The safety of children is always our first priority.
How does this school deal with bullying?
Bullying is not tolerated at St. Mary’s Primary School. We have a strong anti-bullying policy which is part of our Good Relationships behaviour policy.
We have a number of ways of ensuring that children are able to report problems of bullying and of making sure children know we will take action. We always respond to reports of bullying and we work in partnership with parents to make sure our school is a bully-free zone.
How can I keep my child safe online?
There is lots of advice available for keeping your child safe online.
We have included some information below, but there is lots, lots more available on www.webwise.ie, including information on parental controls, how to deal with cyberbullying, sharing your child’s image online, social networking and privacy settings.
Here’s their guide to supporting your child to be safe online:
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Open in new tab If your child plays online games, here’s a video with some advice about what you should know:
Tips for Keeping Your Child Safe
Here are a few helpful tips to ensure a safe online gaming experience for your child.
- Check the age rating of the games your children are playing and ensure games are age appropriate.
- Advise your child not to share personal details online or in their profiles. In the case of teens, it may be best to discuss the dangers of sharing information online.
- Encourage your child to play fairly and treat other gamers with respect.
- Use family safety settings to protect your child from discovering games which may not be age/content appropriate.
- For many parents it is useful to agree time limits on gaming with their children.
- Playing games online can leave computers/devices open to risk of a virus. Protect your computer by ensuring you have up to date anti-virus software in place.
- Ensure your child knows how to report or block other players who engage in online harassment or any other unsuitable behaviour.
Are you worried about how much time your child spends looking at screens (e.g. computers, tablets, phones, TV)?
Here are some helpful pointers about screen time:
1. Agree a clear set of rules with your child on screen time in the home. Talk to your child on when you think it is appropriate and inappropriate to use screens. Agree times when screens are allowed and not allowed in the home. For example dinner time, homework time and bedtime.
2. Do as you say. Modelling behaviour is THE most powerful way you can influence your child’s behaviour.
3. Restrict the use of computers/devices in the bedroom. Depending on the age of your child you may want to set a curfew or ban devices from the bedroom completely.
4. Buy an alarm clock for your child’s bedroom and charge their phones in your room at night time. This can be a helpful way of giving them a break from the internet.
5. Try not to rely on screens too much to keep the kids amused. It can be easy to encourage kids to pick up the tablet or play a game on the computer to keep them occupied. This only confuses rules on screen time, try and stick to the agreed rules with your child and remember to set a good example.
6. Chat to your child about what they do online and encourage them to use their screen time for learning and education.
7. Pick one evening a week where you do a family activity together, whether it’s movie night, games night. Doing activities together as a family will help implement screen time guidelines and offer fun alternatives.
8. Don’t have screens always on in the background.Turn off TVs and Computers when not in use, these can be distracting for kids if they are trying to participate in another activity.
9. Finally, join in,why not set some time aside to play your child’s favourite computer game and discover the online world together.