At Barnardos, our vision is that children lead happy, healthy and safe lives, whether that be online and offline. Our online safety workshops for children, teachers and parents seek to empower and to equip people with the skills to navigate the internet is a safe and kind way, with a focus on promoting ongoing communication between children and adults on online safety.
Due to Covid19 restrictions in schools, we are adapting our workshops and are working on more digital offerings for children and schools. Watch this space! In the meantime, we have a few short videos for parents about online safety that we hope will help their children stay safe and happy online.
Since September 2019, with support from Google.org, we are rolling out a 4 year online safety programme across the country, with the aim of reaching 1,000 schools and 75,000 students overall. As part of this Barnardos/Google partnership, we signpost to Be Internet Legends, a free multifaceted programme designed to teach younger children (age 7-11 year olds) about online safety. There are family guides for parents and lesson plans for teachers and can be used as a ‘before’ or ‘after’ teaching resources to our workshops.
Barnardos recruit a panel of trainers to deliver the Barnardos Online Safety Programme. The facilitators are very experienced in working with children, young people, teachers and parents in schools and other group settings. Barnardos trainers are monitored and supported in line with Barnardos training quality assurance framework and provide the programme with the support of Google. Trainers take part in regular CPD meetings and receive relevant up-to-date information to keep abreast of changes in legislation, best practice guidelines and new resources to respond effectively to parents and children’s needs in relation to this every evolving topic.
How does this process work?
Once a school completes the enquiry form and we know your two preferred dates or preferred week, we will get in touch with trainers in your area to assess their availability. This can take a few days as sometimes we might need to check a few trainers’ availability.
For more information or to book a workshop please contact our team, email: onlinesafety@barnardos.ie or phone: 01-4530355
We were delighted with the workshop and the students thoroughly enjoyed it. Thanks for taking the time out to support us in this important endeavour. We would be delighted to work with you in the future on other projects.
Rachel McGrath, Griffeen Community College
Both workshops went off very well. There was very good feedback from both teachers and I could see the children were fully engaged.
Una Kingston, Baltydaniel National School
The feedback was very positive from the parents on the night of the presentation. I think everyone took home the essential message of keeping communications open with their children and it came as a surprise to some of all the possible channels where cyberbullying can take place.
Sonya Burgess, Shillelagh No. 1 National School
