The foundation of online safety begins in the early years at Larrakeyah. We focus on teaching students what is safe to share online, especially when communicating with others.
Digital technology and the online space is constantly changing and developing. We need to make sure that our children are being provided the skills and knowledge to stay safe online, to protect themselves, and to also maintain their integrity online. In the early years, we focus on what is safe to share online with both people they know and strangers through the middle years.
We expand on that and learn about online bullying and how to be an upstander to help stop bullying. In the upper years, we think about our digital footprints and how the things we post online are permanent and can create a particular image of us. Students are taught through engaging videos, interactive online activities and discussions.
An activity that we’ve done with the upper primary students involves them drawing a picture of themselves on a piece of paper, tearing it up into pieces, and then giving the pieces away to other people in the class. Then they have to collect the pieces back to try and reconstruct their image. This helps to emphasise that once you’ve put something up online, you can’t get it back down offline, or remove it completely. People can screenshot it and save it, and pass it on to other people. It reminds students of how permanent their digital footprint can be.
