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E-safety (children and adults) Policy

This policy applies to all members of the school community (including staff, students / pupils, volunteers, contractors, parents / carers, visitors, community users) who have access to and are users of school computersystems, both in and out of school.

Rationale

Computersand the associated technologies are vital in enabling children and adults to become life-long, independent learners with a passion for their own discoveries and interests. The e-safety policy aims to set out ways in which we can support all users in the appropriate, sensible and protected use of technology to ensure they keep themselves, and others safe at all times. E-safety should not be considered as a Computing issue, but as a child protection issue affecting the whole school.

E-safety committee

This policy is overseen by members of the e-safety committee, including but not limited to;

  • Designated CP person
  • E-safety lead
  • Computinglead
  • Learning mentor
  • At least 1 Governor
  • 2 pupils, ensuring age and key stage coverage
  • 1 pupil representative from the Digital Leaders

Aims

To enable children to build resilience which will enableconfident and safe use of all technologies, both in and out of school.

To give children the skills they need in order the keep themselves safe online and with other digital media (such as mobile phones).

To give children opportunities to access digital and electronic content in a safe and guided environment.

To make children aware of potential risks, and how they can report anything which makes them feel unsafe.

To keep adults safe from potential allegations and invasion of private lives.

Guidelines

E-safety should be embedded throughout the school and not always taught as a discreet subject area. Although e-safety does cover a lot of internet-based issues, it is also important to realise that it includes mobile phones, gaming, bullying and more.

Internet safety

The Internet opens up a whole world of opportunities for accessing an almost unlimited amount of information, most of which is absolutely ‘safe’ for children to use. But there are also sites which children should not have access to. Undesirable sites are filtered out by the service provider (Viglen) but they cannot give total assurances that such sites cannot be brought up by children. With this in mind:-

  • There is a set of stage appropriate rules for using the Internet and this should be discussed with the children at the start of every year and signed by parent and child. These rules are broadly differentiated by age group, with account being taken of any severe learning difficulties. See Pupil AUPs (appendix).
  • When using any kind of web based discussion (i.e. email, social networking sites, chat rooms) children must understand that they must not give any personal information about themselves including address, age, phone number or full name.
  • Children should understand that meeting a person whom they have met online is strongly discouraged and highly risky. However if they decide to do so they should ensure that they take a trusted and known adult with them.
  • The children should be appropriately supervised (according to age/ability) by a member of staff, parent helper or responsible older child, when they are browsing the internet in school.
  • All staff that have access to the Internet have been asked to read and sign an agreement covering the expectations for using the internet in school. Signed statements will be retained in a file by the school office. (Appendix)
  • Sites visited by the children can be monitored through use of the history feature.

Roles & Responsibilities

E-Safety Coordinator / Officer:

  • leads the e-safety committee
  • takes day to day responsibility for e-safety issues and has a leading role in establishing and reviewing the school e-safety policies / documents
  • ensures that all staff are aware of the procedures that need to be followed in the event of an e-safety incident taking place.
  • provides training and advice for staff
  • liaises with school 2IT technical staff
  • receives reports of e-safety incidents and creates a log of incidents to inform future e-safety developments
  • meets regularly with E-Safety Governor to discuss current issues, review incident logs and filtering / change control logs
  • attends relevant meeting / committee of Governors
  • reports regularly to Senior Leadership Team
  • regularly uses the 360degree safe toolkit to monitor the school’s ongoing e-safety provision

Designated person for child protection / Child Protection Officer:

should be trained in e-safety issues and be aware of the potential for serious child protection issues to arise from:

•sharing of personal data

•access to illegal / inappropriate materials

•inappropriate on-line contact with adults / strangers

•potential or actual incidents of grooming

•cyber-bullying

Students / pupils:

•are responsible for using the school computingsystems in accordance with the Student / Pupil Acceptable Use Policy, which they will be expected to sign before being given access to school systems. (At EYFS & KS1 parents will be expected to sign on child’s behalf)

•have a good understanding of research skills and the need to avoid plagiarism and uphold copyright regulations

•need to understand the importance of reporting abuse, misuse or access to inappropriate materials and know how to do so

•will be expected to know and understand school policies on the use of mobile phones, digital cameras and hand held devices. They should also know and understand school policies on the taking / use of images and on cyber-bullying.

Parents / Carers

Parents / Carers play a crucial role in ensuring that their children understand the need to use the internet / mobile devices in an appropriate way. The school will therefore take every opportunity to help parents understand these issues through parents’ evenings, newsletters, letters and a dedicated area of the School website

Parents and carers will be responsible for:

  • endorsing (by signature) the Student / Pupil Acceptable Use Policy
  • reinforcing school e-safety policies and practises
  • Ensuringthat children do not contact staff via social networking sites
  • Encouraging children to adhere to age limits on various electronic media
  • Engaging with support provided by the school (e.g. magazines, curriculum events etc.) to keep their own e-safety knowledge up to date

School

As a school we will carry out the delivery of e-safety curriculum and continue to review practises to ensure that children stay safe. We will also aid parents in their role by providing relevant materials, information and access to a knowledgeable person.

Delivering the curriculum

  • A planned e-safety programme should be provided as part of the Computing curriculum and will cover the use of computersand new technologies in school and outside school (at least 1 discrete e-safety lesson per half term)
  • Alongside the planned curriculum, staff should ensure that they provide lessons on a reactive basis, responding to any reported e-safety incidents in their year group
  • Key e-safety messages should be reinforced as part of a planned programme of assemblies and tutorial / pastoral activities (3 per year)
  • Students / pupils should be taught in all lessons to be critically aware of the materials / content they access on-line and be guided to validate the accuracy of information
  • Students / pupils should be helped to understand the need for the student / pupil AUP and encouraged to adopt safe and responsible use of technology, the internet and mobile devices both within and outside school
  • Staff should act as good role models in their use of technology, the internet and mobile devices

Training for staff and governors

  • A planned programme of formal e-safety training will be made available to staff. An audit of the e-safety training needs of all staff will be carried out regularly.
  • A work scrutiny (moitoring of planning, lessons, pupil interviews) will be conducted at least once per academic year.
  • All new staff should receive e-safety training as part of their induction programme, ensuring that they fully understand the school e-safety policy and Acceptable Use Policies, as well as attending a NS Safeguarding Training.
  • This E-Safety policy and its updates will be presented to and discussed by staff in staff / team meetings / INSET days.
  • The E-Safety Coordinator (or other nominated person) will provide advice / guidance / training as required to individuals as required

Governors should take part in e-safety training / awareness sessions, with particular importance for those who are members of any sub committee/group involved in Computing/ e-safety / health and safety / child protection. This may be offered in a number of ways:

  • Attendance at training provided by the Local Authority / National Governors Association/SWGfL or other relevant organisation.
  • Participation in school training / information sessions for staff or parents

A log book will be kept to record this training.

Accounts, passwords & usernames

  • All users will have clearly defined access rights to school computersystems. Details of the access rights available to groups of users will be recorded by the Network Manager (or other person) and will be reviewed, at least annually, by the E-Safety Committee (or other group).
  • Pupils & staff new to the school will be provided with a username and password by a member of the SAT team / technician.
  • Staff & pupils in Y4, 5 & 6 should have a password which only they know, and therefore only they can access their account. (This may be amended slightly to take into account developmental stage of a pupil)
  • At EYFS & KS1, class passwords may be used, but staff should be aware of the impact that this has on the implementation of AUPs
  • The “master / administrator” passwords for the school computersystem, used by the Network Manager (or other person) must also be available to the Headteacher or other nominated senior leader and kept in a secure place (eg school safe)
  • Supply teachers, students and other non-permanent adults will be given access through a restricted account (without access to ‘Teachers’ drive).
  • Users will be made responsible for the security of their username and password, must not allow other users to access the systems using their log on details and must immediately report any suspicion or evidence that there has been a breach of security.

The use of internet during teaching time

E-safety should be a focus in all areas of the curriculum and staff should reinforce e-safety messages in the use of technologyacross the curriculum.

  • In lessons where internet use is required, it should be pre-planned to ensure that children only view appropriate content. This includes opening websites before pupils are there to view it. (e.g. Yasmin & Tom)
  • Where students / pupils are allowed to freely search the internet in school, they must only use Swiggle. Staff should be vigilant in monitoring the content of the websites the young people visit.
  • It is accepted that from time to time, for good educational reasons, students may need to research topics (eg racism, drugs, discrimination) that would normally result in internet searches being blocked. In such a situation, staff can request that the Network Manager (and other relevant person) can temporarily remove those sites from the filtered list for the period of study. Any request to do so, should be auditable, with clear reasons for the need. (appendix)
  • Students / pupils should be taught in all lessons to be critically aware of the materials / content they access on-line and be guided to validate the accuracy of information

Use of digital and video images - Photographic, Video

  • When using digital images, staff should inform and educate pupils about the risks associated with the taking, use of, sharing, publication and distribution of images. In particular they should recognise the risks attached to publishing their own images on the internet.e.g. on social networking sites, including recognising that images published on the internet stay forever.
  • Staff are allowed to take digital / video images to support educational aims and to promote the school in a positive light. Those images should only be taken on school equipment; the personal equipment of staff must not be used for such purposes.
  • Students / pupils must not take, use, share, publish or distribute images of others without their permission
  • It is not appropriate for pupils or parents to take informal, ‘fun’ pictures of videos of teachers and staff where there is no school ‘need’. Examples of exceptions could include Year 6 Leavers’ Service,
  • Photographs published on the website, or elsewhere that include students / pupils will be selected carefully and will not include the child’s full name.
  • When joining the school, written permission for their child to be photographed/videoed will be obtained from the parent/carer, and will apply for the time that the child attends the school, unless expressly requested to be changed by parent/carer, in writing. The school office will hold this information.

Data Protection – I WILL UPDATE THIS FURTHER AFTER MAY 20th!!

Personal data will be recorded, processed, transferred and made available according to the Data Protection Act 1998 which states that personal data must be:

  • Fairly and lawfully processed
  • Processed for limited purposes
  • Adequate, relevant and not excessive
  • Accurate
  • Kept no longer than is necessary
  • Processed in accordance with the data subject’s rights
  • Secure
  • Only transferred to others with adequate protection.

Staff must ensure that they:

  • At all times take care to ensure the safe keeping of personal data, minimising the risk of its loss or misuse.
  • Use personal data only on secure password protected computers and other devices, ensuring that they are properly “logged-off” at the end of any session in which they are using personal data.
  • Any computer let unattended, but not logged-off, must be locked.
  • Transfer data using encryption and secure password protected devices.

When personal data is stored on any portable computer system, USB stick or any other removable media:

  • the device must be password protected (many memory sticks / cards and other mobile devices cannot be password protected)

Acceptable use of technologies

A wide range of rapidly developing communications technologies has the potential to enhance learning. The following shows how the school currently considers the benefit of using these technologies for education outweighs their risks / disadvantages:

  1. Mobile phones
  • Pupils are not allowed to bring mobile phones to school except in extraordinary cases, and only with prior permission from the head. In such an event, they must be kept in the school office, and not in classrooms. This safeguards staff and pupils.
  • Staff are allowed to use mobile phones during their social time, but they must be kept in areas not frequented by pupils (e.g. staff room).
  • Any adult attending a school trip must not take their personal mobile phone with them.
  • Neither pupils nor staff should use mobile phones for photography or recording of any means during school time, and staff must not use their own device for photographing/videoing of any child.
  • The school has a number of mobile phones (without cameras) which are available for staff to take on trips, outings or elsewhere within school if necessary.
  1. Handheld devices
  • Pupils are not allowed to bring handheld devices to school.
  • Staff should not use their own devices for school purposes.
  • Neither pupils nor staff should use their own devices for photography or recording of any means during school time, and staff must not use their own device for photographing/videoing of any child.
  • School owned devices, such as ipads, can be used by staff and pupils during learning time, and can be used for photography and recording.
  1. Personal email addresses
  • Pupils are not allowed to use personal email addresses in school.
  • Staff may use personal email address accounts during social time, but not for work purposes.
  1. Instant messaging, social networking & blogs
  • Pupils and staff may use instant messaging, social networking and blogs through educational environments.
  • If a member of staff sets up a blog for school purposes, they must ensure that a senior member of staff is also an administrator, to ensure clarity.
  • A blog for use by pupils should be setup to ensure that posts by them need to be checked and confirmed before being published.
  • Staff must be aware that the content of anything posted on social networking sites must not cause harm to the reputation of the school or staff.

Policy reviewed: June 2015

Ratified by Curriculum and Standards Committee(C&SC) on behalf of the Governors:

Mary Potter9/6/15

(signed: Chair of Curriculum and Standards Committee (C&SC)

E-Safety Policy – June 2015