Dear Parents,

As you will know all of the school s constituent parts, in some form or other, were offered e-Safety training on Tuesday. The parents session on Tuesday evening was very well attended from the perspective of Luke Brent-Savage who presented on the day. Sadly, Luke told me that many such sessions are too often very sparsely attended, which for him is very disappointing because almost all of the time initial grooming contacts are made at home or on devices linked to home. Schools these days have very rigorous filters and we tend to be more aware. Keble is no exception and you will be reassured that all school staff were trained similarly on Tuesday.

Luke promised copies of the slides shown on Tuesday night and you will be able to now find these on the Parents Portal of our website. Although staff are only required to update their training every three years, there was a request on Monday for the parental session to be repeated annually. There was sound logic behind the request as this is a fast moving area. Only a handful of the apps considered were on our radar three years ago. I will endeavour to set up a similar evening session next year but on perhaps a more convenient date. Do try to come as the training was both informative and frightening in equal measure.

One point that Luke made repeatedly over the course of the day is that it is unrealistic to hide behind the age restrictions on social networking sites. In his visits to schools he regularly encounters pupils as young as six or seven on sites like Facebook which should only be accessed by those over thirteen. He stressed the importance of education in keeping children safe and in control, so with this in mind please do talk to your son about these issues and these slides may be of benefit.
Mr McCarthy