KEEPING PUPILS SAFE ONLINE

OMEGLE - TALK TO STRANGERS

- IMPORTANT INFORMATION FOR PARENTS -

Dear Families

We would like to make you aware of an app called Omegle also known as Talk to Strangers. Some of you may have heard of it, some of you may not.

Launched in March 2009, Omegle has recently become popular again. This ‘virtual chat room’ offers random users unmoderated or moderated chats with one another from anywhere in the world. It pairs random users identified as ‘You’ and ‘Stranger’ to chat online via ‘Text’, ‘Video’ or both.

Chats are anonymous unless the user states who they are. It’s free and no account sign up is required.

There are many imitation apps such as ‘Chat for Omegle’, ‘Free Omegle Chat’ and ‘Omeglers’, but there is no longer an official Omegle app. All sites and apps appear to share the same features and purpose, but only some are linked to Omegle. As such, parents and carers should check to see which apps kids have got installed on their phones and the risks presented with each.

It is extremely popular among children and young people because a lot of social media influencers use and post about it.

It also does not require registration or have age verification, which makes young people a potential target for abuse online. Its site states “predators have been known to use Omegle, so please be careful.”

Children and young people may be asked by strangers to share their name, age and location. So, it’s also important to talk to your child about sharing personal information online with strangers.

There is a risk of users unexpectedly coming across pornography and other types of inappropriate content.

Although there are prompts to encourage the safe use of the platform, Omegle does not have any parental controls.

There are no instructions on how a user can report other users or content. There is also no block or mute feature either nor is there a robust enough system of monitoring or filtering video/text chats, so it’s important to enable parental controls on their phone and/or your home broadband.

In addition to the potential online risks, parents should also be aware of the danger of these conversations moving from Omegle to other platforms, or from online to offline, and potential meetups.

It’s important to understand that Omegle connects kids with strangers of any age, so we would advise parents to consider restricting the use of the platform for children under 18.

Ways of keeping children safe online

• Having regular conversations with your child about their online life is an important way to keep them safe online – such as chatting to strangers online
• If they wish to communicate with others online, encourage them to use safe message boards like on the Childline and Ditch the Label websites
• Set up parental controls – you can enable filters, block certain websites and much more. Head over to our Parental Controls hub for more information
• Report it! If you suspect a child is a victim of online grooming or sexual abuse, report it immediately to CEOP or contact the police

Please visit Information, Advice and Support to Keep Children Safe Online (internetmatters.org)

Royal Lane Site and Northwood Road Site Update

Please see below a new timeline for our school building projects. This is to the best of our current information and is of course, subject to change!

You will also see some artists' impressions of the replacement block being built at Royal Lane. The work for this starts next week and we should be moving into this beautiful building in January 2025. 

There have been some significant issues regarding the Northwood Road development that have resulted in us going all the way back to the drawing board for a completely new design. We hope to have images of this to share with you in the Autumn term. As you will have seen from the timeline, this has further delayed the expected date when we will occupy the new site. 

Mrs J Rigby
Headteacher

Timeline:

Class JR Trip to Windsor

On Wednesday 19th July Class JR spent the day in Windsor.  We spent the day practising the social skills and road safety skills we have been working on in our Out in the Community lessons. We fed the swans and enjoyed a boat trip along the River Thames, took a stroll in the park followed by a picnic in the bandstand, saw the sights from a tour bus and even enjoyed an ice cream before heading back to school. 

Here's what the students had to say:

“It’s so awesome” Ahmed

“I fed the ducks” Lucas

“Wow!” Amid (when he saw the castle)

"I love trips" Kayden

Miss Robinson
Teacher - Class JR