Dear Parents and Carers,

In school this week we will be once again reminding all children of the importance of keeping safe. We do such a lot of work in this area, especially when keeping children safe online, but we must also remember the need for our children to be careful when outside. We know that lots of your children go out to play or meet friends but can they remember what to do if a stranger approached them? Online, they can report it, close the game and seek advice which eliminates the threat immediately, but this is not the same in the real world. A local school recently had the need to remind children of the following rules.

STRANGER DANGER PREVENTION ADVICE

Here are some simple steps you can take to make sure you stay safe on the street.

• Make sure you tell your parents where you are at all times.
• Always play where your parents can see you.
• Do not answer the front door at home unless your mum or dad are there with you.
• If you have permission to walk home alone, go straight home.
• Be alert to your surroundings.
• Do not make friends online with people you have never met and who you are not friends with in real life (IRL) – they are strangers too.
• If someone scares you, or makes you feel uncomfortable, go somewhere safe, which could be your home, your school or a police station.
• Never tell a stranger your name or address.
• Never approach a stranger sitting in a car.
• Never go off on your own with a stranger, take things from them or get in a car with them.
• Don’t believe what strangers tell you – sometimes they could say things to make you go with them.
• If someone did try to grab you it is ok to break all the rules of politeness to others e.g. shout loudly, scream, kick, punch, bite etc to draw attention and alert others to the fact that you are in danger.
• Please also remember that sometimes a stranger can be the only person who can help us and is a far safer option than not talking to anyone; if you feel uncomfortable in any situation go to the nearest public building, for example a shop, or a public place. Whilst
  it is important we remain vigilant it is equally important to remember that not ALL strangers are “bad”.

Obviously, this needs to be appropriate to the age of the child that you have. We will be doing more work on this through the week in school. The idea is not to scare the children but make sure they know what to do in this event. It’s a difficult one, as not all strangers have bad intentions; however, we must prepare our children.

Miss Cook

Headteacher