The Lister Weekly Update #21

A warm welcome back to all our parents and carers as we embark on the next stretch of the academic year! We hope you all had a restful and rejuvenating half-term break, and are ready to embrace the challenges and opportunities that Spring Term 2 brings.

At Lister Community School, our core values:

• Always Aim for Excellence
• Be Kind Polite and Considerate
• Take Responsibility – No Excuses

are at the heart of everything we do. This term, we encourage everyone in our community to reflect on these values and how they can guide us towards achieving our full potential. Let's work together to create a supportive and encouraging environment where every student can thrive.

This term is particularly crucial for our Year 11 students, who are about to complete their final set of mock exams before their GCSEs. These exams are a vital opportunity to assess their progress, identify areas for improvement, and build confidence for the real thing. We know that this can be a stressful time, but we want to reassure our Year 11 students and their families that we are here to support them every step of the way. Our dedicated teachers are providing extra revision sessions, guidance, and encouragement to help them succeed. Remember, resilience is key. Embrace the challenge, stay focused, and believe in yourselves.

For all other year groups, this term is a time for continued growth and learning. Let's aim for excellence in everything we do, both inside and outside the classroom. Whether it's academic studies, sports, arts, or community involvement, let's aim high and give our best. Remember, aspiration is about setting ambitious goals and working hard to achieve them.

We encourage parents to actively engage in their child's education by attending parent-teacher meetings, staying informed about school events, and communicating regularly with teachers. Your support is invaluable to your child's success.

We look forward to a productive and successful Spring Term 2. Together, we can make this a term of achievement, growth, and positive experiences for all our students.

Here's to a fantastic term ahead!

The Lister Community School Team

AI generated content and AI tools like chatbots, content generators and summaries are quickly appearing across popular online apps and services. There are also popular AI tools which are developing at an incredible rate, like ChatGPT. It is important that you are aware of how to use AI so that you can support your child to do the same. This article from the NSPCC explains how you can do that. The main focus is on following the six steps below, taken from the NSPCC advice:

1) Talk about where AI is being used

A good place to start is by having open conversations with your child about where they are seeing AI tools and content online. This is an opportunity to talk about the risks and benefits they are experiencing.

2) Remind young people not everything is real

You can remind them that not everything online is real and much of what we see may have been edited. AI is continually evolving but there can be common indicators to show something is AI generated but remember it is not always obvious. Some of these indicators can be an overall ‘perfect’ appearance, body parts or movements appearing differently or not looking ‘true to life’.

3) Discuss misuse of generative AI

It’s important to address the misuse of generative AI to create harmful content in an age-appropriate way. Make sure that your child knows it’s not OK for anyone to create content to harm other people. If they ever experience this or are worried about someone doing it, then they can report that. If you are concerned about how someone is behaving towards a child online this can be reported to law enforcement agency.

4) Remind them to check sources

AI summaries and chatbots can be helpful tools to get quick answers to a question but it’s important to know it’s coming from a reliable source. Sources should be listed and will often have links so they can be checked. If the source is not listed or is not a reliable source, it’s good to encourage them to check a trusted site for themselves.

5) Signpost to safe sources of health and wellbeing advice

We know young people will use the internet to get advice and answers to questions which could mean they come across advice from an AI bot or summary. It’s important they access safe information from reliable sources, so it can be helpful to make sure they know of child-friendly safe sites such as Childline.

6) Make sure they know where to go for help

Ensure your child knows they can talk to you or another safe adult like a teacher if anything worries them online or offline. They can also contact Childline 24/7 on 0800 11 11 or via email or online chat, there are lots of ways they can get support.

At the Lister News Desk, we are aware of the large number of students at Lister who love gaming. In fact, some of the Lister News Team in their youth were also keen to play online games. However, as games develop and evolve, so do the various techniques that companies use to make profits from games and children's love for them. Many online games and sites targeted at children use 'manipulative marketing' which can lead to unauthorised spending and piracy breaches. This website helps you and your child to understand these techniques so that you, and them, can understand how to browse the web and play games safely, without being exploited.

Here we highlight year groups' success and the particular form groups and individuals in year groups who are earning the most praises. Keep an eye out for your child's name here and see whether their form group have had particular success through the week!

The Thought for the Week next week is focused on Ramadan. Please discuss the thought with your child who will be looking at the thought in assembly and discussing the idea with peers and the year team.