There has been a growing number of concerns recently brought to the attention of our class teachers regarding pupils’ use of messaging apps and social media outside of school hours.

It has come to our attention that an increase in inappropriate messaging between pupils is occurring during evenings and weekends. These interactions are often unkind or exclusionary, and they are resulting in children arriving at school upset, distracted, and unable to focus on their learning.

Parental Responsibility and Monitoring

While we teach online safety as part of our curriculum, we must emphasise that parents and carers hold primary responsibility for their child’s usage of personal devices. Most social media and messaging platforms have a minimum age rating of 13 years. As such, we strongly encourage you to:

● Regularly monitor your child’s chats and group messages.
● Set boundaries for device usage in the evenings.
● Discuss the impact of digital footprints and the importance of being kind online.

Our staff’s primary focus is on providing high-quality education and maintaining a safe environment during school hours. Please be advised that the school will not be responsible for investigating or mediating ongoing disputes that occur on private devices outside of school.

If your child is experiencing distress due to messages received outside of school, we recommend you screenshot the messages, block the individuals on the platform, and report any serious concerns to the platform providers or the police (101).

Thank you for your continued support.

Download a digital safety checklist

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