Associate Leader Mr Abusef led the main school assemblies this week on the hugely topical subject of social media. Many governments across the world are recognising the serious harm that excessive use of social media can cause in the lives of young people and at Bushey Meads School, as the political debates rumble on, we are doing all we can to raise the awareness with all the children in our care.

Mr Abusef reminded all students that powerful social media companies deliberately employ well paid employees to target young people through complex algorithms that track and send information via their social media feeds that can cause mental anxiety and even in worst cases an addiction. He also gave a very important warning to all students about the use of AI and informed students that, if they use AI to complete their coursework tasks, they can potentially get disqualified from their GCSE and A Level examinations – affecting their long term futures.

His final message was all about the importance of making sure our digital footprints do not jeopardise our future career prospects or even travel opportunities. All students need to be very careful with what messages, images or videos they are posting online, or just even passing on from a friend who may have posted something harmful or inappropriate. Future employers don’t just look at examination results, they use highly developed software to search through all online content related to their prospective employee.

As parents and carers you all play a vital role in all of this to monitor your child’s use of social media and limit online screen time. Working together we can ensure that the positive benefits of technology can be maximised to good effect and negative harm minimised.