Help for Parents - Subjects in school

CLICK HERE to visit the BBC's School Gate website for lots of guidance & advice on a range of school and parenting issues.

CLICK HERE to visit the 'Good To Know' website with advice and tips for parents on all aspects of life.

CLICK HERE to visit the NSPCC's website with advice for parents

CLICK HERE to visit the 'Parents In Touch' website

Education in Wales

Education is one of the areas that has been devolved to the Welsh Assembly Government. In many ways, education & schools in Wales operate in the same way. However there are many significant differences. Be aware of this when consulting websites and publications which might relate solely to England.

In England, schools are inspected by Ofsted. In Wales, Estyn, a different organisation undertakes this role. The school curriculum is different in a number of ways as well. For information of Education in Wales, CLICK HERE to visit the Welsh Assembly Government's education website.

Internet safety FAQ - Guidelines for Parents & Carers

(Taken from nch.co.uk - the Children's Charity)

When did people begin using the internet?

The internet started in the 1960s. Initially it was a means of exchanging information between researchers, mainly employed in the US defence industries and the military. Public awareness of the internet started to take off in the early to mid 1990s, following the development of the world wide web by Englishman Tim Berners-Lee.

How many families in the UK are online?

46 per cent of households in the UK are now using the internet, according to the most recent government figures, for July-September 2002. (Source:www.statistics.gov.uk).

The vast majority of people use a computer to go online. Mobile phones and TVs can also be used for internet access.

What are the benefits for children of using the internet?

The educational possibilities of the internet are tremendous. It is widely used in schools and colleges. The internet is a vast library you can bring into your home and is very easy to use.

People with little or no knowledge or previous experience of computers can quickly learn the basics. Children use the internet to help with homework, and also for all kinds of fun and games, and to communicate with friends.

Why do parents need a guide to internet safety?

The internet is a huge technological achievement, promising great benefits to society in general and to children and young people in particular, especially in education and entertainment.

However, as with many new or emerging technologies, the internet has brought unfamiliar problems. Some of these can create potential dangers for children, and while we do not want to exaggerate dangers, they do exist.

Parents and carers need to know about possible hazards to children on the internet – such as child abuse – and how to deal with them, which is why NCH has developed our Net Smart rules

What expertise does NCH have on internet safety ?

NCH has established a national children and technology unit, that develops policy and practice and carries out research. The Government regularly consults with NCH about new technology and internet safety, and listens to our expert advice.

John Carr is NCH's internet consultant and associate director of NCH's children and technology unit. NCH's expertise on children and the internet is recognised by the Government, and by the police, and John Carr serves on numerous policy making groups.

He is a member of the Home Secretary's internet task force on child abuse protection, that put together new safety guidelines and published a code of practice for the internet industry. The task force also includes representatives from other children's charities, other sections of Government, the police and the internet industry.

NCH's John Carr also belongs to the internet safety strategy group at the Department for Education and Skills and is a member of the Association of Chief Police Officers' group on combating child abuse on the internet.

John has presented lectures or seminars on internet safety for children to a wide range of organisations including the NSPCC, Barnardo's, and ECPAT International (the Bangkok-based, global campaign to end child prostitution and trafficking).

What are NCH's Net Smart rules?

Before we let our children go on the internet, we must make sure they are Net Smart - streetwise in cyberspace. This section of our website explains the Net Smart idea and sets out NCH's Net Smart rules

Should I stop my child from spending too much time on the computer?

Excessive time online can lead to children neglecting homework, and outdoor or other social activities. They may also run up heavy telephone bills.

There are no hard and fast rules about what is and is not excessive. It will vary from child to child and on the circumstances from week to week. If a child has a lot of research to do for some homework, they might need to make more use of the computer and the internet on some days than others. Each family or class needs to have its own understanding and approach.

Computers can be used for so many different things it is quite easy for a child to switch rapidly from one activity to another, making it hard for parents to know if their child is really doing homework or just playing games.

How can I find out what my child does online and stop him or her visiting inappropriate websites?

Parents must recognise that young people are sometimes extremely curious about all sorts of things and might use the internet to view material they would otherwise never normally be able to see, that might be dangerous, pornographic, offensive or unacceptable in some other way.

Children need a certain amount of privacy but they also need their parents to be involved in their daily lives. You need to become familiar with how your child uses the internet. Ask them to show you the places they go to on the internet and be familiar with their patterns of use and time spent online.

This will help you to detect any changes in behaviour that may be of concern. Recognising the potential threats to children and young people on the internet is the first step to protecting them.

Bear in mind that some mobile phones provide internet access, and some games consoles do as well. The vast majority of people access the internet via computers, but the use of phones to go online is set to grow.

Email
Find out who they are sending emails to and who they are receiving them from. You should know if they visit chatrooms or subscribe to newsgroups and you should understand what they do when they visit these places.

Correct address
It is possible when typing an address in a web browser, or when using search engines, to mistype a word or try to guess an address. You can then end up on a site or in a place you never intended to be. It is advisable for you to stress the importance of correctly typing in addresses and to discuss and agree rules about the sorts of sites and materials it is acceptable for your child to access.

Talk to your child about what they do online Having a strong and open relationship with your child is the key to being able to discuss with them the kinds of material, people or situations they may inadvertently or deliberately come across on the internet as they are growing up. Regular low-key discussions about a wide range of issues is highly recommended. Children and young people need to be able to evaluate critically information and views they will encounter online.

Be open and honest If anything untoward should then happen online, your child should feel comfortable about telling you about it without too much embarrassment. It is vital that you openly discuss with your child, ideally before it happens, the possibility of them seeing or being sent sexually explicit or other worrying material. This is important because children may otherwise feel they may have done something wrong, and perhaps be fearful of telling you in case they get into trouble and/or have sanctions applied to them. It is precisely at this stage that children can feel most isolated and vulnerable to the control of sexual or other kinds of predators.

Is my child at risk?

Children and young people will take part in all sorts of chat and activities online, some of which may well be of a sexual nature. This is a normal part of growing up. However these kinds of adolescent activities are very different from the kind of grooming that paedophiles can initiate.

You may need to make judgements about the sorts of material you might come across on your child's computer.

If you find any record of worrying pornographic pictures or inappropriate conversations, don't panic - but do talk to your child about your concerns as you would about any others and do seek help and advice if you remain worried.

NSPCC (call free on 0800 800 500) or ChildLine (call free on 0800 1111) can help.

Are chatrooms safe?

Chatrooms can be misused. We know that some adult sexual predators are using chatrooms to contact young people, sometimes by masquerading as young people themselves. They may make indecent proposals to young people, or send them indecent pictures. There have been cases in the UK, as well as the US, where these fraudsters have even gone on to set up meetings with young people, in the hope of abusing them.

Be cautious and careful
Children love the interactive elements of the internet: the ability to send and receive instant messages, email or take part in chatrooms. The problem is that because you cannot see the person you are communicating with, and because it is relatively easy to fake an identity online, you cannot be certain the person is who they say they are.

Security on the internet can be slack, so you cannot be certain that someone else is not reading your messages or silently watching your conversation in a chatroom and perhaps gleaning valuable information which they can later put to bad use.

Young people need to know that unless and until they are absolutely certain of the identity of someone they are communicating with, they should proceed with caution and not necessarily accept everything a person says online at face value. Children need to know about this kind of online stranger danger and they need to be on their guard.

Go through the NCH's Net Smart rules individually and reach an agreement with your children about how they will behave online. You can also print out the NCH Net Smart rules and tape or stick them to the wall next to the computer.

We recommend:

• Parental control software: it can control who your child might send emails to or receive them from and also block access to all or some chatrooms. Internet Content Rating Association includes info on parental control software.
• Moderated (supervised) chatrooms: many parents may want to make sure their children use only moderated chatrooms, where either a trained adult is present whenever the chatroom is open and authorised to intervene to stop any exchanges which take an inappropriate turn; or some other system is in place to monitor activity.

Ask your internet service provider if they provide moderated chat services and, if they do, ask about policies enforced in the chatroom, and about the training given to and checking done on the backgrounds of the people who are employed by them as moderators. We recommend this, especially for younger children.

Chatrooms that are not moderated by adults can be risky places for children - and therefore highly attractive to adolescents. If they visit them it is very important they follow NCH's simple Net Smart rules for being streetwise in cyberspace.

More info on staying safe in chatrooms at the Home Office site and at chatdanger.com

Are there any signs to indicate my child is being abused online? 1: general behaviour.

The vast majority of children are not being abused online and never will be.

The following activities could be perfectly innocent but it is worth being alert to potential dangers.

• Becoming secretive - If your child starts becoming secretive about their time online, maybe not using their regular computer but instead using libraries, internet cafes or friends' homes to go online, you ought to try to establish the reasons. It may seem like typical adolescent behaviour but you should take it seriously, particularly if it involves a sudden change in behaviour.
• Downloading files onto discs - If your child starts to download files on to floppy discs or CDs - not storing them on the hard drive where it would be easier for someone else to see them - then once more you should seek to establish the reasons.
• Using encryption software - Children may may start to use encryption software: this means the user can convert any computer files into an unreadable jumble of symbols, numbers and letters which can only be read by the person possessing the correct decryption key. If you find files like that on your child's computer and you establish that encryption is being used, it is important to find out why a child is going to such lengths to conceal things.
• Changes in behaviour - Children and young people can be sexually abused online by being shown images and words. We know that victims of online child abuse can and do display similar symptoms to children who are sexually abused in real life.

For example, children's self-esteem and self-confidence can become undermined, they can become withdrawn and isolated within the family and begin to have difficulties at school. They may become argumentative and appear to be difficult. Some young people may become highly anxious, have difficulties sleeping or concentrating and in some instances become excessively concerned with washing and cleanliness.

If this is happening to your child it is very important to establish the reasons why, and perhaps seek professional help. NSPCC on 0800 800 500) and ChildLine (0800 1111) can help.

Are there any signs to indicate my child is being abused online? 2: using the telephone.

Be telephone aware and look out for the following:

Unfamiliar phone numbers - Be aware of unknown telephone numbers appearing on your telephone bills or of any unknown adults telephoning your child. Or perhaps the child will disappear with a mobile telephone to take calls, maybe taking excessive care to make sure there is no possibility of any of the conversation being overheard.

Avoid giving out numbers - While children may be hesitant to give out their home telephone numbers, abusers will often readily give out their own and some have even set up free 0800 numbers for children to contact them on. Calls to 0800 or other freephone numbers do not appear on telephone bills.

A child may be reluctant to give out their home telephone number but may not take the same care about their own mobile telephone number. Perhaps they do not realise that caller line identification works on mobiles, just as it does with an ordinary landline.

Once a paedophile has a child's mobile number they can call and send text messages direct to the child, avoiding their home number and questions from parents.

Can parental control software help?

Yes. It can block access to certain types of websites, eg with sexual or violent themes, or prevent specified types of pictures or words from reaching your child's computer screen. It can control the number of times a computer can be used to access the internet.

To find out more about parental control software visit Get netwise, the European Research into Consumer Affairs site, and the Internet Content Rating Association site.

However, the software has limitations. If you use it, you still need to talk to your children and come to a sensible agreement they respect about which websites are OK for them to visit - and which aren't.

A paedophile might even send or give a child a mobile in order to have a direct means of contact. Paedophiles may want to have direct telephone conversations with children, perhaps for the purpose of phone sex or to set up direct meetings with them.

Phone bills - If a child uses a mobile that has a monthly account with a bill, it might be worth monitoring its use. However most children use pre-paid telephones where a bill is never produced.

Are the safety measures you suggest to protect my child foolproof?

A determined (and computer savvy) child might be able to get round any protective software or security measures. If parents keep passwords and PIN numbers secure, then safety measures should be watertight.

However, there may be occasions when the protective software is not working: check that it isn't switched off.

Your children may use computers elsewhere that do not have parental safety controls, eg at friends' houses or in internet cafes. Friends might come to visit and bring discs with them containing material which would otherwise have been picked up and blocked or diverted, or your children might swap discs at school or elsewhere.

In the UK it is very easy to obtain CDs which will automatically and immediately establish a new internet account. This could mean that any parental control software previously installed make not work with the new account.

Some of the more undesirable elements on the internet might find ways to evade the security systems you or your internet service provider have installed.

However if the children in your care know and observe NCH's Net Smart rules even if the parental control software is turned off, they should come to no harm on the internet. And they will have a lot of fun!

Is it true that children can be bullied online and via mobiles?

One in four children in the UK are bullied or threatened via their mobile phone or online, an NCH survey found in 2002. NCH has called for greater awareness of the problem among parents and teachers and better education for children on how to deal with 21st century bullying techniques.

16% of young people received bullying or threatening text messages, 7% were harassed in internet chat rooms and 4% by email.

NCH's advice for children facing bullying is:

• Don't put up with it! Always tell someone you trust what is happening: Mum, Dad, a teacher or a friend - and try to find a way to stop it
• Always be careful who you give your mobile phone number or email address to. Consider changing your number or email address if you do get bullied
• If you receive messages that upset or frighten you, make a record of the dates and times you received them, and report them to the police.

What is spam?

Unsolicited email, or spam, is a pain, and it can often be very offensive. Parents should take an interest in who their children are sending and receiving emails to and from. If your child does receive a nasty email, do not jump to any hasty conclusions. It's probably spam and therefore unsolicited.

The great majority of spam comes from overseas, especially from the USA, so it is very hard for the British police or other authorities to do anything directly to apprehend the culprits and put a stop to it.

However, there are a few things you can do to help yourself.

• One of the best ways of dealing with spam is simply to delete it! Don't open it, especially if it comes with any kind of attachment. It might contain a virus that could severely damage your computer.
• Be careful who you give your email address to when you are online. Check out companies' privacy policies before you subscribe to anything or buy anything from them. In chat rooms maybe you should not allow your personal profile to be published and do not disclose your email address. Remember also, if you allow your email address to appear on any web site it could always be harvested by one of thousands of bots that wander around the Internet looking for them.
• Particularly if you have younger children, think about setting up a list of people they can receive emails from, and send them to. This will block the rest. Several popular email programmes allow you to do this, and so do some of the hotmail-type services. Ask your Internet Service Provider how they can help you.
• The larger, better known hotmail-type accounts seem to attract a huge amount of spam whereas others do not or they are better at filtering it out. Check out how effectively different service providers keep spam at bay.
• There are various firewall programmes, anti-spamming software packages and other technical measures that can help keep your email address a secret from various unscrupulous web site owners or others who harvest the contact details of people visiting them.
• Lots of people now have more than one email address: one that they keep relatively private or only give to friends and business associates, and another that they might use if they go surfing or want to sign on for various Internet-based services. That's where the spam will end up and you just delete it all.

There's probably no point asking a spammer to remove you from their email list. This will just confirm that yours is a genuine and active e-mail address and you could end up getting a lot more. But do complain to your Internet Service Provider. We all need to press them to find better solutions. Fast.

How can I stop spam arriving in my in-box?

The great majority of spam comes from overseas, especially from the USA, so it is very hard for the British police or the Government to do anything directly to apprehend the culprits and put a stop to it.

However, there are a few things you can do to help yourself.

One of the best ways of dealing with spam is simply to delete it! Don't open it, especially if it comes with any kind of attachment. It might contain a virus that could damage your computer.

Be careful who you give your email address to when you are online. Check out companies' privacy policies (usually displayed on the home page) before you subscribe to anything or buy anything from them.

Some chatrooms ask you for info including your email address to put into a personal profile. Do not give out any personal info (eg email address, name, whether you are a girl or boy, age, phone number) because some chatrooms will 'publish' your details. This means that anyone in the chatroom can read all your personal info, which could be dangerous.

If you allow your email address to appear on any website it could be collected by one of thousands of robots that wander around the internet looking for them. Spammers buy these addresses, so it will mean you get more and more spam.

Think about setting up a list of people children can receive emails from, and send them to. This will block the rest. Several popular email programmes allow you to do this, and so do some of the hotmail-type services. Ask your internet service provider how they can help you.

Do you get spam with all internet service providers?

The larger, better known hotmail-type accounts seem to attract a huge amount of spam while others do not or are better at filtering it out. Ask your internet service provider how effectively it keeps spam at bay.

There are various firewall (anti-spamming, anti-hacking software packages) and other technical measures that can help keep your email address a secret from various unscrupulous website owners or others who collect the contact details of people visiting them.

You can have more than one email address: one for friends and business associates, and another for surfing and shopping. The address that you only use for friends should stay spam free. All your spam will go to the other address and you just delete it all.

There's probably no point asking a spammer to remove you from their email list. This will just confirm that yours is a genuine and active email address and you could end up getting a lot more. But do complain to your internet service provider. We all need to press them to find better solutions. Fast.