Social Media Statement
At Hambleton, we are aware of the benefits of social media and accept them as forms of communication for people aged 13 and over. We are also aware that these platforms are open to many forms of abuse such as bullying, verbal abuse and grooming.
As such, we do not expect our pupils to be accessing social media platforms such as WhatsApp, Facebook, Snapchat, TikTok etc. and appreciate your cooperation and understanding. As ever, our primary concern is for the safety of your child in this matter. Whilst we know that some children in school are accessing these platforms and teach them about staying safe online, we would ask you to reconsider the appropriateness of this. All social media platforms have a minimum age of 13 – WhatsApp increased theirs to 16. This age restriction is set to protect your child from unnecessary abuse whilst using the internet.
We are all unique individuals and know, therefore that it is difficult to make decisions that will please everybody involved, but we feel that it is not acceptable to use social media platforms to make negative statements about children, parents or members of staff that belong to our school family. We greatly appreciate you informing us of any groups or individuals who use social media platforms to target children, other parents or staff members so that we can take any necessary action. We recognise that the majority of our school community use social media in a sensible and appropriate way and are very grateful for this.
We believe that the opinions of all members of our school family, whether negative or positive, are extremely useful in helping us to improve the support and impact of your child’s education. Therefore, we invite you to use the correct channels to make contact with school so that any matters can be discussed in the most appropriate way. You can get in touch with us by using the school’s Parent Mail app, contacting your child’s class teacher or phoning the Office to speak to Mrs. Wood, Mr Kenworthy or Mr Goldie.
For more information from the Internet Matters website, click here.
Thank you
Mr. Goldie