The Castlefort classrooms are equipped with interactive whiteboards and visualisers to enhance the children’s day-to-day learning. Pupils have access to laptops and I-Pads for research, projects and computing lessons. Our computing curriculum (adapted from the ‘Rising Stars’ scheme) equips pupils with the foundation skills, knowledge and understanding of computing that they will need for the future. They learn how computers and computer systems work, how to design and build programs, develop their ideas using technology and how to create a range of content. E-safety is also very important to us at Castlefort. Pupils learn about E-safety though assemblies, role-play and discussion alongside ICT-usage in lessons. Pupils also participate in E-safety day each year.

Swiggle - safe search engine

When searching the web whilst in school, we have a strong filtering system provided by Walsall Council which prevents our pupils from accessing inappropriate material. We recognise that whilst many parents/ carers have some filtering systems and internet protection at home, children are often exposed to inappropriate images and content when they search Google innocently. As a result, we are encouraging our pupils to use Swiggle instead of Google when searching for content at home. This is a very child friendly search engine which is presented perfectly for children. Check it out below:

How you can help

Most cyber-attacks could be prevented by taking these basic security steps: 

• Choose strong passwords and don’t reuse them for multiple logins
• Install security software such as anti-virus and two-factor authentication. This kind of software is often available for free.
• Keep all security software and operating systems updated (this can be set to update automatically)

The following websites can help you stay safe whilst you are at home, they have lots of games and quizzes to test your knowledge!

https://www.nspcc.org.uk/keeping-children-safe/online-safety/

https://www.childnet.com/resources/be-smart-online

https://www.bbc.co.uk/newsround/13908828

https://www.saferinternet.org.uk/

https://www.thinkuknow.co.uk/

https://safetonet.com/