Saint Brigid's Primary School Website

Child Safeguarding Review 2022.23

We want to inform all parents and guardians that the B.O.M has completed the annual review of our Child Safeguarding Statement and Risk Assessmemt.

Our Child Safeguarding Statement is published HERE and a copy is available in the school reception.

SPHE Links for Parents

Please visit the links below to read the online information on SPHE and RSE.

PDST guide for parents on the SPHE curriculum

PDST guide for parents on the RSE curriculum

The stay safe program is taught in the Infant classes after Halloween and in other classes in September.

Stay Safe Information for Parents

Cyber Safety Webinars for Parents

PARENT WEBINARS

Empowering Healthy Online Behaviour in Teenagers

When: Tuesday, 9th February: 7.30pm-8.15pm

Guest Speaker: Dr Nicola Fox Hamilton, cyberpsychology researcher, member of the Cyberpsychology Research Group at the University of Wolverhampton and lectures in Cyberpsychology and Psychology in IADT, Dun Laoghaire.

Audience: This webinar is for parents/guardians of teenagers.

Empowering Healthy Online Behaviour in Younger Children

When: Wednesday, 10th February 7.30pm-8.15pm

Guest Speaker: Mark Smyth, Consultant Clinical Psychologist

Audience: This webinar is for parents/guardians of younger children.

Cyber Safety Tips for Parents

Anti Cyber Bullying

STAY SAFE ..Part of SPHE Curriculum

http://www.staysafe.ie/teachers/resources.htm

SPHE and the Stay Safe Program

We would like to share some information on the Social, Personal and Health Education curriculum (S.P.H.E.) and on how it is taught in our school. The S.P.H.E. curriculum is divided into three strands – Myself, Myself and Others, Myself and the Wider World. Each strand is further subdivided into strand units, with learning objectives for each unit. Aspects of all three major strands will be taught each year and strand units will be organised so that pupils will receive a comprehensive programme in S.P.H.E. over a two-year cycle at their class level.

Five strand units will be taught each year and all class levels will explore the same strand unit over a two-month period, after which a new unit will be taught until all ten strand units have been covered over a two-year period.

The Stay Safe programme is part of the Social, Personal and Health Education curriculum and all primary schools are required to teach it as part of the strand unit, Safety and Protection. In our school classes from First to Sixth will be taught the programme in September/ October and Infant Classes will commence it in November.

The aim of the Stay Safe programme is to teach children personal safety skills so they can look after themselves in situations which could be upsetting or dangerous.

It deals initially with common situations which most children will experience at some stage or other, e.g. getting lost or being bullied. The programme also teaches children the safety skills necessary to protect themselves from physical or sexual abuse and emphasises the importance of telling a trusted adult about any problems they have.

Co-operation between parents and teachers is essential to the success of the programme. It is important that parents are aware of the content of the Stay Safe lessons and are able to discuss the lessons with their children.

Your child may bring home worksheets which will inform you on the topics being covered in class and how you can reinforce the messages at home. You can also familiarise yourself with the content of the Stay Safe lessons at www.staysafe.ie/teachers/resources.htm

Please email the school, info@saintbrigids.ie if you require further information.

Stay Safe Policy

St. Brigid’s N.S., Beechpark Lawn, Castleknock, Dublin 15

Stay Safe Policy

This policy was devised in line with current recommendations and guidelines from Child Protection Guidelines & Procedures (DES) 2017 and Children First (TUSLA) 2017 relating to child abuse prevention and child protection.

Rationale

St. Brigid’s N.S., Beechpark Lawn, Castleknock teaches the Stay Safe programme, a personal safety skills programme designed for use in Irish primary schools. It was researched and developed by the Child Abuse Prevention Programme (CAPP).

The programme aims to reduce vulnerability to child abuse and bullying through the provision of a personal safety education programme for children at primary school level.

It is developmentally structured to enable primary school teachers to deliver an abuse prevention education that addresses personal safety issues such as physical, emotional and sexual abuse as well as bullying and stranger danger. The importance of building confidence and self-esteem and developing assertiveness and strong clear communication is emphasised throughout the programme. The role of schools in prevention education is increasingly being recognised as imperative to the reduction of vulnerabilities of children to bullying and abuse.

Aims

Under Child Protection Guidelines, all schools are required to fully implement the Stay Safe programme (DES circular 65/2011) within the context of the Social, Personal and Health Education (SPHE) curriculum.

The Stay Safe programme has been updated, and the revised Stay Safe programme will be implemented in our school.

The aim of the revised Stay Safe programme is to teach children personal safety skills so that they can look after themselves in situations that could be upsetting, unsafe, frightening or dangerous. The programme also teaches children the safety skills to protect themselves from physical and sexual abuse and emphasises the importance of telling a trusted adult. As well as reducing children’s vulnerability to abuse, the Stay Safe programme aims to increase well-being and resilience by giving children knowledge, skills and strategies in an age-appropriate manner, using developmentally structured lessons and resources to empower them.

Format

In St. Brigid’s N.S., the Stay Safe programme is taught as part of the Social, Personal and Health Education (SPHE) curriculum.

Pupils from Junior Infants to Sixth Class will participate in formal lessons from the Stay Safe programme.

The programme will be taught every year during the first term as part of the SPHE strand units,

Self-Identity (Year 1) and Safety and Protection (Year 2).

Teachers may decide to revisit topics at other times during the year if the need arises. Every effort will be made to ensure that the programme’s messages are reinforced whenever possible.

Lessons from the Relationships and Sexuality Education (RSE) and the Walk Tall programmes will also be used to teach the strands of the SPHE curriculum.

Collaboration

It is considered good practice to inform parents in advance of the commencement of the Stay Safe programme and to direct them to www.pdst.ie/staysafe

for any further information. To that end, all parents/guardians receive an email early in September informing them of the starting dates for each class level.

Included in that email is a link to all the Stay Safe lessons at each class level.

Parents/Guardians are encouraged to become involved by discussing the lessons with their child/children. Worksheets based on the lessons taught will be sent home to be signed.

In the event that a parent withdraws their child/children from the Stay Safe programme, a written record of this request will be sent to the principal and kept on file.

Professional Development

Staff have been facilitated to attend CPD training on the revised Stay Safe programme.

Continued professional development for teachers and other staff members, including members of the Board of Management, will be facilitated.

The Board of Management will monitor the implementation of all aspects of this policy and amend as required. The policy will be reviewed in 2022 or earlier, if necessary.

This plan was fully reviewed, approved and adopted by the Board of Management.

Signed: Chairperson of Board of Management

Date: September 2019

Signed: Principal/Secretary of Board of Management

Date: September 2019

5 THINGS TO TALK ABOUT

Anti – Cyber Bullying

Saint Brigid’s National School aims to ensure that children are safe and feel safe from bullying, harassment and discrimination. This school is committed to teaching children the knowledge and skills to be able to use ICT effectively, safely and responsibly.

UNDERSTANDING CYBER-BULLYING:

Cyber bullying is the use of ICT (usually a mobile phone and or the internet) to abuse another person. It can take place anywhere, it involves a far wider audience than traditional bullying and can affect the victim even when not in the presence of the bully.
Anybody can be targeted including pupils and school staff
It can include threats, intimidation, harassment, cyber-stalking, vilification, defamation, exclusion, peer rejection, impersonation, unauthorized publication of private information or images etc.
While bullying involves a repetition of unwelcome behaviour the Anti-Bullying Procedures for Primary and Post Primary Schools, September 2013, states:

2.1.3. In addition, in the context of these procedures placing a once-off offensive or hurtful public message, image or statement on a social network site or other public forum where that message, image or statement can be viewed and/or repeated by other people will be regarded as bullying behaviour.

WHAT IS CYBER-BULLYING?

There are many types of cyber-bullying. The more common types are:

Text messages – can be threatening or cause discomfort. Also included here is‘ Bluejacking’ (the sending of anonymous text messages over short distances using bluetooth wireless technology)
Picture/video-clips via mobile phone cameras – images sent to others to make the victim feel threatened or embarrassed
Mobile phone calls – silent calls, abusive messages or stealing the victim‛s phone and using it to harass others, to make them believe the victim is responsible
Emails – threatening or bullying emails, often sent using a pseudonym or somebody else‛s name
Chat room bullying – menacing or upsetting responses to children or young people when they are in a web-based chat room
Instant messaging (IM) – unpleasant messages sent while children conduct real-time conversations online using MSM (Microsoft Messenger), Yahoo Chat or similar tools
Bullying via websites – use of defamatory blogs (web logs), personal websites and online personal ‘own web space’ sites such as You Tube, Facebook, Ask.fm, Twitter and Myspace – although there are others.

Explanation of slang terms used when referring to cyber-bullying activity:

‘Flaming’: Online fights using electronic messages with angry and vulgar language
‘Harassment’: Repeatedly sending offensive, rude, and insulting messages
‘CyberStalking’: Repeatedly sending messages that include threats of harm or are highly intimidating or engaging in other on-line activities that make a person afraid for his or her own safety
‘Denigration’: ‘Dissing’ someone online. Sending or posting cruel gossip or rumors about a person to damage his or her reputation or friendships
‘Impersonation’: Pretending to be someone else and sending or posting material online that makes someone look bad, gets her/him in trouble or danger, or damages her/his reputation or friendships
‘Outing and Trickery’: Tricking someone into revealing secret or embarrassing information which is then shared online
‘Exclusion’: Intentionally excluding someone from an on-line group, like a ‘buddy list’

This list is not exhaustive and the terms used continue to change.

AIMS OF POLICY:

To ensure that pupils, staff and parents understand what cyber bullying is and how it can be combated
To ensure that practices and procedures are agreed to prevent incidents of cyber-bullying
To ensure that reported incidents of cyber-bullying are dealt with effectively and quickly.

PROCEDURES TO PREVENT CYBER-BULLYING:

All reports of cyber bullying will be investigated, recorded, stored in the Principal’s office and monitored regularly
Pupils and parents will be urged to report all incidents of cyber bullying to the school
Mobile phones and smart watches are not permitted in school.
Parents will be provided with information and advice on how to combat cyber bullying through talks arranged by ICT post holder, information provided the school website.
Staff CPD (Continuous Professional Development) will assist in learning about current technologies
Pupils will learn about cyber bullying through Social, Personal and Health Education (SPHE), assemblies, anti bullying activities and other curriculum projects
Staff, pupils, parents and Board of Management (BoM) will be made aware of issues surrounding cyber bullying through the use of appropriate awareness-raising exercises
Procedures in our school Anti-bullying Policy shall apply
The police will be contacted in cases of actual or suspected illegal content
This policy will be reviewed annually. Pupils, parents and staff will be involved in reviewing and revising this policy and any related school procedure

INFORMATION FOR PUPILS:

If you are being bullied by phone or on the Internet:

Remember, bullying is never your fault. It can be stopped and it can usually be traced.
Don‛t ignore the bullying. Tell someone you trust, such as a teacher or parent or call an advice line.
Try to keep calm. If you are frightened, try to show it as little as possible. Don‛t get angry, it will only make the person bullying you more likely to continue.
Don‛t give out your personal details online – if you are in a chat room, do not say where you live, the school you go to, your email address etc. All these things can help someone who wants to harm you to build up a picture about you.
Keep and save any bullying emails, text messages or images. Then you can show them to a parent or teacher as evidence.
If you can, make a note of the time and date bullying messages or images were sent, and note any details about the sender
There is plenty of online advice on how to react to cyber bullying. For example,

ie.reachout.com and www.wiredsafety.org have some useful tips.

Text/video messaging

You can easily stop receiving text messages for a while by turning-off incoming messages for a couple of days. This might stop the person texting you by making them believe you‛ve changed your phone number

If the bullying persists, you can change your phone number. Ask your mobile service provider about this.
Don‛t reply to abusive or worrying text or video messages.
Your mobile service provider will have a number for you to ring or text to report phone bullying. Visit their website for details.
Don‛t delete messages from cyber bullies. You don‛t have to read them, but you should keep them as evidence.