Internet Safety – New School Facebook Page – Curriculum Training

As you are aware, we had an internet safety day before the mid-term break. This was very informative for the children and also for all the adults who attended the evening session. It became apparent that many of the children in our school are active on social media. This is a concern for us on a number of levels – firstly, ALL social media sites are for those who are aged 13 or over and secondly the children were not aware of the dangers that are out there. Hopefully the lessons will have alerted them to these dangers and the evening session gave instructions to parents on how to protect their children from online hazards.

It was also evident from the interactions with the children that some are active on Youtube and also engaging in inappropriate gaming. There is evidence to show that engaging in these games interferes with the children’s brain development. We would ask that you make sure your children are accessing the internet in the kitchen or living room and that they do not have unsupervised access in their bedrooms. It is also prudent to limit the amount of time they have access to the internet and also to change your internet password regularly.

Following on from the advice we received about keeping safe in the online world we here at Scoil Éanna have launched our own Facebook page which will provide a medium for sharing the activities in school with the wider school community. If you use Facebook please feel free to Like and Follow. The school’s Acceptable Usage Policy has been updated to take account of this development and the following points from the policy are of note –

• Users should not post anything on the page that could be deemed as offensive;
• Inappropriate or harmful comments or content will be removed immediately;
• Users should not ask to become “friends” with staff as failure to respond may cause offence;
• Users should not tag or name pupils on photographs on the school Facebook page or add comments which could identify pupils on Facebook.

Facebook lists a minimum age requirement of 13, and all parents are reminded that pupils under the age of 13 should not be on Facebook. Therefore, current pupils aged under 13, cannot be accepted as users.

Finally we would like to remind you that the children will have no school on Monday 13^th March as the teachers will be attending an in-service training event in Monaghan Education Centre