

Weekly Newsletter
24th January 2025

Important Dates!
- Fri 21st February - last day of term
- Mon 3rd March - return to school
⭐Don't forget to check Class Dojo regularly for up-to-date news⭐
Attendance
Whole School Attendance this week - 94.2%
We are aiming for at least 97% - let's work together to make this happen!!
Please remember that if your child is going to be absent from school you should call school before 8.30am to report this. If they are off for multiple days, you should call school each day that they are off. If your child is suffering from something such as a cough or cold we do recommend that you send them into school and see how they get on. It is amazing how many children perk up once they get into school and we can assure you that if it becomes evident that a child should not be in school we will make contact with yourself as parent/carer.
As a school, our attendance has greatly improved over the last year and this is all thanks to you and the effort you are making in getting your children into school every day.
Weekly Reflection
Our word of the week is 'determination'.
Christians believe that with God’s help everyone can be a winner –
In the Christian life, everyone who stays the course is awarded a prize. One of the writers in the Bible (Paul) writes, ‘I press on towards the goal for the prize.’ He believed that God had given him a job to do and even when it was hard for him, he kept on going.
We can all keep on going to be the best we can be at the things we do in our lives. That way everybody is a winner!
Safeguarding
Online Safety:
How do you keep your child safe online?
- Talk about it regularly
- Go online together
- Know who your child is ‘friends’ with online
- Set rules and boundaries
- Use parental controls
- Check content is age appropriate
- Ensure your child understands privacy setting and how to report it
Questions to consider about what your child does or may experience online?
- Are your child’s online friends the same as real life friends?
- When was the last time you had a conversation with your child regarding online activity?
- Have you checked your child’s online privacy recently?
- Does your child know more about the internet than you?
- Do you know how to remove cyberbullying comments?
- Do you know what products are available to monitor online activity?
- How many hours does your child spend online?
Some of the popular Apps children are using
- YouTube - parents can now use the video sharing platform, on eligible smart TVs and on other devices such as smartphones, laptops, computers and tablets as an app or through the web browser
- Snapchat- introduce a new parental control feature dubbed “Family Centre,” which will allow parents to see who their child is friends with on the app as well as who they’ve been messaging with over the past seven days, and more. Concerning information - VAPES being sold on this platform.
- Instagram - allowing parents and carers to view and set limits on the amount of time their child is spending on Instagram, get updates on which accounts they’re following and being followed by, and receive notifications when they report another user.
- TikTok - TikTok accounts for users aged 13-15 will now default to “private”. Also, videos created by users under 16 years of age are restricted by default for download unless the settings are changed or updated. “Family Pairing”, parents can link their child’s account to their own where they can control direct messages, set screen time limits, and turn on/off restricted content directly from their phone. VAPES being sold on this platform.
NSPCC Advice:
G – Get to know the platform
A – Ask open questions
M – Master the basics together
E – Explore privacy settings and safety settings
Parental controls are designed to help protect children from inappropriate content online, such as pornography, age restricted apps, or other adult content. These controls can be used in various ways, for example to help ensure that children access only age-appropriate content, to set usage times, to monitor activity, or to help prevent in-app purchases.
Check your settings regularly- Children can become accomplished users of technology and may learn how to disable or bypass the parental controls in place. Therefore, it’s important to talk to your children from the outset about why the settings are there, and the importance of respecting them. Regularly checking the filtering on your family’s devices could also form part of your agreement.
Establish some rules - If you have parental controls from your internet provider on your home WiFi, these will not cover the use of 3G, 4G or 5G at home. Similarly, if your child goes to a friend’s house where there are no controls in place, they may be able to access unrestricted content. For these reasons, it’s important to educate your child about the potential risks online and establish rules concerning the sites that are suitable or inappropriate to visit.
Give children the skills they need- No parental controls or filtering options are guaranteed to be 100% effective. They are a very useful tool to improve the quality of online experiences, but they cannot offer a ‘complete’ solution. It is therefore essential to talk with your children about their online activities, so they know what to do if they encounter inappropriate content.