Cyber Wellness

The Cyber Wellness (CW) education in GSS is customised to suit GSS’ student profile and school environment. The aim of CW education is to develop Greenridgeans into responsible ICT users who are able to protect themselves and be responsible for their well-being in cyberspace and have good netiquette. Through the various CW activities such as online Cyber Wellness Modules, Workshops, Assembly Talks, Parenting Seminars and CCE lessons conducted in our school, Greenridgeans are constantly reminded of the risks of harmful online behaviour and are given practical tips on how to best protect themselves and others from such behaviours.

Guided by MOE’s Cyber Wellness framework which focuses on three key processes: Sense, Think and Act, the school plans and implements a holistic CW education to reinforce the importance of CW and its messages. The framework focuses on developing the child’s instinct to protect him/herself and empowers him/her to take personal responsibility for his/her own well-being in cyberspace.

The three principles, ‘Respect for Self & Others’, ‘Safe & Responsible Use’ and ‘Positive Peer Influence’ when adhered to will anchor a child’s well-being in cyberspace as he will then be able to make careful and well-considered decisions. The two principles, “Respect for Self and Others” and “Safe and Responsible Use” when adhered to will anchor pupils’ well-being in cyberspace as they will then be able to make careful and well-considered decisions.

Principles

(1) Respect for Self and Others

Students need to:

• uphold their own dignity when online (e.g. share appropriate content and participate in only legal online activities)

• respect other people online (e.g. put themselves in others’ shoes, accept diverse views and opinions, give credit when using other people’s work and seek permission where necessary, avoid sharing hurtful materials)

(2) Safe and Responsible Use

Students need to:

• have an understanding of the risks of harmful and illegal online behaviours, and take steps to protect themselves (e.g. keep their personal information private, verify the reliability of information using various sources, take steps to avoid dangers they may encounter online)

• make wise and healthy choices (e.g. maintain a healthy balance of their online and offline activities)

(3) Positive Peer Influence

Students need to:

• be a positive role model online (e.g. share healthy and positive content, harness the affordances of technology to do good for society)

• advocate positive online behaviour (e.g. stand up for their peers online, report cases of cyber bullying to a trusted adult/authority, post encouraging remarks on social media)

The school plans and implements a holistic CW education which comprises a) the CW lessons in and b) the school-wide programmes (e.g. CW assembly talks, CW Week, CW Roadshow and other CW activities) to reinforce the importance of CW and its messages. For more information on MOE’s formal curriculum, click 

Highlights from School-Wide Programmes

1.     Cyber Wellness Roadshow

Initiated by a team of CW Student Ambassadors, the GSS Cyberheroes Roadshow was held over 3 days during Cyber Wellness Week. There were different stations consisting of static and interactive displays, games and photo booths for students to reinforce CW messages taught during CCE lessons and to promote the SG ConneXion app. The SG ConneXion app contains a digitized collection of Cyber Wellness resources created for parents to provide them with an insight on the CW issues that students face today through the voices of youths themselves as well as parenting tips on how to guide your children through the age of digital

2.     Cyber Wellness Student Ambassadors Training

Our Cyber Wellness Student Ambassadors serve as active student voices and cascade key CW messages at class and at school level, and support and positively influence their peers in navigating the cyber world responsibly. The school provides training and opportunities for CW Student Ambassadors to champion school-wide CW outreach efforts. Our CW Student Ambassadors have engaged their classmates during CCE lessons through presentations and classroom discussions on CW topics. They have also presented on CW issues during morning assembly sharing sessions, organised a roadshow to reinforce CW messages and have even engaged parents by creating an app on SG ConneXion to share parenting tips that can be adopted when teenagers use social media platforms such as Twitter & Snapchat.

3.     Parenting Seminars

A parenting seminar, “Enabling and Helping Our Children Overcome the New World Danger” was conducted on 29 July 2017. The speaker shared real life cyberbullying case studies and brought about awareness of the severity and impact of cyberbullying. Parents were also given tips on how they can help children and youths should they be involved in cyberbullying or know someone who is.

Our CW Student Ambassadors also shared on the SG ConneXion app to parents during the seminar. They engaged parents through a slide presentation, quiz, video and hands-on learning

Achievements

1.     Cyber Wellness Student Ambassador

“Inspire. Empower. Celebrate.”

This was the theme of the inaugural Cyber Wellness Student Ambassadors Summit 2017, a biennial event held to recognise and celebrate schools’ efforts to promote Cyber Wellness via their Student Ambassadors.   A highlight of the summit was the “Cyber Wellness Student Ambassador Award”, and we are proud to announce that out of the 4,400 Cyber Wellness Student Ambassadors in all schools in Singapore, Greenridge’s very own Nur Rasyikah Bte Andi Satria was one of the six recipients who received this prestigious award.   This award recognises the ambassadors’ commitment and leadership in championing school-wide Cyber Wellness outreach efforts and their positive influence on their peers. Described by her peers and teachers as one who ‘always tries to help out when someone is in need’, and ‘puts herself in other people’s shoes’, Rasyikah is truly a deserving recipient of this award.   We would like to congratulate Rasyikah on receiving this esteemed award, and affirm her for being a positive peer influence to spread Cyber Wellness messages in GSS.   Rasyikah has truly lived out the opening line of our school song – ‘to stand head and shoulders above the rest! We are so proud of you Rasyikah!

2.     Cyber National Cyber Wellness Advocacy Challenge (NCAC)

With the support of the Inter-Ministry Cyber Wellness Committee (ICSC) and the Ministry of Education (MOE), the SG ConneXion app was launched as part of the National Cyber Wellness Advocacy Challenge (NCAC). Adopting a 'By Youths, For Adults' approach, SG ConneXion contains a digitized collection of Cyber Wellness resources created for parents to provide them with an insight on the Cyber Wellness issues that students face today through the voices of youths themselves as well as parenting tips on how to guide your children through the age of digital technology.

In 2016, a team of our Cyber Wellness Student Ambassadors represented the school at the NCAC, where they created a video about Twitter to share with parents and to let them understand why teenagers like to blog these days.

We are pleased to announce that another team, GSS CyberHeroes has been awarded the 1st Runner-Up for NCAC in 2017. Our GSS Cyberheroes advocated on the curation of content on the Snapchat platform. They created an app to allow parents to be able to (i) find out & try out Snapchat, (ii) learn about the possible harmful content that your children can be exposed to when using Snapchat and (iii) learn some practical parental strategies that you can adopt. Refer to the following steps on how to browse the app.