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15/02/25

After using Twitter/X for many years, we have decided move away. Come join us on instagram to continue to keep up to date with all things HA! See you there!

13/02/25

Successful end of term art project for year six: children planned, designed and built these amazing Memories Boxes linked to our Oval history topic and our belonging driver. pic.twitter.com/n9kmoqMctV

12/02/25

Year six loved their visit from Steel today and asked some brilliant questions!#pshe pic.twitter.com/SVSTN0xR3p

12/02/25

We loved our visit from Steel today, learning all about resilience and the importance of sleep, healthy diet, being active, hydration and showing gratitude (noticing glimmers). Can anyone beat Steel’s record of 757 burpees nonstop in under an hour?#pshe pic.twitter.com/FLHRxZ2Lkq

12/02/25

As part of Safer Internet Day, year 2 explored a variety of dangers online and discussed how to respond to them. They had some excellent ideas and good knowledge of the safety features of various apps. They created posters to teach younger children about what they had learnt. pic.twitter.com/dWyOSidsdH

12/02/25

Amazing messages being given to the children this morning by the amazing gladiator Steel! What a fantastic morning we have ahead pic.twitter.com/Y0WFDxF1nL

11/02/25

Year six scientists dissecting hearts to understand how the circulatory system works. pic.twitter.com/ewcfvsfMRX

11/02/25

Year six scientists dissecting hearts to understand how the circulatory system works. pic.twitter.com/Dz7qWkgTL8

11/02/25

Year six home learning designing posters for around school about how to keep safe online. pic.twitter.com/eya9mmpF4M

11/02/25

Year six historians exploring the Oval as part of their local history project, with an added extra of a tag rugby PE lesson! pic.twitter.com/iabdKAYvHI

11/02/25

Year six historians exploring the Oval as part of their local history project, with an added extra of a tag rugby PE lesson! pic.twitter.com/gRFv2OAoT6

11/02/25

Team Dahl had a great science lesson on space and the stars with Mark the scientist yesterday (2).#science pic.twitter.com/FrJSAI3V1t

11/02/25

Team Dahl had a great science lesson on space and the stars with Mark the scientist yesterday (1).#science pic.twitter.com/K62hUgwN7y

11/02/25

Marking Safer Internet Day with a visit from the charity Computer Friendly pic.twitter.com/NuuQv4ROU2

10/02/25

Year 3 had a visit from Hands on Science and took part in a workshop on biological diversity. pic.twitter.com/RoqPJoSdUj

07/02/25

This week in assembly we celebrated Martin Luther King day, reading about this inspiring activist who devoted his life to fighting for civil rights. We linked to other activists such as Nelson Mandela, Greta Thunberg, Malala and Rosa Parks; and to our value of respect. pic.twitter.com/TKQlLAdduw

07/02/25

A huge thank you to all the adults who came to visit us today to explain how their job uses maths. pic.twitter.com/nNu8EdPIvU

07/02/25

Ladybirds have had a fantastic ! We have loved hearing about jobs that use numbers and dressing up! We are so inspired. We also made foot rulers to measure things in the classroom. pic.twitter.com/sfwifgPkd4

07/02/25

Our fourth visitor of the day was Tendaii, a train and air engineer. Our Y6’s were fascinated by his models and recognised how scale factors work in producing drafts of projects. pic.twitter.com/QmOElYN5WQ

07/02/25

Our third visitor of the day was Matt who works in the sports field. He explained to our Y6’s how fractions, decimals and percentages play a part in making predictions about different sporting events. pic.twitter.com/Js9gcUBH3m

07/02/25

Our second visitor of the day was Business Analyst Andreii who spoke to our Y6’s about how algebra and coding is used in his IT role. pic.twitter.com/g7qgZWX25k

07/02/25

Our first visitor of the day was Nurse Helen who works at treating cancer patients. Our Y6’s enjoyed learning about why measuring is particularly crucial in this field. pic.twitter.com/IG2nvg7xEC

07/02/25

Happy Number Day from Year 3! pic.twitter.com/bS3fxp7e8P

06/02/25

Aren’t we lucky to have such lovely, kind parents in our Year 1 class? We are so appreciative of these yummy sweet treats! pic.twitter.com/IEp8f6rkyO

04/02/25

Lunar new year celebrations last week pic.twitter.com/GAQmtKUjeU

Technology at Harpenden Academy

At Harpenden Academy, we are committed to ensure our children are equipped with all that they need to know to be able to keep safe online and ADD  ‘navigating technology for an ever evolving world. 

Today’s children and young people are growing up in a digital world. As they grow older, it is crucial that they learn to balance the benefits offered by technology with a critical awareness of their own and other’s online behaviour, and develop effective strategies for staying safe and making a positive contribution online.

At Harpenden Academy, we want our children to quickly become fluent in our essential apps on the iPad which will allow them to interact with their learning every day. The children will be able to communicate, create and collaborate in our digital learning-based classrooms. This links with the Trusts vision of ‘Education for a changing world’ and it forms part of our school development plan (priority 2). We believe in delivering education that is fearless, invigorating and intellectually stimulating, allowing our pupils to access life skills beyond school and challenging themselves in their future. 

At Harpenden Academy we empower our pupils to unlock their potential by using iPads as a pathway to facilitate creativity and achieve their learning goals.  We will use technology to create a culture of rich, exciting, and memorable experiences that inspire and motivate our children to explore and utilise the varied learning opportunities provided by the iPad. This versatility enables teachers to encourage curiosity and an ambitious approach to learning with the aim of creating success stories for all. We use technology not as a substitute for existing practice, but as an inclusive tool to allow all learners to flourish and raise their expectations.

Information about online safety issues and how to ‘Stay Safe’ can be found on the websites below.  This is just a sample of websites that can provide parents with support and information.  Once parents and carers have the background knowledge and understanding of eSafety they can decide what is right for their family.

  • National Online Safety - Parent Guides to ensure safety of children on the internet
  • Facebook Magic 13 - Why do you have to be 13 to use Facebook?
  • Herts E-Safety - Mind the gap!
  • Internet Safety - Parents Guide
  • NSPCC - Help keep your children safe online!
  • CEOP - News and articles around internet safety
  • Think U Know - Great advice to keep children safe whilst using the internet
  • KnowITAll - Award-winning resources for teachers and parents.
  • Webwise - The BBC Webwise is a beginner’s guide to using the internet.  There is a good section on children’s online safety.
  • Internet Matters - This website contains lots of information about staying safe online, with tips about games, social networking, mobile technology and more.
  • Get Safe Online - A beginners guide to using the Internet safely, including a quiz and some video tutorials about how to ‘stay safe’ on-line. 
  • Kidsmart - Kidsmart is an award winning internet safety website for parents and those working with children. It has been developed by the children's internet charity Childnet International and has excellent information on many of the technologies used by children, with guidance on how to ‘stay safe’ online.
  • Childnet - A non-profit making organisation working directly with children, parents and teachers to ensure that the issues of online child protection and children’s safe and positive use of the internet are addressed. Childnet International produce an online CD guide specifically for parents.

Top Tips for when onlineCeop

The internet and related technologies, including mobile phones, games consoles and social networks are becoming increasingly important in the daily lives of our children and have many positive benefits.  They can be used both educationally and socially and are becoming part of a child’s identity. Socially our children often use the internet for entertainment, interaction, and communication with ‘friends’.  Access to the internet can take place anywhere and at anytime so we need to make sure our children are able to use the internet safely.

Many children are unaware of the risks for example by having many online friends (who could be strangers), uploading inappropriate images, viewing unsuitable content or sharing too much personal information.

  • Talk together and have fun learning together.
  • Keep virus and firewall software up to-date.
  • Remember that passwords should be kept private and not shared with others. Many eSafety incidents relate back to the sharing of passwords.
  • Involve everyone and agree your family guidelines and rules. Remember that sometimes what is acceptable for a Year 10 child is not necessarily acceptable for a Year 4 child.
  • Regularly discuss online safety and go online with your children.  Communication is the key to ‘staying safe’ online.
  • Enable your ‘browser safe’ search option and/ or consider using internet filtering software, walled gardens and child-friendly search engines. Critically view all content as some websites are not what they appear.
  • Keep the computer in a communal area of the house, where it's easier to monitor what your children are viewing. Do not let children have webcams, or similar, in their bedroom. Remember any image, sound or text can be copied and viewed by everyone.
  • Talk to your children about why they should not to give out their personal details. If they want to subscribe to any online service then make up a family email address to receive the mail.
  • We all love to chat and children are no different. Encourage your children to use moderated chat rooms and never to meet up with an online ‘friend’ without first telling you.
  • Time spent online should be monitored to help prevent obsessive use of the internet. Children need to follow a range of activities many of which will be offline.
  • Encourage your children, and in fact all family members, to tell you if they feel uncomfortable, upset or threatened by anything they see online.
  • Have proportionate responses if the family guidelines are not followed.

How do I set up parental controls?

These controls are designed to help parents and carers manage their child’s online activities; however they don’t replace the need for adults to support and advise children using the internet. This online tool from Internet Matters helps you to set up a personalised list of the controls used in your home on all your devices.   There is also advice on how to use the controls, with videos and step-by-step instructions.

Search here for parental controls guides for broadband, mobile, smartphones, social media, search engines and more. You can find everything from Snapchat, YouTube and Whatsapp parental control settings to Google, EE and Sky.

House

An introduction to child safety online

Online safety for children is a concern for all parents.  In this video, Bethan Kelly from Barnardo's discusses how you can help keep your child safe online.

Instagram, Facebook and Whatsapp Guidance for Parents

Department for Education Advice for Parents

Useful Apps/Website  

Subject
Apps
Website
Reading
Bugclub
ActiveLearn: Login (activelearnprimary.co.uk)
Writing
Book creator 
Chatterpix 
https://www.naturalcurriculum.co.uk/ 
Spelling/phonics
Spelling shed. 
Teach Monster
Spelling Shed - Spelling Shed - The Science of Spelling
Teach Your Monster: Free Phonics, Reading and Mathematics Games
Maths
White rose
Maths
Topmarks 
https://www.timestables.co.uk/ 
https://www.naturalcurriculum.co.uk/ 
Whiterose 
Science
 
History
 
 
Geography
 
Google maps
RE
 
 
PE
 
 
MFL
Duolingo
Duolingo - The world's best way to learn a language
Music Garageband  
Computing

Bookcreator

Bee-bot

Imovie

Scratch
Art Paint, Freefrom  

Drawing London Landmarks in Reception

Using pictures to copy the children used the free form app on the Ipad to draw one of the landmarks. Great results.

Rec

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