Dear parents,

The world our children are growing up in is full of technology which, for many, is part of everything we do, from school and work to our leisure time. New things are always arriving and everything seems to move so fast. While our young people seem to navigate these changes with ease, grown ups are often left feeling that their children know more about things than they do, which can make supporting them difficult and worrying.

New technology brings wonderful opportunities, but also very real dangers. Our children need educating how to be safe and confident users of technology, but so do we, so we can learn with them, have the confidence to talk to them about what they are doing online and help them out when they need it.

To support you with this we are delighted to offer a workshop to parents, run by North Tyneside Council’s School Improvement advisors, fully trained experts on all aspects of online safety and Computing.

The session will take place on Wednesday 28th September at 2:45pm

It will cover:

• key online safety messages that are important for our children,

• social media and image sharing,

• privacy and security,

• gaming,

• how we use technology as grown ups,

• free resources and advice on protecting your children while they go online.

• Introduction to school's new Twitter account

There will also be opportunities to ask questions in the session should you have any particular worries or concerns.

Common feedback from these sessions are comments like: “Wow, I thought I knew about this kind of stuff, but now I’ve realised there’s so much I didn’t know.”

Protecting and educating our young people to use technology safely is vital, so they can grow up to enjoy and make the most of all the benefits, while avoiding the dangers that are out there.