Epsom College played its part in supporting Safer Internet Day (SID) by organising a wide range of activities, workshops and discussions designed to promote the safe, responsible and positive use of digital technology.
Now in its 16th year, SID is coordinated in the UK by the UK Safer Internet Centre and is celebrated in over 100 countries around the world. It aims to raise awareness of emerging online issues from cyberbullying to social networking and chooses a topic to reflect current concerns.
The week’s activities kick started in Main Hall on Monday, with guest speaker Patrick Foster sharing his life story of addiction to gambling both on and offline.
Parents are welcome to come and hear Patrick’s talk when he addresses the Upper Sixth on Saturday 27 April.
On Tuesday and Thursday mornings a selection of digital peer mentors led an assembly in Lower School with an impressive PowerPoint on data, online consent and knowing your terms and conditions when you sign up to an app.
On Wednesday the Year 9 PSD classes debated whether your online identity should be the same as your offline personality.
The Lower Sixth led a digital workshop with Lower school pupils, exploring how their use of social media has changed since they first started creating a digital footprint.
Other areas of the school embraced Safer Internet Day – The Library displayed suggestions of titles for half term reading on the topic of social media. The Catering department even marked the day with blue and orange cupcakes.
On Thursday afternoon, we hosted a digital safety workshop for members of the Sunnybank Trust, which supports vulnerable adults in the local area. The session was entirely led by the school’s Sixth Form peer mentors who presented to the group on the dangers of apps holding and sharing our personal data, and provided guidance on what to share on social media.
“It was really lovely to share the information which we have learnt this week with the Sunnybank Trust, they were such a lovely and vibrant bunch of people to work with and we loved hosting every second of it. The whole workshop was full of laughter, happiness, and vital information about the safety of the internet.” Henri Muller (Rv)
Helen Keevil, Assistant Head (Pupil Welfare), said: “This year has seen an even bigger involvement from all areas of College life. We have received reminders from IT staff about changing our passwords regularly, learnt how to connect positively with technology, explored how to analyse the data of our performance both in the classroom and on the games pitch, and investigated how certain apps can offer relaxation, mindfulness and calm. A truly thought-provoking week of events, which has certainly kept us on our toes.”
