ANDOVER'S MP joined students from a Test Valley primary school for an assembly on online safety.

Education Secretary Kit Malthouse joined 135 students at Kimpton, Thruxton and Fyfield Primary School for the special assembly.

During the assembly, children learned about being alert to scams and phishing attacks, how to keep secure by looking after their passwords and personal information and being kind to others online.

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The assembly was part of the Be Internet Legends educational programme, which is aimed at children aged 7-11 and has been put together by Google and Parent Zone in collaboration with experts, children and schools.

Speaking after the assembly, Mr Malthouse said: “Children today are fortunate enough to have an array of rich material and resources to learn from online, and one my jobs as education secretary is to enable them to make the most it, while keeping them safe.

“As a parent myself, I understand the risks and dangers lurking in the online world, and the message I’d like to get across to every child is that our digital safety is just as important as our physical safety.

“‘Be Internet Legends’ is a fantastic interactive educational programme helping children in Kimpton, and indeed across the UK, become safer and more confident in navigating the online world.

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“It has lots of free resources such as curriculums and classroom slides for teachers to download, and I encourage all primary schools in and around Andover to have a look.”

First launched in March 2018, more than 70 per cent of UK schools have engaged with the Be Internet Legends programme.

An independent evaluation from 2021 demonstrated the significant positive impact of the programme – following Google training, children are twice as likely to show an improved understanding of internet safety than those who have not received the training.