Parents and pupils learn vital life skills at Internet Safety Day at Windmill School

​​Parents and pupils at Windmill Primary School in Wokingham learned a vital life skill together recently when the school had special lesson to mark Safer Internet Day.

Throughout the day, children took part in fun but instructive lessons based around the topic of online safety and how to make use of the internet without putting themselves at risk. Towards the end of the day, parents were invited in to take part in a workshop with discussions and activities about how they too can play a role in helping their children stay safe.

“All children grow up these days with access to the net being a fact of life, so we want them to learn how to get the best out of it whilst steering well clear of any of the risks that they might possibly encounter,” said teacher Danielle Hurley, who was involved in running the day.

“We don’t want to put them off using it, we want them to understand the best way to use it, and that was the message we were trying to get across. We discussed all the fun you can have on it, but also talked about what you should do if you come across something that you’re not happy about.”

Windmill is the first primary academy in Wokingham and is a member of the GLF schools group, a rapidly-expanding Surrey-based multi-academy trust which now runs over a dozen schools across Surrey, Middlesex, Berkshire and Oxfordshire, based on a system of collaborative learning.

“During the rest of the day, the children made posters about internet safety rules, and talked about their own web use – getting the message across in as simple and as fun a way as possible, because that’s the best way to get it to stay in their minds,” added Miss Hurley.

“The aim of the day was to make them feel confident and in charge about internet use, so they can get the best out of what is at their disposal. Parental involvement is essential, of course, so it was great that they were part of it too, but in some cases the children actually know more about the topic, so we made the whole thing as child-centred and child-friendly as we could. That way, they enjoy it more – and crucially, they learn from it more.”