We are proud to be a school that has high standards and expectations of online safety. We support children in a range of ways to be safe online citizens, including:

• All pupils sign the e-safety charter
• All pupils and staff agree to network monitoring systems on each login
• Any concerns on the network, appropriate staff get alerted
• Parental contact
• Safeguarding tracking system
• Computing ambassadors
• Online safety assemblies
• Online safety curriculum embedded across all years

Unfortunately, we are being made aware of an increasing number of issues regarding some of our pupils having their own social media accounts. The following are current legal age restrictions on these sites. Please help us to spread this information. Helpful parent guides about many of these social media platforms can be found if you scroll further down on this page.

Parents can open the following document for a useful parent guide about strategies to combat online bullying:

Below is a copy of a recent Online Safety update we shared with parents following some pupil surveys about how our children use the internet at home and in school:

Helpful Resources

Computing in the 21st Century is seen as an essential area of learning. At Westacre Middle School we recognise that technology plays an important role in the everyday lives of children, young people and adults. Consequently, we endeavour to build in the use of new technologies in order to equip young people with the skills they will need to access life-long learning and employment. We are delighted to provide children with the opportunity to use a wide range of resources to deliver our curriculum. Inevitably however, the online world develops and changes at great speed. New opportunities, challenges and risks are appearing all the time. It is difficult to stay up to date with the latest devices, platforms, apps, trends and related threats. We understand the responsibility and importance of focusing on the underpinning knowledge and behaviours that can help pupils to navigate the online world safely and confidently regardless of the device, platform or app. Many parents and carers wish to continue this education at home.  To support you in this, we have collated a few important websites to refer to.

The National Online Safety group have published the following useful guide on ways we can all work towards stopping online hate together:

This can also be viewed below as a pdf document:

Parents can find the most up to date guides from National Online Safety on a range social media apps and platforms below. They include information about each app and useful tips to help keep children safe.