St. Brigid’s Day at Mercy Tuam

Three of our students with our own version of St. Brigid’s cloak after Assembly. Below are articles published in the Tuam Herald to mark St. Brigid’s Day.

Internet Safety Day 2020 at Scoil Bhríde, Mercy Secondary

To mark Internet Safety Day, Scoil Bhríde Mercy Secondary School organised a talk on the importance of protecting oneself online on all devices. Fidelity Ireland provided the cyber security specialist, Mr. Lee Weller, who gave the talk to the Mercy’s First year and Second year students.  Students from 5^th and 6^th Class from Trinity Primary School and from Gaelscoil Iarfhlatha were also invited into the interactive talk.

Students learnt about their digital footprint. They heard how to change their privacy settings on social media, how to ensure that their passwords were safe and how to ensure that they were downloading safe apps on their mobile devices.  The topic of cyberbullying was also discussed, with advice on how to deal with it effectively.

The benefits of being online are many and varied. Nevertheless, the students were reminded that human, face-to-face interaction plays an important role in maintaining good mental health. Imposing a time-limit on one’s screen-time was suggested as a reminder to go out and get some exercise or to chat with a friend.

It was a very positive experience for all who were involved and students left the talk with a new set of coping skills for dealing with the online world in which everyone is now so involved.

Top tips for protecting oneself online

• Choose wisely before posting images/text/videos of yourself online.  Stay in control of your online image and reputation.
• Remember when posting anything, online activity lasts forever.  If you can’t show it to your Granny, then don’t post it online!
• Make sure that the Apps that you download are trusted Apps.
• Check your privacy settings on all your social media to make sure you are sharing content only with people that you know and trust.
• Ensure that you have different passwords for every online account – you can use a trusted password manager to remember all your passwords.
• Make sure your password contains letters that are both lowercase and uppercase, a number and a symbol e.g. AbCd123#
• If you are being cyberbullied take a screenshot of all comments/photos/videos that have been sent, block the person, report it to the social media account and tell a trusted adult.
• Be mindful of the amount of time spent online.
• Question what you see online.