Be Healthy Stay Safe and Anti-bullying Week

Be Healthy Stay Safe event

This week we had a stand at the College's Be Healthy Stay Safe event. We worked with the College police officer who provided high-viz strips for cyclists for us to give away. Our stand included information about staying safe after dark.

LRC Be Healthy Stay Safe Stand 2018
Photo: Peterborough Regional College

Information and giveaways about being safe and being seen
Photo: Peterborough Regional College

Anti- bullying Week

This week has also been Anti-bullying week. Bullying can affect anyone but is not acceptable (and in some case is illegal) whatever age people are and whether inside or outside work/ College.

Anti-bullying and Safeguarding Resources

Bullying UK have a wealth of resources on cyber bullying, bullying at work and advice for young people about sexting, consent, abusive relationships, mental health and suicide.
The Anti-bullying alliance  also has information and advice. Results from a survey they ran highlighted that 97% of young people (11-16 year olds want adults to show more respect for each other. The NSPCC has a list of resources and reports if you are studying the topic of bullying/ abuse or are just interested.

The LRC subscribes to 3 online resources:- Childlink, Child Protection Online and Safeguarding Adults. All of these will have resources (news, reports, legislation about bullying and safeguarding) which you can use as a student, teacher or other member of staff. You will find links to these 3 resources on our Electronic Resources page. Use your network login and password to access either inside or outside college. Please ask staff in the LRC if you have any problems using these.

E-safety

Safer Internet Day

This week (6th) was Safer Internet Day, providing a focus for young people especially on saying safe online. The official campaign this year promotes the use of social media to build others up, not to tear them down. It is not enough just to stop cyber-bullying, but we should also be looking to use social media in a positive way. We can all make a positive difference.

The slogan this year is "Create, connect and share respect: a better internet starts with you".

The website has some short videos including a rap.

For 14-18 years olds, the theme particularly is showing empathy. This is putting yourself in someone else's shoes and showing them understanding.

See the video below (there are also signed versions available).

The site also has a quiz which is downloadable or you can do it online - How does the internet affect your day to day life and your friendships online?

One teenager, Trisha Prabhu, gave a TEDtalk a few years ago called Rethink before you Type where she explains how she sees the problem and proposes a solution.

Learning activities for the lead up to our Star Wars event

Star Wars - The Last Jedi

The new Star Wars film is out next week and the Learning Resource Centre is putting on a Star Wars themed event in the Enterprise Lounge between 1.30 and 3pm. Different curriculum areas will be providing activities including a Yoda maze, a make up stall, quizzes, crafts and the Imperial March on Boomwhackers! We hope you can be there.

Darth Chester
Photo: Peterborough Regional College

Online Star Wars-themed learning activities

In the run up to the event or even afterwards, we thought you might enjoy some of these activities which help with English and other skills or are just a bit of fun to do.

• Download a Star Wars Apostrophes worksheet on the TES website here. There are also other Star Wars themed activities here which may be useful where they aren't aimed at too young an audience. 
• Learn how to draw R2D2 on the Andertoons website (beginner). Tescos also have a link to the official Lucas drawing instructions which look a bit more complicated.
• The English Caddy website has a whole lot of ideas for Star Wars English language activities (they seem to be aimed at learners of English as a second language but could still help anyone brushing up on their English). However, I am unsure of the authority of this site. The Correct Yoda activity could be useful as a grammar exercise and there are other ideas including a critical thinking activity mainly around a scenario from the Force Awakens film.
• The BBC have created a What Star Wars character are you? quiz - aimed at children, but when it comes to Star Wars, age doesn't seem to matter!
• For those of you more musically minded, try watching this parody by the Piano Guys called Cello Wars: the Phantom Cellist

Hopefully we can report back in next week's blog on how the event went.

Live streaming and Fake News 

Meanwhile in the news this week, attention has been drawn to the risks of streaming apps. Go the thinkuknow website for more information. This website also has videos to help explain online safety to young people with learning difficulties.
The BBC have also announced that they are so concerned about fake news that they are launching a service to help children understand what is true and what is fake. IFLA (The International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions) have a poster available for download on their website in different languages and we have some of these displayed in the LRC.

Be safe online! - the rise of fake celebrity social media accounts

Fake Social Media Accounts

Police are becoming increasingly concerned that people are setting up fake social media accounts and using them to talk to children and young people inappropriately (i.e. for grooming, extortion, etc). This is particularly happening through increasingly popular social media apps such as Musical.ly

For more information see this report from the BBC:  http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/blogs-trending-39670673

The following podcast (particularly the first section) also goes into more details and is useful for anyone studying or involved with safeguarding children or young people.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p04zvqsq

The companies which own these social media platforms are under increasing pressure to do more to stop this sort of activity (along with other content linked to criminal activity), but the best thing to do is to be on your guard and always do what you can to check who is contacting you.

Public domain image of social media apps from www.pixabay.com

How can I know whether a social media account is genuine?

Facebook and Twitter use a blue badge to verify accounts belonging to celebrities. Facebook also use a gray badge for organisations. However, these accounts are often targets for hacking too so be very suspicious if one of them messages you directly (most will not).

To find a genuine account, you could go to the official website for that artist, for example, and from there you should be able to see links to their twitter feed or Instagram account.

New guidelines by the Crown Prosecution Service. 

New guidelines (as reported in the Daily Telegraph) are being prepared which could make creating fake social media accounts a criminal offence where these are used for revenge or to cause harassment, for example. Therefore, everyone needs to be aware of their behaviour online.

Is what you are planning to publish online harmful to someone else (whether you think they deserve it or not)?

Would you like the same done to you? - and how would it make you feel?

The College does not tolerate  bullying of any kind and students experiencing anything like this can speak to a Safeguarding Officer, their tutor or indeed any member of staff about this if it is happening to them.