your child is having a problem, the evidence will be on your computer. If you can print off copies of messages and screen shots of web postings (ctrl + prnt scrn) we can investigate.
*Want to find out more about understanding and stopping Cyber Bullying?
*Visit the CEOP channel on YouTube.
*Put this website in your favourites: www.thinkuknow.co.uk and make sure every member of the family spends time familiarising themselves with the area aimed at them.
*For parents that’s www.thinkuknow.co.uk/parents
*For teachers that’s www.thinkuknow.co.uk/teachers
*For your child that’s www.thinkyouknow.co.uk/11_16 which they won’t have been shown at primary school.

http://kidshealth.org/parent/positive/talk/cyberbullying.html
http://www.childline.org.uk/explore/bullying/pages/cyberbullying.aspx
http://www.cyberbullying.org/