1. Laurence:
This week has seen Safer Internet day. Each year there is a different theme for the day. This years theme is Create, Connect and Share Respect: A better internet starts with you”.
The E-champions have spent the last few weeks learning about family home agreements and we have created one to share with you. We hope this will help us and our families all respect each other and the time we spend on our gadgets and internet

2. Family Home Tech Agreement
E-Champions
Family Home Tech Agreement
Theodora: We have been investigating what it means to have a family tech agreement and why we should have one.

3. Henry:
A family media agreement (or technology contract, or home tech agreement, or whatever you may call it) helps you establish rules and guidelines on internet and device use.  A family tech agreement is also a great way to start a conversation about internet safety with your family, and to decide on what rules to have from the start so there are no misunderstandings.
Katie:
A family agreement is a great way to start a conversation with your whole family about how you all use the internet and discuss together how to behave in a good way when online at home or when you are playing games or using phone apps also at school or at a friends house. Hopefully it means there are no family debates or arguments about how much time we spend online

4. Add in
Betty:
Our recent online survey for years 4, 5 and 6 found that 7 out of 10 of you do have some rules at home already even if they are not part of an actual home tech agreement . The blue part of the pie shows the amount of people who have time rules at home. The orange slice is the amount of people who have no time rules
. Our survey showed that half of year 4, 5 and 6 children keep our phones and gadgets in a separate room at night. This is the orange slice of pie in the second circle. The blue slice is those of us who do own a gadget and have it in our room night.
It is good for our learning and our health to get a good nights sleep. The blue light from computer and phone screens can keep you awake as your brain mistakes it for daylight. Also when your phone is in your room you can be woken up by different beeps from games and messages.

5. Less than one hour on a school day More time online at weekends
X-Box, Playstation, Games
Youtube
Henry:
Some other interesting things we found out from our survey are:
Many of us spend less than one hour a day on our gadgets on a school day and a bit more at weekends
Our favourite activities are playing games and watching Youtube videos
All of the survey results are on our noticeboard and on our school website. Please show them to your parents

6. Harriet No phones and computers at the dinner table.
No phones and computers upstairs in our bedrooms
Share my details online only with real friends that I know
Harriet:
So we think that all of this interesting information about how we use technology shows it would be really helpful for us and our families to have tech rules.
Here are some rules we have at our homes so far

7. Betty All gadgets to be turned off at 8pm every night.
I do not charge phones and computers upstairs in my room
I am allowed only 1 social chat app on my tablet – this is Musically
Betty
My mum has agreed these rules with me as sleep is very important. Mum is able to check my phone and tablet to see what apps I am using.

8. 90 minutes at weekends. Not on school days No tech upstairs
Henry
90 minutes at weekends. Not on school days
No tech upstairs
Only real friends
Henry
I have 90 minutes at the weekend and no computer time in the week unless I have friends round. Then we can have some computer time.
I do not have a phone yet so we have not decided what riles to have for this yet
When I am on long car journeys I can look at a tablet or play a game.
I am not allowed any tech upstairs
Half an hour before bed time I cant go on any screen. Except for TV at the weekend
When I am playing on-line games I cannot make friends with people I do not know in real life

9. 1 hours of computer time each day. Unless it is for homework
Theodora
1 hours of computer time each day. Unless it is for homework
Phone turned off at night
Ask before getting a new app on my phone
Theodora
I have up to 1 hour 30 minutes of TV time a day
I can only have more than one hour on the computer if it is for school homework
I have a 1 hour limit on my phone each day
Before bedtime my phone and computer is switched off.
I ask my parents before downloading an app
When eating our meals we have no devices on.

10. Screens out of bedroom at night-time All screens off by 8.30pm
Izzy
Screens out of bedroom at night-time
All screens off by 8.30pm
No screens at table when eating
Izzy

11. Laurence
Many schools and families are now writing home agreements because we are learning it is important to have a balanced amount of time online and offline. It is important for our health, our quality of sleep and remembering to enjoy other things like sport, reading, arts and crafts and spending time talking face to face with our family and friends.
Doctors are finding that if we spend lots and lots of time online it can make us moody, anxious or stop us getting a good nights sleep.
Betty
We have had a think about what rules we would have if we were a family. We think these rules would be a good way to make sure we enjoy our time online but get a healthy balance.
If we had these rules in place and we all agreed to them then we would not have any arguments about when and where to use our phones and computers!
Do you think your parents would be happy to agree to Tech free dinner- would they stick to the rules do you think?
Katie : when I went to the opticians they explained that you can keep your eyes in good shape by limiting the amount of time you spend looking at close up screens like phone messages.

12. Our E-family home tech rules
Tech-free dinner table
Goodnight, sleep tight and don’t let the techbugs bite
Work....then play
Love your eyes - 1 hour on school days. 2 hours at weekends
Thumbs up from parents - Agreed apps and games only
Face to face – we will talk to our friends, not message
and text
Harriet:.
So here would be our e-champion family rules
We would not have phones or tablets on the table when we are eating our dinner. We could save this time to talk to our family instead
Theodora
We would leave our phones and tablets to charge in another room away from our bedroom so that we cannot be tempted to play ‘just one more round of our favourite game’
And those pings and alarms which tell us a new message has arrived would then not wake us up in the night.
Good night, sleep tight and don’t let the techbugs bite
Betty
We will also switch off all gadgets at least half an hour before bedtime. The screen lights on gadgets can make you more alert and keep you awake. If we switch off the screens we will relax and be ready for bed
This includes no charging of gadgets upstairs
We would make sure we get all our homework or family tasks done first then when we are done we can really enjoy our time online. Work then play
Katie
In setting a sensible amount of time to be online we can keep it special, we can avoid having parents moan at us for being online too much and we can make sure our eyes are not getting too strained. Setting time limits for school days and weekends is the most popular and useful rule to set at home. Love your eyes
Henry
If we let our parents know what games and apps we want to play they can look into them, make sure they are right for our age and help us get the right safety settings on them. Of course all of these things include being safe when you are on line like only chatting to real friends, not sharing personal info and telling your parents if you see anything that worries you
Laurence
Face to face rather than face to screen. Scientists are telling us that if we spend lots of time chatting online and reading texts from people it can make us feel unhappy or worried. When we spend time playing with our friends for real this makes us happy.

13. E-champions notice board Our pupils home agreements
House Points
Heron
Mallard
Kingfisher
Swan
Laurence
We have a letter for you to take home today. This is to explain to your parents what a family home agreement is. And you can tell them what you have learnt today.
The letter includes ideas for what a family tech agreement could include. We are hoping you will design and write a family tech home agreement with the rest of your family. Every family will probably have different rules to suit their lives and the ages of the children.
Katie
We are starting a competition today. For every home agreement you return to us to display on our notice board you will earn house points for your school house. You can design the home agreement or print off a blank one from our website. You can then fill in the blank one with as many rules as you like.
The agreement can be rules you already have at home or they can be rules for the future that you decide with your family this week and over half term.
We will be displaying your agreements on our notice board – the agreements do not have to have names on if you prefer but they should show which house you are in as each agreement brought into school earns you a house point. The 5 winning agreements will earn even more house points and we will use them on our e-safety school webpage.
Betty
When you draw up your rules you can just write your house name –Heron, Mallard, Kingfisher or Swan or you can also add your real name.
So please make sure you get your parents to read the letter in your bookbags.
Harriet
We hope you enjoy being part of this competition. If you want any help from the e-champions we are happy to talk to you.