Dear Mams, Dads, Pupils and Staff,

You may remember that we had a Child Protection and Safeguarding Inspection last year. Our school is fully compliant and the feedback from the Inspectors about the girls and how they are taught was very impressive.

Part of the girls’ learning about keeping safe relates to online safety. In today’s world, where so many of our social contacts are online, it is more important than ever that the girls are aware of how to use the internet safely and wisely.

Next Tuesday, February 8^th is Internet Safety Day so that is the focus for this edition of the ‘School Bell’.

Mrs. Ryan and Mrs. Shanahan have put together a programme of activities for the day, and they have also provided information for Mams and Dads. Our Parents’ Association has shared information on a survey from the National Parents’ Council. I hope to have news for you soon about an information session for parents on how to address the issues that families may have in dealing with the children’s use of the internet.  Finally, I have shared some of our school’s Anti-Bullying Policy to raise awareness of the definition of bullying when it relates to online activities.

Let’s all work together to keep our girls as safe as possible.

Yours sincerely,

C. O’Reilly – Principal

Safer Internet Day – Mrs. Ryan and Mrs. Shanahan

Safer Internet Day takes place on Tuesday February 8^th.

On this day we will be joining people in more than 150 countries around the world celebrating Safer Internet Day and helping to promote a safe and better internet for our children and young people.

It is also a great time to engage with you as Mums and Dads and raise awareness of the important role parents play in helping your child have a positive experience online.

For Safer Internet Day ‘Webwise’ are encouraging families to #TalkListenLearn and to talk regularly about the benefits and challenges that children encounter online. 

Webwise has developed lots of resources for parents including:

1. Updated online safety advice booklet for parents.
2. Parent toolkit with information, advice and resources for parents.
3. A new topic generator to help parents begin conversations with their child.
4.  

All the information can be accessed on the Webwise parents’ hub at: www.webwise.ie/parents

Intro

We will be having lots of Safter Internet Day celebrations here at school on Tuesday February 8^th.

Mrs. Ryan & Mrs. Shanahan

Cyberbullying in our Anti-Bullying Policy

In our school’s Anti-Bullying Policy, cyberbullying is listed as a form of bullying.

Cyber Bullying includes

• Denigration: Spreading rumours, lies or gossip to hurt a person’s reputation
• Harassment: Continually sending vicious, mean or disturbing messages to an individual
• Impersonation: Posting offensive or aggressive messages under another person’s name
• Flaming: Using inflammatory or vulgar words to provoke an online fight
• Trickery: Fooling someone into sharing personal information which you then post online
• Outing: Posting or sharing confidential or compromising information or images
• Exclusion: Purposefully excluding someone from an online group
• Cyber stalking: Ongoing harassment and denigration that causes a person considerable fear for his/her safety
• Silent telephone/mobile phone calls
• Abusive telephone/mobile phone calls
• Abusive text messages
• Abusive emails
• Abusive communication on social networks e.g. Facebook/Ask.fm/ Twitter/You Tube or on games consoles
• Abusive website comments/Blogs/Pictures
• Abusive posts on any form of communication technology

The Policy goes on to say that:

placing a once-off offensive or hurtful public message, image or statement on a social network site or other public forum, where that message, image or statement can be viewed and/or repeated by other people, will be regarded as bullying behaviour.

When we are dealing with any form of bullying, we use a Restorative Practice approach. These are the questions that we ask:

What happened?

What were you thinking at the time?

What have you thought about since?

Who has been affected by what you have done?   In what way?

What do you need to do to make things right?

For more information, please refer to the school’s Anti-Bullying Policy on the Policies tab of www.goodcounselgns.ie

Parents’ Association News

Dear Parents/Guardians,

As your child attends Our Lady of Good Counsel GNS, you automatically become a member of the school’s Parents’ Association. The internet can be a fantastic resource that can give children and young people the opportunity to learn, create, research, play games, have fun and connect with other people, however, sometimes they can have negative experiences whilst online. 

As Safer Internet Day approaches, we’d be delighted if you would take a few minutes to complete this survey. It has been put together by the National Parents’ Council and the results will be published on February 8^th.

To complete the survey please click this link https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/NPC_survey_Your_child_and_the_Internet

The National Parents’ Council is also running Internet Safety Training for Parents from 7^th to 11^th February. Check out this link if you would like to register. https://www.npc.ie/news-events/keeping-your-child-safe-internet-safety-training-for-parents

Catholic Schools Week

We ended Catholic Schools Week last Friday with a Special Assembly led by Second Class. The theme was ‘St. Brigid’. The girls began with St Brigid’s Song, then shared the story of St. Brigid, led us in some prayers and displayed the wonderful artwork they had made. St. Brigid’s Cloak is now in our school Sacred Space.

A special word of thanks to Fr. Kieran and the Parish Community who were so welcoming when 3^rd, 4^th, 5^th and 6^th Classes attended daily Mass during the week. Each of the classes mentioned how happy they were to go to the Church at their reports to our weekly Assembly.

Thank you also to Ella who made a beautiful St. Brigid’s Cross for the school.