Nine Mile Ride Newsletter | 22 May 2020 Learning for life - together we discover, nurture, achieve and shine

Respect Resourcefulness Resilience Reflectiveness

Dear Parents and Carers,

We have come to the end of a term that has been unprecedented

and next term promises to deliver more twists and turns. The school

has remained open for many of our key worker and vulnerable

families since the lockdown and this will now be extended to some

specific year groups. We have robust risk assessments in place and

although many things will remain the same; many things will be

different for our children (at home and at school) so now is the time

to pull on our inner resilience and hope that better times lie ahead.

The opening of our doors complicates the educational offer for those

children still at home. We have been able to offer high-quality

remote education opportunities over recent weeks; however, we are

now in the invidious situation of trying to run an open school for 13

groups of children daily as well as looking after our remote learners

at the same time. Government has made it very clear

to prioritise those children back in school; however, we know what

this means for our at-home children and to us, this seems morally

wrong. Government advice is to direct our parents and carers to

online platforms or websites.

12. Remote education during wider opening-DfE

Many schools will have been able to offer high-quality remote education opportunities or programmes over recent weeks. Now

that primary schools will be opening more widely, larger numbers of staff will be needed to provide face-to-face teaching at

school. This means that it may be more difficult to maintain the same level of remote education provision for pupils in the year

groups who are not eligible to attend, or for those pupils in year groups who are eligible to attend but who themselves cannot.

In these circumstances consider how Oak National Academy or other remote education platforms can provide additional

support for learning.

We wanted to continue with Google Classroom (albeit scaled back) as a commitment to our at-home children rather than

sending several generic weblinks home each week and I do hope that this new model will work for everyone.

Important School Dates *= New Item

Mon 25 May -

Fri 29 May

Half Term – School closed

Mon 1 Jun Keyworker/Vulnerable Pupils Return

Mon 8 Jun Reception Group B Pupils Return

Year 1 Groups C and D Pupils Return

Year 6 Groups C and D Pupils Return

Thurs 11 Jun Reception Group A Pupils Return

Year 1 Groups A and B Pupils Return

Year 6 Groups A and B Pupils Return

14 Ways to be Kind Online A guide to explore ways to strengthen relationships, develop a sense of community and deepen solidarity through acts of kindness online, as part of Mental Health Awareness Week.

> Click here for more information

COVID-19 School Updates For the latest communications regarding school reopening.

Please visit our website, click here.

Tips for times of change and difficulty Advice on how you can support your child during a time of

change or difficulty, click here.

What’s going on this week?

Should we always believe what we hear in

the news?

Internet and media companies should do more to tackle the spread

of misinformation as falsehoods have increased during the

coronavirus pandemic, fact-checking organisation Full Fact said in a

report released early May.

"Bad information ruins lives,” Chief Executive Will Moy said.

"Here in the UK, we have seen misinformation take hold in the form

of fake cures, spurious claims, conspiracy theories and financial

scams."

Things to talk about at home…

Can you make a list of all the different places you can hear about the news?

Talk about the different ways you can check if the news is likely to be true and the different places to find news that

has been checked.

Do you like hearing about what’s in the news?

Share your thoughts and read the opinions of others on our discussion board:

www.picture-news.co.uk/discuss/

M&S have updated our uniform shop and have also extend

our 20% promotion to run for 3 months from 2nd July until

30th September, so that no parent will miss out on being

able to buy their uniform at a discounted rate.

To read the M&S School Uniform Newsletter, click here

For a leaflet on their school uniform offering, please visit

Ways to order School Uniform & PE Kit:

Order online by visiting our uniform shop:

https://www.mandsyourschooluniform.com/

Order by phone on 0333 014 8418 (9am-8pm

Monday to Friday, 9am-4pm Saturday)

For more information please click here

What you can do to help

prepare your child for

returning to school

Talk to them, about what their

school day might look like. For

ideas on conversation starters,

click here.

Start changing your routine,

here is some advice for children

returning to school after an

extended break, click here.

Do you know who you’re speaking to online?

Staying safe online has never been more important than right now as we’re all spending more time on our phones, tablets, laptops and

games consoles to stay in touch and keep our spirits up.

There is a risk with social media and games that have a chat option that someone that you don’t know could try to contact you, or add you

as a friend or request to follow you. Remember, it’s ok to ignore their message or decline their request.

Thames Valley Police know that some criminals are using the lockdown to try and make contact with young people online, build up a

friendship with them and then encourage them to do things that they don’t feel comfortable doing. Not everyone online is who they say

they are, so don’t befriend people you don’t know.

Now is a good time to take a look at the privacy settings of the apps that you use. Check the default settings and make appropriate changes

to keep yourself safe when you use them. Advice for over 60 of the most popular apps and games have been created by the NSPCC and O2

and can be found at www.net-aware.org.uk

If you are unsure about someone that you’re speaking to or if you see something online that makes you feel uncomfortable, unsafe or

worried walk away from your phone or computer and tell an adult immediately. This could be a friend, your parent, one of your teachers,

the police or Childline.

You can contact the police on 101 or by going online at www.thamesvalley.police.uk/contact and you can contact Childline by calling 0800

1111 or chat online at www.childline.org.uk

App Information

Snapchat Snapchat lets you send pictures or short videos to friends – they disappear after being viewed but can be screenshotted. Users

can also post stories which can be viewed by their contacts and last for 24 hours.

Top tips for Snapchat:

Check that ‘who can contact me’ is set to ‘my friends’ and not ‘everyone’

Check that only friends can view stories

Turn off ‘see me in quick add’ so that friends of friends, who they may not know, can’t add them

Turn on ghost mode in Snap Maps so that others can’t view their location

Show your child how to report content that they’re not comfortable with and how to block or report users.

Internet Matters have produced a video with step by step instructions on how to check these settings.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=56&v=EWzvUFcOhF8&feature=emb_logo

KIK Kik is a messaging app that allows users to send messages, pictures and videos in individual and group chats. These group

chats can be private or public, and users can also video call friends in the app.

Top tips for Kik:

Encourage them to pick a username that’s hard to guess – that way people will have to ask for their username before

they add them

Discourage them from using the ‘meet new people’ feature which allows them to enter into anonymous,

unmoderated chats with random users

Discourage them from sharing their Kik code on other social media sites where they might have public profiles

Show your child how to report content that they’re not comfortable with and how to block or report users.

Kik have produced a guide for parents: https://www.kik.com/uploads/files/Kik's%20Guide%20for%20Parents%20-

%20February%202017.pdf

Instagram Instagram is a picture and video sharing app. Users can post pictures to their feed or add them to their story, which stays up

for 24 hours.

Top tips for Instagram:

Check that their profile is set to private

You can filter comments to automatically block comments or messages containing certain words

You can also block comments from specific users

You can edit story settings so that only selected ‘close friends’ can view stories

Show your child how to report content that they’re not comfortable with and how to block or report users.

Internet Matters have produced a step by step guide on how to check these settings:

https://www.internetmatters.org/blog/parental-controls/social-media/instagram/

Whatsapp Whatsapp is a messaging app that allows users to send messages, photos, videos and their live location with individual and

group chats.

Top tips for Whatsapp:

Turn off the live location feature

You can edit the profile picture and status settings so that these can only be seen by contacts, or by nobody

Use the ‘blocked contacts’ feature to block specific people from being able to contact them

Show your child how to report content that they’re not comfortable with and how to block or report users.

Internet Matters have produced a video with step by step instructions on how to check these settings.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uB00VSPUPB4&feature=emb_logo

Omegle Omegle is a virtual chatroom which connects users to other users at random. Once connected, users can chat via text, audio or

video.

Talk to your child about the dangers of giving out personal information such as their age, their location or their full name to

people that they don’t know.

Video chat has three different options – moderated, unmoderated and adult. Unmoderated and adult ask the user to confirm

they are over 18, but this information is not checked.

Think U Know has produced this parent’s guide to Omegle: https://www.thinkuknow.co.uk/globalassets/omegle-parents-

guide.pdf

Online exploitation useful Information and Links

Background Information – online sexual abuse is any type of sexual abuse that happens on the web, whether through

social networks, online gaming or using mobile phones. In some cases this involves children being groomed or

exploited by an adult. Any child or young person that uses the internet or has a smartphone could be a victim of online

abuse regardless of their age, gender or background.

Reports of online child sexual abuse in the Thames Valley area were 146% higher in March 2020 in comparison with

March 2019. We want to warn young people that those they are speaking to may not be who they say they are and to

help parents and carers take action in protecting their children from falling victim to online sexual abuse.

Thames Valley Police campaign landing page https://www.thamesvalley.police.uk/police-forces/thames-valley-

police/areas/c/2017/hidden-harm/online-child-abuse/

Ellie’s story - An account of a victim on online child abuse that was first used in our Hidden Harm campaign in 2018.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5rVx9-VnLX0

Thinkuknow - The education programme from CEOP, part of the NCA with advice and games focusing on staying safe

online. https://www.thinkuknow.co.uk/

To support parents during COVID-19, Thinkuknow are producing fortnightly activity packs, tailored to four different

age groups https://www.thinkuknow.co.uk/parents/support-tools/home-activity-worksheets

Net Aware – a collaboration between the NSPCC and O2 with advice and information on a variety of social networks,

apps and games www.net-aware.org.uk

NSPCC – adult helpline: 0808 800 5000, Childline: 0800 1111. They have received funding from the government to

support their helpline during the COVID-19 pandemic www.nspcc.org.uk

Apps to focus on – we will be focusing our attention on securing children on Snapchat, Whatsapp, Instagram, Kik and

Omegle as these are the most prevalent apps that we are seeing in reports of online child sexual abuse.

Contact Information

Tel: 0118 9733118 Email: admin@ninemileride.wokingham.sch.uk Website: www.ninemileride.co.uk Twitter: @nmrprimary