Dear parents and carers,
Year Five visit to Eastbrook Community School
This week more of our year five pupils had the opportunity to discover what life is like working as either a photographer, graphic designer or range of other careers within production and computer based imagery. Linked to their history topic on the Vikings, our pupils learnt to take images, upload them to the computer then manipulate them to form a publication. What an amzing experience.
Panathlon Event at Eastbrook Community School
Whilst our year five pupils were developing their history, photographic and computing skills, some of our year three and four pupils were taking part in a borough wide multisports Panathlon tournament. This involved them taking part in a range of activities requiring hand-eye co-ordination, speed and accuracy. You can read more about this below.
Safer Internet Day - use of mobile phones - IMPORTANT FOR ALL PARENTS
This week included Safer Internet Day, an annual event in every school's calendar where time is taken to remind pupils of how to keep themselves safe online. Whilst I am delighted to say that over the past three years we have seen a significant fall in the number of online safety incidents at William Ford, we do still come across a lot of unpleasantness when it comes to the use of mobile phones, including an incident this week involving the police.
The most common incidents are inappropriate use of WhatsApp (which pupils should not be using) to send unkind messages and voice notes to each other, especially in large groups. Fortunately, these can be easily addressed when parents share the contents of these groups with us. What does continue to sadden us is that when such incidences are brought to parents' attention, many are unaware of the websites their children access, the apps they use and the types of communication they engage in. PLEASE CHECK YOUR CHILDREN'S PHONE AND INTERNET USE.
There are no excuses. Your child does not need 'privacy' at primary age when it comes to such matters; they need protection and guidance. Having dealt with a very unpleasant incident this week, I would very much like to advise parents of our younger children that at some point, you will be told by your child that they not only need a mobile phone, but they also need to have WhatsApp, Tiktok and Snapchat in order to be 'connected' to their friendship group. If this really is the case then I would encourage your child to question whether this is the best friendship group to be in. From years of experience of working in primary schools, the most self-assured, happy and contented children are NOT the ones who use WhatsApp, Tiktok and Snapchat. In fact, these are the children who show the highest levels of anxiety, disobedience, poor language and friendship issues. Those who are not using these apps are achieving well academically AND happy AND self confident AND have the least amount of behavioural issues. Sadly, when we are made aware of harmful WhatsApp groups, we can normally guess who will be included within the group. For the sake of your child's happiness, mental wellbeing and future success, please adhere to the age limits on these apps - they are there for a reason. I make no apology for the tone of this message.
Please see step by step guides on how to set restrictions on your child's mobile phone:
parental-control-apple-iphone-and-ipad-parental-control-guide.pdf (internetmatters.org)
parental-control-samsung-smartphones.pdf (internetmatters.org)
I pray you all have a wonderful weekend.
Mr. David Huntingford
Headteacher