Bolton School Primary Division Junior Boys’ School Wednesday 1st March
Spring Term, 2023 — WEEK B
Wednesday 1st March U11 International Rugby Festival, Rossall, all day Swim Development Club (by invitation), 4-5pm Cubs, 6.30pm Thursday 2nd March WORLD BOOK DAYTom Palmer, online session, 10am WBD Online, 11am Jujitsu, 4-5.30pm LAMDA, 4-5pm Cubs, 6.30pm Friday 3rd March CBBC Competition Winners’ Trip, Media City, morning Visit & U11 Fixtures with Edinburgh Academy After School Hockey, 4-5pm, LP Water Polo, 4-5pm
I hope you all had a pleasant holiday. We started this week with a real focus on behaviour and expectations around the school. Prior to the holidays, we asked for your support with uniform and haircuts, and it was great to see many of our boys return to school looking smart and ready to learn. We are having a big push on movement around the school, ensuring the boys are ready to learn and engage in the opportunities that lay ahead of them each day. As expected, the boys fully rose to the challenge and many reported that this gave them a stronger sense of purpose and a calmness to the day. On a separate matter, we are noticing an influx of expensive items such as smart watches in school. Smart watches should not be brought into school and if they are, they should be handed in with other mobile devices each morning and should be clearly named. We spoke with some of our boys before the holiday about restricting any valuable items as they do tend to go missing or get damaged in school, leading to considerable upset and lost learning time. I would include expensive wireless earphones on this list. We do need boys to bring in earphones, but a pair of basic wired headphones are best as they do not require charging, are relatively inexpensive and do not get lost easily.
The NSPCC published a study last month which showed the national average age at which children are searching for inappropriate materials online has dropped to 9 years old. The age at which children chance upon it has dropped to just 7 years old. Therefore, it is important that we all have the right parental controls in place to restrict content children have access to. They also need to be prevented from downloading a VPN (virtual private network) on their devices so they can avoid the parental controls you set. To stop your son downloading a VPN you need to remove permission for your son to download software on his device. An app like Google Family Link will allow you to curate which software they are downloading. This is suitable for U13’s. A whole host of other free apps are available in Google Play Store/ App Store to enable you to monitor screen time, have oversight of what they are downloading, and to see if your son is already using a VPN. It is very important that boys do not have access to phones in their bedrooms and they should allow you access to devices to help keep them safe. The charity Internet Matters is a good starting point for further information and support. You just enter all of your provider and device details, and they draft up a personalised safety checklist so you can take charge of the content your son is accessing.
We have noticed that many parents of Park Road pupils are using Screen Time settings on their son’s iPad to help monitor the activity of the iPad and trends in usage outside of controlled, classroom time. This monitoring of the iPad is certainly a positive step, and one that we have previously encouraged parents to set up and keep an eye on. It could, however, be potentially problematic due to the nature of a “managed Apple ID” (school monitored Apple ID) and how these profiles work when Screen Time passcodes have been created. It is not practical for School to keep a list of each individual pupil’s Screen Time passcodes, so we ask that you simply remove the passcode feature from Screen Time. This will not impact how Screen Time works and you will still be able to closely monitor your son’s activity on his iPad. We thank you for your co-operation with the removal of the Screen Time passcode and ask that it is done as soon as is practicably possible. It could, however, be potentially problematic due to the nature of a “managed Apple ID” (school monitored Apple ID) and how these profiles work when Screen Time passcodes have been created. Because it is not practical for School to keep a list of each individual pupil’s Screen Time passcodes, we ask that you simply remove the passcode feature from Screen Time. This will not impact how Screen Time works and you will still be able to closely monitor your son’s activity on his iPad. We thank you for your cooperation with the removal of the Screen Time passcode and ask that it is done as soon as is practicably possible.
Contacting the School Office Park Road, BOLTON, BL1 4RD. t: (01204) 434735 e: parkroad@boltonschool.org.uk. www.boltonschool.org
The School Office is open from 8.15 am — 4.15 pm during term time. Please note that any texts sent by the Office cannot be replied to. Please direct all enquiries to parkroad@boltonschool.org and always include your son’s first name and surname, as well as his form. Please note that ParkRoadOffice email is no longer monitored. If your son is going to be absent from School, whether he be off sick or attending dental, medical or any other appointment, please email parkroad@boltonschool.org so that the registers may be marked accordingly. Please use this email address for all day-to-day enquiries relating to school matters to ensure that your enquiry may be dealt with in a timely manner. For all coach / transport enquiries: Logistics Co-ordinator: Mr B. Gould, t: (01204) 434711, e: bdmgould@boltonschool.org.uk