


Digital Safety and Digital Technologies
Digital Safety At Home
Points to consider
If children are making, creating or developing, they are less likely to be digitally distracted.
Only have your child online in shared spaces, they have no need to hide in their bedrooms (headphones)
Transparency and openness are key to finding out early when something isn't right online
Don't be scared to share time on a device with your child
At Gulf Harbour School, we provide students with the skills needed to become 21st century learners. Digital Technology is one small component in achieving this objective.
Digital Technology is integrated into classroom life, across all curriculum areas using a variety of methods and devices. This is an area that is forever changing and evolving and we are aware that parents and our community often feel out of touch with this aspect of our children's learning. This page will hopefully help to bridge this gap.
What devices will my child use at school?
At Gulf Harbour, Year 3 to 6 classrooms have a set of digital devices for their use that suit their level of development.
Year 3/4: Chromebook Pod for whole class use
Year 5/6: BYOD (bring their own device, in preparation for college)

How will my child be kept safe when using the internet?
We have a secure network that filters websites and can track the history of any user. We also receive reports of any attempts to break our filtering, which we will follow-up on where appropriate. No filtering can ever be guaranteed to be 100%, so we will combine our filtering programme with a school-wide digital citizenship programme where teacher-led cyber safety sessions teaches our students how to be good digital citizens and how to be safe when using the internet. There will also be a User Agreement that students and parents will be expected to discuss and sign before your child is allowed to use a device at school. (see cybersafety agreements).

What is a Digital Citizen?
The widespread adoption of technology and our increasing use of digital platforms means that every New Zealander needs to know how to model responsible behaviours as successful ‘digital citizens’ in real-world contexts.
Anyone using the internet should understand how good citizenship values apply online and our school works with both students and families to help develop skills and knowledge around this concept.

KEEPING YOUR CHILD SAFE ONLINE
Sometimes it’s hard to know where to start when it comes to keeping your children safe online. The internet changes all the time, and it’s full of perils and positives that are tricky to navigate even as adults. While we’re all still learning what it means to support our kids online, we’ve got some ideas to help you get started.
