To coincide with the international Safer Internet Day, children’s internet charity Childnet International is premiering a new set of education E-safety resources for Primary schools. The interactive resources have been designed to empower all school employees at Primary level to better understand, tackle and teach e-safety issues to children.
The resource – developed through funding from the Training and Development Agency for Schools (TDA), Becta and the new UK Council for Child Internet Safety, and with support from CEOP – includes a unique learning SMART animation especially designed for young children. See www.childnet.com/kia/primary for sample chapters and trailer for new animation.
The emphasis on providing education and training in using the internet safely at a younger stage has come as research shows that children as young as 8 are using social networking services and mobile phones.
Will Gardner, Childnet’s CEO says
” Equipping children to use the internet and mobile phones safely is crucial and we need to do this at the time when children are first beginning to use these powerful tools. Supporting Primary Schools staff is therefore crucial and we believe that this new resource which will be available free to all primary schools later in the year will provide a much needed and highly valued resource.”
The resource comes as a timely response to the recommendations made in the government-commissioned report by psychologist Dr Tanya Byron who called for greater effort on the part of schools and government to educate and support young people in using the internet and digital technologies.
This resource is part of a set of award-winning ‘Know IT All’ resources including Know IT All for Parents which BECTA have sponsored Childnet in producing. Teaming up with Childnet again to produce this new KIA for Primary school content, Stephen Crowne, Becta’s CEO says –
“Enabling the whole school workforce to provide a safe environment for the use of ICT is one of Becta’s key strategic aims. That’s why we are delighted to have partnered with Childnet again in developing the latest ‘Know IT ALL’ resource for Primary schools. This Award-winning series has been successful in equipping and educating parents, secondary school teachers and trainees with advice on how to keep children safe online and I’m delighted that this new primary school resource has been included with both resources for young students and advice for the whole school workforce”.
Graham Holley, Chief Executive of the TDA, said:
“The TDA is committed to the continuous professional development and training of our school workforce so that they are equipped to support students in every area of life. As part of the Government’s commitment to E-safety we are delighted to work with Childnet, Becta and the new UK Council for Child Internet Safety in the creation of this new ‘Know IT ALL’ resource for primary schools. ‘Know IT ALL’ is available to all teachers and will support them in understanding e-safety issues in teaching and learning and includes a powerful learning resource for young students.”
This new resource also includes a rich 3D animation called
‘Captain Kara and Winston’s SMART Adventure’
produced especially for young children just starting out in using new technology. It can be used in an assembly or classroom setting. Presented as 5 separate chapters the SMART Adventure illustrates Childnet’s SMART rules and includes a real life SMART Crew of young people who guide the cartoon characters in their quest and help them make smart online decisions.
‘Know IT All’ for Primary Schools will be made available (in CD ROM format) to all Primary schools to order from 1st April 2009 and will be available on the Childnet website at www.childnet.com/kia from the 25th February 2009
For further information, please contact:
Will Gardner
T: 07960 565994
KIA for Primary Schools includes a unique series of video tutorials presented by serving teachers on a range of e-safety issues including: (these will be available online from the 25th February 2009
- E-safety as a whole school issue
- Protecting myself as a professional
- Helping Parents protect their children online
- E-safety and Children with Special Education Needs (SEN)
- Handling disclosures.
About Childnet
Childnet International is a registered charity established in 1995 working with children, young people, teachers, parents and carers, government, industry and policy makers to help make the Internet a great and safe place for children, both in the UK and on a global level. For the past fourteen years, Childnet has sought to promote the positive use of technology, by highlighting the creative and beneficial things that children are doing with new technology, as well as responding to the potential risks. See www.childnet.com for full details of Childnet’s award-winning resources.
About TDA
The Training and Development Agency for Schools (TDA) was established under the Education Act 2005. Its principal aim is to secure an effective school workforce that improves children’s life chances. For more information, see www.teach.gov.uk.
About Becta
For information, visit www.becta.org.
About the UK Council for Child Internet Safety
The UK Council for Child Internet Safety (UKCCIS) unites over 100 organisations from the public and private sector working with the Government to deliver recommendations from Dr Tanya Byron’s report Safer Children in a Digital World. Reporting directly to the Prime Minister, the Council will help to improve the regulation and education on internet use, tackling problems of online bullying, safer search features and violent video games.
(1)
Safer Internet Day takes place each year in February to promote safer and more responsible us of online technology and mobile phones, especially amongst children and young people across the world
(2)
Ofcom’s research published in April 2008 showed More than a quarter of eight to 11-year-olds who are online in the UK have a profile on a social network, Most sites, such as Bebo, MySpace and Facebook, set a minimum age of between 13 and 14 to create a profile but none actively enforce the age limit.
