Stockport Governor Association

At Fairway Primary School, we decided, as a Governing Body, that we needed to 
raise Cyber Safety Awareness.

There is an increasing number of issues with internet use, both within school and away from the formal education system. Within school, as part of the Foundation,KS1 and KS2 Cyber Safety curriculum,internet awareness programmes are rolled out; all children have been issued with a promise that they will keep safe and that they understand the dangers of using the internet, and they have all signed the agreement. But with more children using mobiles and other handheld devices, we felt that this made it more difficult for parents to keep control on usage and appropriate media access. We felt, as a governing body, that we wanted to reach the parents and share our knowledge and concerns, so 
that we can together grow with the technology we have and use it to 
its full potential, but safely. We invited all parents and carers whose children attend Fairway to 
an evening event about Cyber Safety. We had a reasonable response.

Our night started off with an introduction from the headteacher, Rev. Lynn Boyle. This was to 
outline for parents our thoughts and fears, but also 
to celebrate and acknowledge the benefits of such a great tool. After ice breakers and introductions from both myself and one of our community governors, we then had a presentation from one of the senior management team regarding IT in school, explaining the restraints and barriers in a controlled environment. We were then taken through the system controls we canuse at home to keep our children safe, we covered social network security controls, keeping private information safe, not sharing passwords, and we discussed some of the problems that can arise if these precautions are not taken.

We then ran a session using the active vote system, a bit like the hand‐held pads in "Who 
wants to 
be a Millionaire". Each person had a hand‐held device, with buttons A to D, and we asked various multiple choice questions and the audience voted. We showed the results on the whiteboard and then revealed the answer! The questions were facts and statistics we had collected from our children on a recent IT usage questionnaire. The results in many questions were completely underestimated by the audience ‐ food for thought! After a much deserved coffee break, we watched the videos that each Key Stage watch regarding Cyber Safety. After each video 
we had table time to discuss our thoughts.

The feedback from the parents on this section was very positive. They welcomed the chance to witness what their children were being shown in school and, for the parents of younger children, it gave them the opportunity to see what their children would be shown in the future. They all felt that it would prepare them for extending discussions on this subject at home. Throughout the evening we showed vid clips and media data that reminded us of how fast our technology is changing and how the children of today will need a completely different set of tools for a career from their grandparents. We also held a "How to do
 it" session where we had the network
 open for the evening to allow us to 
have access beyond our normal ring fenced limitations:; we could then go
 onto 
social network sites and show the parents how to set their security and protect themselves and their children; we recognise the facts that, even though some of these sites have age restrictions, children are entering false data to
 open accounts. From our schools IT questionnaires we know how many children are accessing these sites undertheir own parents' profiles, again a shocking number. 

A guest speaker was then introduced who, as a barrister, could share some of his experiences from the other side of the law, both from a prosecution and defence point of view. This gave the parents a real insight into
the dangers and the realisation that, the earlier good practice was taught to our children in school, the safer they would be. We hope we will develop good practices and ethics in IT and that that in turn will keep them safer. The end of the evening was drawing near and the parents were asked to fill in and return evaluation sheets. All sheets returned were very positive and the evening had been of great interest and use, with many of them all fired up for the changes they were going to make at home from now on!

Julia Tate
Chair of Governors
Fairway Primary School