BBC Radio Oxford Visit The Unicorn School

Published on isbi School News dated Wednesday 11th of February 2015

Today The Unicorn School welcomed Lilley Mitchell from BBC Radio Oxford, who joined us to celebrate Safer Internet Day 2015. Lilley broadcast four interviews live from The Unicorn School during Phil Gayle's Breakfast Show.

The morning started with an interview with Vita Parvin, our Acting Head Teacher, who gave Lilly and the listeners an overview of SID 2015, a national event promoting the safe and responsible use of technology. This year's theme is 'Let's create a better internet together', and Vita explained how The Unicorn School has planned a day of activities focusing on both the creative and positive things that children and young people can do online, as well as the importance of staying safe online.

Next Lilley spoke to Clare Roberts, a one-to-one teacher at The Unicorn School. Lilley was fascinated to find out about our school's unique approach to learning, she joined in some of Clare's many sound and phonics games, and got her hands messy in Clare's famous shaving foam writing practice. Lilley joined class teachers Rachael McMullen and Lucinda Allison next, she explored the Viking theme in Ash classroom and joined in sentence extension activities, using shapes and colours to help build and structure sentences. Finally Lilley met with Alex de Jong and The Unicorn School pupils in the ICT suite, to talk about how online resources can help us with our learning. Our Unicorns gave Lilley a wonderful welcome and were marvellous ambassadors for our school. We are so proud of them.

Safer Internet Day is an opportunity to spend a whole day focusing on e-safety and the importance of staying safe online. Every Unicorn pupil has made their own 'e-safety pledge', which will be displayed on the SID 2015 wall in the ICT suite. The day was filled with activities including interactive assemblies, specially planned lessons, and of course using the internet to listen to our own broadcast on BBC Radio Oxford.

Our thanks to Lilley Mitchell for joining us today, it was a real treat to meet her and to be a part of the radio show. If you missed the show or would like to hear it again simply follow the link below and click on 'Phil Gayle'.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/radiooxford/latest-programmes

To celebrate the day The Unicorn School is engaging every pupil in activities that will help them to understand e-safety and why staying safe online is so important. Every child will attend a special interactive assembly where they will discuss different aspects of e-safety such as cyber bullying and computer viruses. The pupils will be asked to think carefully about online dangers and to discuss what they themselves might do in different situations. The Safer Internet theme will continue in class lessons, with pupils exploring both the dangers and the positives of the internet. They will be encouraged to think of ways in which they themselves can use the internet to make the world a better place, such as developing a "recipe for a better internet" and making pledges to undertake "good digital deeds."

Vita Parvin, Acting Head Teacher of The Unicorn School said "At The Unicorn School we consider the safety of our pupils to be of the very highest importance. Keeping our pupils safe online is a priority, and we wish to celebrate the positive aspects of the internet whilst ensuring that our pupils have the knowledge and skills to be able to navigate the online environment safely and responsibly."