• Embed a cyberbullying policy into their schools existing anti-bullying and behaviour policy.
• Choose curriculum resources to fit in with their PHSE, Citizenship, IT schemes of work.
• Enable delegates to train other staff on issues related to cyberbulling.
• Look at how national schemes can have a positive impact in their school.

For further and booking information click HERE

Monday 30th April 2012 – Central London

The challenge of empowering children to stay safe online has never been greater. With the explosion of social networking and increasingly
advanced technologies in handheld devices and phones, how can you keep one step ahead to protect children and young people?
Capita’s established Child Protection in the Digital Environment Conference covers the latest research and national policy driving this agenda. With input from the Child Exploitation and Online Protection Centre (CEOP) and the Department for Education, this conference focuses on
the key themes including:
• Effectively engaging and upskilling parents to support safe online practices at home
• Tackling cyberbullying and harassment of young people, teachers and parents
• Managing the benefits and risks of social networking
• Tailoring support services to protect the most vulnerable
• Adopting a multi agency approach to identifying, monitoring and reporting risks and safeguarding concerns.

For more information:

http://www.capitaconferences.co.uk/public-sector-conferences

Beatbullying today publishes Virtual Violence II: Progress and Challenges in the Fight against Cyberbullying - an in-depth study of the state of cyberbullying amongst children, young people and teachers in the UK.

The report is commissioned by Nominet Trust and in association with the NAHT. It will be unveiled in a hard-hitting Panorama documentary airing on the BBC tonight and reveals that cyberbullying, as a weapon of choice amongst the nation’s youth, is showing no signs of dissipating, with 350,222 children – or 1 in 13 – experiencing persistent and intentional cyberbullying, with just under a quarter (23%) reporting that the bullying lasted for a year or more, and two in five (40%) said that it lasted for months or weeks. These findings closely mirror Beatbullying’s firstVirtual Violence study published in 2009.

Looking at the long-term effects of cyberbullying, Virtual Violence II reveals the detrimental impact this kind of abuse can have on a young person’s wellbeing, with:

• 20% of children and young people indicating that fear of cyberbullies made them reluctant to go to school
• One in five (19%) reporting they experienced reduced confidence and self-esteem
• 14% living in fear for their safety
• 5% resorting to self-harm and 3% reporting an attempt of suicide as a direct result of cyberbullying.

“Through this bullying which was not just on the internet, I tried to commit suicide, ended up going to Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS) and stopped going to school. The only reason it has improved is because I left school”.
(Girl, 16)

To find out more about the fantastic work that Beatbullying does and how you can support pupils in your school visit www.beatbullying.org For further advice and guidance on cyberbullying check out our website http://www.yhgfl.net/eSafeguarding/eSafety/Cyberbullying

To mark the start of Anti-Bullying Week 2012, Beatbullying is mobilising hundreds of thousands of young people from around the world, together with celebrities, politicians, charities, businesses and communities to launch The Big March 2012, the world’s first global virtual march for children’s rights.

Beatbullying is calling for people around the world to support The Big March 2012, which will take place on January 31st 2012: from Manchester to Mumbai, from Naples to New Orleans, from Jerusalem to Johannesburg, and from Budapest to Brasilia.

Predicted to last up to two days, the march will culminate with the delivery of a petition to the United Nations Building in New York; asking the United Nations to explicitly enshrine ‘bullying’ in the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC). This will help to protect children all over the world from the pain and distress of bullying and harassment. If successful, it will be the first time that the Convention has been updated in over 10 years.

Governments and world leaders who have ratified the Convention are bound to it by international law and are therefore obliged to introduce and implement measures and legislation which serve to protect children. The addition of ‘bullying’ to the UNCRC will give weight and legitimacy to the demands of children, families, schools, and communities who want to build a world where bullying is unacceptable.

The Big March 2012, builds on the success of 2010′s award-winning campaign that saw a million parents, teachers, young people, celebrities and MPs sign up to support the UK campaign. Beatbullying delivered a petition to a virtual 10 Downing Street, asking for the Government to protect children and young people from all forms of bullying and harassment. It resulted in an offline deputation with Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg, where Beatbullying delivered its recommendations.

With over 135,000 supporters already signed up to The Big March 2012, including celebrities as diverse as Twiggy, Sir Michael Parkinson, Jedward, top girl band The Saturdays as well as Beatbullying ambassadors Pixie Lott and Aston Merrygold, Beatbullying anticipates over two million avatars, all representing actual protesters, taking the world wide web by storm by the time the march commences in January.

UK brands and charities such as Nominet Trust, Barry M, Robinson Fruit Shoot, Orange and Girlguiding UK have already been joined by global organisations, including Facebook, Universal Music, Stardoll and Habbo, with Beatbullying anticipating the support of numerous more international brands, business and third sector groups to allow The Big March 2012 to make a stand on their websites next year.

With more corporate, charity and celebrity partners set to be announced, organisations interested in partnering with The Big March 2012, can get involved by contacting the charity directly on 0208 771 3377/ hello(at)beatbullying.org, and those who want to create their own avatar to join the march on the 31st January 2012, can sign up at www.beatbullying.org/bigmarch

Why not sign up your school as part of Anti-bullying week?

My Online Neighbourhood is a video created by Common Sense Media and is aimed at American children from kindergarten through to third grade, which is equivalent to Y1-4 for us. The film aims to introduce younger pupils to the basics of eSafety in a fun and interesting way. Lasting 3 and a half minutes in total it is narrated by 7 year old Jeremiah who talks about how the internet is similar to his neighbourhood. The film concentrates on all the fun things children can do online but also very neatly slots in 3 important rules for using the internet.

Please note this film is hosted on youtube which is blocked in some schools- for further information about unblocking youtube contact your local authority help desk.

How can I use My Online Neighbourhood to enhance teaching and learning?

The video is a great way to introduce eSafety awareness to younger pupils and would be a useful starting point for a unit of work or just as a refresher activity mid-way through the school year.

One alternative is to use it in a literacy lesson with upper KS2 and KS3 as a prompt for writing for a younger audience. After watching the video pupils could be encouraged to script and produce their own eSafety video or presentation aimed at KS1.

The website itself has a range of lesson plans, resources, tips for parents and videos that can be used to promote an eSafe culture within your school. There are some great ideas that can be easily adapted  to add a cross curricular approach such as the digital footprints lesson which sees pupils following animal trails to find out information- this would be a great for the outdoor and adventure aspect of PE or could incorporate geography and science.

http://www.commonsensemedia.org/k-5/digital-citizenship?utm_source=edu_news

Play and learn: Being online is a new 30-page collection of games and activities for children aged 4-8 years. Developed by Insafe in collaboration with their Safer Internet Day gold sponsor Liberty Global Inc., this is an indispensable resource for young children as well as for their parents and teachers. As young children are now using computers and surfing on the internet at an increasingly early age, Insafe is once again leading the field by providing a resource that will raise their awareness to the opportunities and risks they may encounter online whilst honing their linguistic, cultural and social skills.

How can I use Play and learn to enhance teaching and learning?

The activity booklet comes with a guide that explains each of the activities in detail and gives handy tips for parents or teachers in relation to the discussion that the activity should provoke.

Using the guidelines parents/teachers can open up discussion on topics such as privacy and bullying with their children, while they are working on the exercises in the booklet.

Some of the activities could be easily converted to run on an interactive whiteboard with the whole class, or individual pages could be sent home to raise awareness with parents/carers. Page 16 has a simple activity called Protect your privacy and looks at things you would share with family, family and friends and everyone. It also asks pupils to think about which of those things can be taken back- a good introduction to sharing information on social networks.

http://www.saferinternet.org/web/guest/activity-book

Our colleagues over at North West Learning Grid have produced a micro site with various games based on eSafety. The games cover a variety of issues and are aimed at students at primary and secondary level. There are also a couple of games for parents which tests their eSafety knowledge.

This would be a very useful website for parents and children to use together, to help look at the potential dangers and to understand some of the keywords around eSafety. The main focus of the games look at the safe use of email, cyberbulling and how to protect your computer from damaging viruses.

The games are based on simple multiple choice questions and teachers may find them useful as a starter or plenary activity.

http://www.nwlg.org/esafetygames/

Cyberbullying is becoming more and more common since the birth of social networking. To tie in with Anti-bullying Week (16 – 20 November), we’ve given you helpful tips to prevent being cyberbullied or advice on how to stop it if you are:

• If you think you or someone else is being cyberbullied, don’t ignore it, report it!

• Whatever you do, don’t respond or retaliate. This could worsen the situation. It can be difficult, but just try to ignore it

• Make sure you block any users that send you any nasty emails

• Don’t forget to save and print any bullying messages, posts, pictures or videos

• Remember to make a note of dates and times of bullying messages as well as any details you have about the sender’s ID and the URL

• Don’t be a cyberbully, so don’t pass on the videos or messages

• If you get cyberbullied a lot, think about changing your user ID, nickname or profile

• And remember, if you’re being cyberbullied, it’s not your fault.
If you would like more information and advice on cyberbullying, the following websites are very useful:

http://cybermentors.org.uk
http://digizen.org/cyberbullying
http://www.achance2talk.com

In preparation for Anti-Bullying Week in November, we will be making available lots of resources and information on cyberbullying on our website, including resources from our recent cyberbullying conference. We will also be producing a film for primary schools on cyberbullying that can be used with pupils that will be accompanied with teacher notes and ideas.

There have been lots of changes to the safety section of our website, including advice on creating AUPs and eSafety policies as well as lots of links to resources to use with pupils and parents. Just go to http://www.yhgfl.net/

Putting Guidance into practice

We are all familiar with the scenario from our own days at school. We fall out with a best friend, call each other names across the playground and ignore each other in class, with maybe the occasional push and shove or unpleasant note passed around. We make up again the next day, bitterly regretting all the horrible things we said and promising never to fall out again. In our playgrounds today we will see a different version played out – one which may involve embarrassing photos or videos taken on mobile phones and in the space of a few minutes uploaded to YouTube and MySpace, or Bluetoothed around the school for all to see. Nasty comments may be posted on online profiles, or sent via text messages, and follow us into the privacy of our own home. True, best friends will still make up again the next day, but once a nasty comment, photo or video has been distributed electronically, all control over where it ends up or how many people see it is lost. Young people are faced with the prospect of having the evidence of their suffering available for all to see for the rest of their lives. YHGfL is very pleased to be working alongside the Anti-Bullying Alliance in a number of ways to help schools address the issue of cyberbullying. We hope many of your pupils had the opportunity to enter our cyberbullying competition last term. Anti-Bullying Week this year (16-20th November) will have a cyberbullying theme and in preparation for that we have our conference ‘Cyberbullying: Putting DCSF Guidance into Practice’ on 6 May 2009 at the Cedar Court Hotel, Denby Dale. If you’re not able to attend, don’t worry there will be full details and video coverage available later.

For more information on the conference or to reserve your place, contact our events team on: events@yhgfl.net

Also take a look at: BECTA’S ‘AUPS IN CONTEXT’ : ESTABLISHING SAFE AND RESPONSIBLE ONLINE BEHAVOURS.

For more details visit:

http://publications.becta.org.uk/display.cfm?resid=39286