Safer Internet Day 2023

Safer Internet Day 2023 was celebrated in the UK on Tuesday 7th February, focussing on the theme of 'WANT TO TALK ABOUT IT? Making space for conversations about life online'.

Activities took place within school to inspire conversations to help promote the safe, responsible and positive use of digital technology for children and young people. We held conversations with our children about how they talk about and respond to online issues, suggesting ongoing strategies for safe internet use.

Whole School Activity

Digital Leaders delivered an assembly introducing the theme for Safer Internet Day 2023. Children shared some of their online experiences and suggested who they would talk to if things went wrong or they felt unsafe or worried. Children were reminded that if they confided in a teacher, that information might have to be passed to specialist teachers within school. The assembly ended with this important message:

 Our challenge to you: Talk about it!

KS2 Lessons

The children worked in groups to promote conversation. Firstly, they were asked to rank their experiences from high to low of online bullying, phishing and seeing something scary or violent.

The children then undertook a 'hole-in-the-wall' activity where they were first asked to discuss different things that their bodies did if they are upset (e.g. headache, tears, legs feeling like jelly). They then transferred these ideas to their human outline. Having done this, they considered what can happen if they don't do anything about these feelings. 

Finally, they thought of adjectives to describe how people feel once they have talked to someone and asked for help (e.g. calm, relieved, happy, content, confident, etc.) and added these to their human outline picture.

KS1 Lessons

In KS1, children were asked to think about if something online made them feel sad, uncomfortable, worried or frightened, who could they go to for help with a problem. 

To help them understand, children listened to the online story of Hanni and the Magic Window. Hanni has a magic window at home but when she sees something that upsets her, she struggles to explain what has happened. The children were asked to discuss who they could go to for help with a problem.

The children then played the 'Can you help me please?' board game which allowed them to practise asking for help. They really enjoyed it and were good at identifying who they could ask for help and how they would ask.