Families Gathering

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At Hillcrest school we aim to keep our learners and their families safe and we know that particularly during the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, people are relying even more on online technology.

Young people have been spending more time at home and social distancing means that they may not have seen friends and family as regularly, if at all. This makes keeping in touch online extra important.

Many young people are spending more time online – and expanding the ways they use the internet. They may join online communities or start using new video-calling platforms. Young people who receive support from services may go online to contact social workers, counsellors and others in their support network.

While all this can bring benefits to children’s mental health and wellbeing, children can be exposed to risk online.

Risks

When children spend time online they may be exposed to:

  •          Online abuse
  •          Cyberbullying
  •          Sexual exploitation
  •          Sexting
  •          Grooming
  •          Radicalisation

Due to Covid-19 we are currently unable to run our Families Gathering workshops. Thinkuknow is an online safety education website that have provided us at Hillcrest school with some useful tools and resources to enable our parents and carers keep conversations going about staying safe online. Please browse through and use the following presentations to help you to understand the behaviour of children and young people online, the resources you can use to support your young people online, and how to report to CEOP (Child Exploitation and Online Protection centre).

If you would like to talk through any of the content or require more individual support please contact Mrs Pycroft at the school, who is our Wellbeing Champion and Intervention Team member.