Dear Parents, Carers and Students,

Safer Internet Day 2025

Safer Internet Day takes place on Tuesday 11th February. This year’s theme is ‘Too good to be true? Protecting yourself and others from scams online’.

Secondary school students are often more active online, so internet safety is crucial. It is really important to communicate with your children regularly about staying safe online. Not sure where to begin? These conversation starter suggestions from the UK Safer Internet Centre can help:

• Ask your children to tell you about the sites they like to visit and what they enjoy doing online
• What games do you and your friends like to play online? Can you show me the websites you visit the most?
• Shall we play your favourite game online together?
• Ask them about how they stay safe online
• What tips do they have for you, and where did they learn them? What is OK and not OK to share?
• Think about how you each use the internet
• What more could you do to use the internet together? Are there activities that you could enjoy as a family?
• Ask them if they know where to go for help
• Where can they go to find the safety advice, privacy settings and how to report or block on the services they use?

Additional information can be found on the following websites:

• Internet Watch Foundation: (IWF)
• UK Safer Internet Centre
• Internet Matters
• Mental Health and Wellbeing

Children's Mental Health Week
Children's Mental Health week can be an opportunity to try new methods of communicating with young people in your lives. Emotions are a natural part of life, and while youngsters should be allowed to express themselves, it’s important they also learn how to process these more difficult emotions in a mindful way. Of course, many children may well be encountering these intense feelings for the first time, and it can be intimidating to skirt the line of helping them properly handle their emotions while also validating their experiences.

The methods outlined in the Place2Be resources can support in building stronger connections, as well as supporting resilience and self-awareness in themselves. Visit them here.

The National College have also produced the attached free guide, offering expert advice on supporting young people to deal with big and difficult feelings in a healthy manner.

National Apprenticeship Week 2025
National Apprenticeship Week takes place from 10^th to 16^th February. Please see the attached poster for more details – a whole host of information can be found on the website here.

Kind regards,

Miss S Totty

Acting Headteacher