Topics for this month:

Returning to school after lockdown – Tips for parents

As schools reopen across the UK over the next few weeks, pupils will be dealing with new school rules, routines, classrooms, classmates, Teachers and, in some cases, even new schools.

Parentinfo have published some useful advice for parents of all school ages, offering simple tips to help make the transition easier:

Primary school: https://tinyurl.com/y59hcyw4

Secondary school: https://tinyurl.com/y5sejsyh

Online safety at home

As everyone will have experienced recently, online use in the home has rapidly become the main method of communication and social interaction. With this in mind, children and young people should have the opportunity to explore why they should keep their personal information secure and the steps they can take to do so.

Thinkuknowhow have launched an online safety at home campaign, with a focus on activities that can be carried out as a whole family.

Family activity sheet – viewing videos online: https://tinyurl.com/yyt4sdx5

This activity sheet focuses on watching videos online. With a choice of 3 conversation starters, 3 online safety actions and 2 fun family tasks, you can learn together about watching videos safely online.

Family activity sheet – cyber security: https://tinyurl.com/y3asceyc

This activity sheet focuses on cyber security, and has been developed in collaboration National Cyber Security Centre to help you and your family be more Cyber Aware. 

The Thinkuknowhow website also provides numerous parent and carer help sheets, providing key online safety advice, as well as information on support services. These can be viewed here: https://tinyurl.com/yxfxbmt3

Prevent video – Staff, learners, parents/carers and employers

Groomers of all kinds prey on feelings of stress and isolation to exploit vulnerable individuals, both online and offline. ‘Prevent’ protects individuals targeted by terrorist influences by providing local, multi-agency safeguarding support.

The 5 minute video below gives an introduction to how Prevent works on the ground, told by those who have come into contact with the programme.

For further information:

Right-wing terrorism

‘Right-wing’ terrorism or ‘far-right’ terrorism is terrorism that is motivated by a variety of different right-wing and far-right ideologies, most prominently by neo-Nazism, white separatism, ethno nationalism, religious nationalism, and anti-government citizen beliefs. They usually aim to prevent something from happening or to change legislation or domestic policy, but try to do so outside of the normal democratic process.

Right-wing terrorists aim to overthrow governments and replace them with nationalist and/or fascist regimes. They believe their actions will set in motion events that will ultimately create these authoritarian governments. Although they often take inspiration from Fascist Italy and Nazi Germany with some exceptions, right-wing terrorist groups frequently lack a rigid ideology.

Right-wing terrorists tend to target those they deem to be members of an alien community, though they may also target political opponents, such as left-wing groups and individuals.

The attacks of right-wing terrorists are not indiscriminate attacks seeking to simply kill people; their targets are carefully chosen. However, because their targets are often entire sections of the community, the victims are not targeted as individuals but rather as representatives of the group that the terrorists regard as allies.

Social media platforms have been one of the principal means by which right-wing extremist ideas and ‘hate speech’ have been shared and promulgated, leading to extensive debate about the limits of free speech and its impact on terrorist action and hate crimes.

In 2018, researchers identified the YouTube recommendation system as promoting a range of political positions from mainstream libertarianism and conservatism to overt white nationalism. Many other online discussion groups and forums are used for online right-wing radicalization.

Right Wing Symbolism

A symbol is a visual image or sign representing an idea and to express specific ideologies and social structures, as well as to represent aspects of culture. They have the ability to be extremely powerful as they can convey complex messages, ideologies and history in a compact, recognisable form.

As such, relatively simple symbols can be hugely significant to different cultures around the world. One can see this in the reverence held for national flags or religious symbols. As such, the defamation of a particular symbol has the potential to be hugely insulting to entire communities or even entire countries.

Please make yourself aware of the signs and symbols by looking at the poster attached and speak to the Safeguarding Team if you have any concerns.

Dealing with anger and frustration due to Covid-19

When dealing with anger and frustration through difficult times, try to remember the acronym ‘Rain’:

  • R – Recognise when you are angry and identify its presence in your body
  • A – Accept that anger is there and understand that it is ok to be angry
  • I – Investigate sensations within your body – what does it feel like to be angry?
  • N –Nurture the anger. It is important that we are kind to ourselves when we are angry. Don’t be self-critical or shame yourself for being angry. Be compassionate towards your emotion; it’s reminding you of your boundaries. If you become considerate with your anger, it will pass naturally.

Take a look at the article focusing on ‘conscious breathing’ and the steps that you can take to relax your mind: https://magazine.vitality.co.uk/conscious-breathing-take-a-breath/?_ga=2.74253392.396443122.1598264150-196264826.1561454550