This week marked Safer Internet Day, which is observed by at least 170 countries of the world. To help promote the event and raise awareness of issues around the using the Internet, staff at the Academy have been busy this week promoting the campaign.  The UK Safer Internet Centre is inviting everyone to play their part in making the Internet a better place. The campaign for 2021 focuses on how we can decide what to trust online and how young people can be supported to question, challenge and change the online world for the better.

During the current climate where everyone is using online technology more than ever, it is vitally important that everyone knows how to use digital technology in a safe and secure manner so as to protect themselves from the dangers of cybercrime and abuse.

In order to promote the campaign, we have put posts on our Twitter and Facebook channels directing parents to the UK Safer Internet Centre website from where they can find valuable resources and information for themselves and their children. The site can be visited at: https://www.saferinternet.org.uk/safer-internet-day/2021

During their online lessons, staff have made students aware of issues around the reliability of information that can be found on the web.  These have included ways to identify credible information and the use of reliable and accurate sources.

At the Academy we round off each week with a special assembly for all students on a Friday afternoon. As we have been focusing on promoting a Safer Internet Day our assembly this week will be an informative presentation on the quality of sources found on the world wide web and students will be challenged with a variety of examples testing their ability to determine if these are trust worthy or not.

We hope that in supporting this year’s campaign that we have raised awareness and developed people’s skills in identifying those sources which are reliable on the web and those which are not.