Today is Safer Internet Day and the UK theme is “free to be me”. We are supporters of Safer Internet Day and our consultants are spreading the themes and messages across our schools.

Celebrated globally every February the day offers the opportunity to highlight positive uses of technology and to explore the role we all play in helping to create a better and safer online community.

As part of Safer Internet Day the UK Safer Internet Centre has launched a report into how young people manage, curate and navigate their online identity. The findings show that young people’s online experiences are an essential part of who they are offline – you can find out more and download the report here.

Across our schools our consultants have been utilising the free resources from the UK Safer Internet Centre in their classrooms, looking at how everyone can work together to make the internet a kinder and safer place.

This years “free to be me” theme is about empowering young people to explore identity online and opening up discussions about how the internet shapes the way that they think of themselves and others. At one of our schools the KS2 pupils are having a poster competition on the free to be theme. They are using the downloadable poster template from the Safer Internet Centre as a start point.

Following e-safety talks with year 2 pupils at some of our schools it became clear that they were all using Fortnite which has Pegi12 rating. In addition, many years 5 and 6 pupils are using Tik Tok and dream of becoming Tik Tok stars. Although the key message is to ensure the children know these apps and games aren’t age-appropriate our team are also working with schools to create lists of things that are age-appropriate. Resources are also being shared with parents in the school newsletters with information on what apps many pupils are using, the risks and issues associated with them and how to ensure security features are enabled.

Digital Leaders in some of our schools worked with their turn IT on consultant to put together school assemblies which they have been practising and preparing before hosting for the other pupils.

Find out more about turn IT on Curriculum Support and how we could support your school with e-safety here.