Some of our students will be lucky enough to receive new devices, games consoles and phones for Christmas. Many of the rest will have access in one way or another to internet-enabled devices. We all want to ensure that everyone in our school community has a safe Christmas holiday, online and beyond.

We encourage the positive use of technology at school and often talk about the fun that goes on in lessons, but we also discuss the scary things too throughout the year. As we approach the holidays, why not find out about you parents can help – whether by setting parental time and age controls (before you wrap new ones), or simply by finding out more about what’s going on?

There will be a Facebook Live drop-in for parents on Monday 20 December 7pm on the @LGfLDigiSafe channel talking about staying safe online and offline too – what to worry about and what not, and how to have tricky conversations at home. There will also be discussion of how parents can help with bullying, relationships, criminal and sexual exploitation and simply starting tricky conversations!

Sign up now by heading to facebook.com/LGfLDigiSafe/posts where you can click ‘Interested’ / ‘Going’ on the post to receive a reminder when it is about to go live.

Please also remember before buying Christmas presents that games, series and films (including on Netflix!) have age ratings linked to their content, not their difficulty (we often forget for games that they are also rated 18 for the same reasons as films - language, sex and violence).

You may wish to visit the parentsafe.lgfl.net website where you will find many of the resources that will be presented to you on the evening.