Many of you will know that I raised money last year for FBP to help the school. Many do not realise the full impact of continuing cuts to education budgets. This means that it is increasingly challenging to meet the needs of all our children.

Last year the money was used to purchase additional items such as Maths equipment and electronic devices that benefit and enhance the children’s experiences. At this time, budgets barely cover the costs of staffing and Brynmill School, like many others, rely on goodwill of staff and fundraising to pay for additional resources that help children gain access to creative and innovative experiences. I also made sure that the school made a charitable donation to Unicef, a cause linked closely with our school Ethos promoting the Rights of the Child.

This year the children themselves are considering ways they can raise money for electronic and audio equipment to enhance their Performing Arts abilities on stage. This will not only make our school performances more engaging but also give pupils greater confidence acting and performing in front of an audience. I would like to help them reach their goal. I also pledge a donation to charity, which this year will be based on a cause the children will choose from using Pupil Voice.

Last year, I ran my first London Marathon. Words fail me how hard the last 10 miles were in the 27 degree heat and coping with a last minute injury sustained while playing football with the children on the residential trip! This year I am vowing to beat my best time and complete it in under 3 hours 30 minutes. I have been training since December and I know that the thought of raising money that will secure improvements to children’s opportunities in my school will keep me going to the finish line.

Please follow the link below to donate. Thank you.

Thank you to those who came to our first Parent Workshop on Wed 6th Feb. The Digital Leaders did a fantastic job sharing the E Safety Policy, Acceptable Use Guidance and information on Social Media. I think the information we shared on what we teach was also well received.

It was great to share opinions and concerns about Social Media the effect of too much screen time. We would urge all parents to engage with their children about some of the use of social media, including WhatsApp, TikTok and Instagram, where we hear of issues around privacy and poor choices being made. I will post further materials from the workshop in due course within the E Safety menu.

The ages of consent are as follows:

Instagram, TikTok, Facebook, Twitter, Snapchat – 13 years.

WhatsApp – 16yrs.

Internet Safety Day assembly (1) – presentation from the workshop

The school’s response to social media issues:

“Whilst we are duty bound to pass on any offensive material that is shared with us, our role is not to police the use of Social Media amongst pupils outside school.​​

The school asserts the following guidance:​
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• WhatsApp’s age has recently been upgraded to 16.​
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• Pupils should NOT be adding contacts and creating groups for the purposes of sharing offensive posts with pupils.​
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• Passing on offensive material is considered legally to be on a par with initiating it.​
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• Making multiple groups/ multiple Admins is inadvisable at best.​
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• Should parents feel that their child is emotionally responsible enough to use apps such as WhatsApp despite being considerably underage, we advise that you discuss this with your child and agree boundaries. 

Please be assured that your child’s emotional well being is important to us and we are keen to work in partnership with parents on a range of E Safety concerns. With this in mind please follow this link for further guidance.​
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https://parentzone.org.uk/article/whatsapp”​

Please could you take 30 seconds to complete this questionnaire for us. Thanks. Mr D

Questionnaire on Community Links December 18

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