E-safety Policy.
The school’s E- Safety policy will operate in conjunction with other policies including: the
Behaviour Policy, Anti-Bullying Policy, Child Protection Policy, E-safety Curriculum Policy, Social Media Policy and Mobile Phone Policy; it will also consider the Data Protection Act.
E -Safety encompasses Internet technologies and electronic communications such as mobile phones as well as collaboration tools and personal publishing. It highlights the need to educate pupils about the benefits and risks of using technology and provides safeguards and awareness for users to enable them to control their online experience.
E-Safety in the school environment concerns the protection of users, particularly children, of all connectable technology, especially when using the internet, email and mobile communication technology. The Byron Report (27/3/2008) has some startling statistics that underline the need for everyone to adopt e-safe practices and to share the responsibility for child protection.
Our vision for ICT
St Margaret’s C of E primary School regards ICT as an essential life skill and a tool which enables our whole school community to become active and independent learners and communicators.
Our aims are to:
• Enable all our staff, pupils, parents and governors to be confident, competent, safe and independent users of ICT.
• Promote the use of a wide range of up-to-date ICT resources to enhance and enrich teaching and learning in a way which motivates and enthuses our children.
• To provide an environment where access to ICT resources is natural and commonplace and is regarded as an integral part of our everyday practices and administration management.
Teaching and Learning:
Responsibilities
The schools E-Safety Co-ordinator/ICT Co-ordinator is Karen Underwood.
Our E-Safety co-ordinator ensures that the School is kept up to date with E-safety issues and guidance through liaison with the Local Authority e-safety staff. As well as organisations such as Becta and The Child Exploitation and Online Protection (CEOP). The school’s co-coordinator ensures the Head Teacher, School Leadership Team and Governors are updated as necessary.
Governors need to have an understanding of E-safety issues and strategies in relation to St Margaret’s School. We ensure our governors are aware of our local and national guidance on
E-Safety and are updated, at least, annually on policy developments.
All teachers are responsible for prompting and supporting safe behaviours in their classrooms and following school e-safety procedures. Central to this is fostering a ‘No Blame’ culture so pupils feel able to report any bulling, abuse or inappropriate materials.
All staff should be familiar with the schools’ policy including;
• Safe use of school network, equipment and data
• Use of digital images and digital technologies, such as mobile phones and cameras.
• E bulling/Cyber bullying procedures
• Their role in providing e-safety education for pupils.
• Staff are updated about e-safety issues at least once a year.
Why Internet use is important
The Internet is an essential element in 21st century life for education, business and social
interaction. The school has a duty to provide pupils with quality Internet access as part of
their learning experience. Internet use is a part of the statutory curriculum and a necessary tool for staff and pupils. Internet Access at St Margaret’s Primary School is through Broadband Sandwell.
Internet use will enhance learning
The school’s Internet access is designed expressly for pupil use and includes filtering appropriate to the age of pupils. Pupils will be taught what type of internet use is acceptable and what is not and given clear objectives for Internet use. They will also be given guidance on how to be critically aware of the materials they read and shown how to validate information before accepting its accuracy. The school will ensure that the use of Internet derived materials by staff and pupils complies with copyright law.
Internet Access in School:
• Children do not have free access to the internet in school.
• Internet access for pupils, generally takes place during lessons in the ICT suite, Cyber cafe area or classroom.
• Suitable sites are given to the children for their work.
• Children using the internet outside lesson time do so with the permission of a member of staff, whom takes responsibility for the safe use of the internet.
• Teachers using internet sites for lessons in the classroom will have used their professional judgement about the suitability of the materials contained on the site. In addition unsuitable materials will have their access denied on the school site.
• The school will take reasonable precautions to make sure that users of the internet in school can only access appropriate material.
• Virus protection is updated regularly.
• E-Safety rules will be displayed in the computer suite and all areas of the school where computers are in use.
• All teachers will remind children of the appropriate internet safety rules as part of lesson starters.
School learning platform and website:
• Contact details on the learning platform are those of the school email address and telephone number. Staff and Pupil information (phone numbers) will not be available.
• The Head Teacher will take overall editorial responsibility for the School Website and Learning Platform and ensure that the content is accurate and appropriate.
• The sections with published content on the school Learning Platform is password protected. teachers, pupils and parents can access safe areas with their passwords.
• Photographs of children on the Learning Platform and website will not be labelled with names. Children whose parents have completed the form to say that their child’s photo cannot be used will not appear on the site. (See appendix 1 Using Images of Children Consent Form – part of pupil induction pack).
• The school filtering system blocks children’s access to sites such as MSN messenger.
• Filtering: The school internet access is filtered by Broadband Sandwell and access to any site which may contain unsuitable material is denied. Staff can contact the ICT department if they wish to use material that is blocked but is actually a safe link, which will be considered and added if appropriate.
• Staff are not permitted to use personal digital equipment, such as mobile phones and
cameras, to record images of pupils, this includes when on field trips. .
• Pupils and staff are not permitted to use personal portable media for storage of
images (e.g., USB sticks) All staff have been issued with an encrypted memory device.
• Webcams in school are only ever used for specific learning purposes, i.e. monitoring
hens’ eggs. Consent is sought from parents/carers and staff on joining the school, in
the same way as for all images.
Email• We do not currently give pupils access to email within school (except within the
confines of a self-contained software program) but will review this policy should this
change.
• Staff and class emails sent to external organisations should be written carefully and
authorised if necessary the same way that a written letter would be.
• The use of emails for forwarding chainmail or any other inappropriate use is forbidden and will be dealt with by the Head Teacher
Emerging technology:• As new technology comes online it will be assessed for educational benefit and risk assessment will take place before it is used in school.
• At the present time the school is not involved in video conferencing.
• Mobile phones for pupils are not allowed in school. If brought they must be handed to the school office at the start of the day and collected at the end of the school day.
E-Safety Complaints:
• Any complaints about E-safety will be dealt with via the school’s complaints policy and procedures.
• All staff will be given a copy of the E-safety policy.
• Pupils and staff are aware that internet use will be monitored and can be traced back to individuals.
• Staff are aware that internet traffic can be monitored, therefore professional conduct and discretion should be shown at all times.
• Parents will have their attention drawn to the school E-safety Policy on a regular basis and details are available on the Learning Platform and Website.
• Parents will be sent a consent form to sign agreeing with the E-safety rules and allowing their child to use the internet with supervision at school.
• At the present time no computers are sent home with children, meaning that the internet at home is the parent’s responsibility.
Support for Parents
At St Margaret’s we attempt to embed E-safety into all areas of ICT. As we cannot be there to monitor children while under the protection of a parent/guardian, we feel it is our duty to attempt to support parents/guardians in all aspects of E-Safety.
• We will provide an E-safety workshop for parents on an annual basis
• All parents will receive an E-safety leaflet outlining the benefits of the internet and highlighting issues that can occur when using the internet, email and social messaging sites websites and smart phones with internet access.
• This information is displayed on the School Learning Platform for parents to freely access.
• Year 6 children in conjunction with the ICT co-ordinator, will produce a child friendly leaflet suitable for all pupils each year.
Equal Opportunities
Pupils with Additional Needs.
Staff are aware that some pupils may require additional teaching including reminders, prompts and further explanation to reinforce their existing knowledge andunderstanding of E-Safety issues. Where a pupil has poor social understanding, careful consideration is given to group interactions when raising awareness of E-Safety. Teachers ensure that Internet activities are planned and well managed for these children.
Policy Decisions
Authorising Internet access
• All staff must read and sign the Staff Code of Conduct for ICT before using any school ICT resource.
• The school will maintain a current record of all staff and pupils who are granted access to school ICT systems.
• Parents and carers will be asked to sign and return a consent form.
• Any person not directly employed by the school will be asked to sign a Staff Code of Conduct before being allowed to access the internet from the school site.
• A sample Staff Code of Conduct is available on Sandwell’s E-Safety Website.
Assessing risks:
The school will take all reasonable precautions to prevent access to inappropriate material. However, due to the international scale and linked nature of Internet content, it is not possible to guarantee that unsuitable material will never appear on a computer connected to the school network. Neither the school nor Sandwell Local Authority can accept liability for any material accessed or any consequences of Internet access.
The school will audit ICT use to establish if the E-safety policy is adequate and that the implementation of the E-safety policy is appropriate and effective.
Handling E-safety complaints:
• Complaints of Internet misuse will be dealt with by a senior member of staff.
• Any complaint about staff misuse must be referred to the Head teacher.
• Complaints of a child protection nature must be dealt with in accordance with school child protection procedures. (Appendix 2 displays a flowchart of responses to an incident of concern.)
• Pupils and parents will be informed of the complaints procedure. (See schools complaints procedure.)
• Pupils and parents will be informed of consequences for pupils misusing the Internet.
• Discussions will be held with the West Midlands Police to establish procedures for handling potentially illegal issues. (West Midlands Police Non-emergencies and enquiries: Telephone: 0345 113 5000.)