Our e-Safety Policy has been written by the college, building on this policy and government guidance.
THE IMPORTANCE OF INTERNET USE
• Internet use is part of the statutory curriculum and a necessary tool for learning.
• Internet access is an entitlement for students who show a responsible and mature approach to its use.
• Students may use the Internet widely outside college and will need to learn how to evaluate Internet information and to take care of their own safety and security.
THE USE OF THE INTERNET FOR EDUCATION
Benefits of using the Internet in education include:
• Access to world-wide educational resources including museums and art galleries;
• Inclusion in the National Education Network which connects all UK colleges;
• Educational and cultural exchanges between students world-wide;
• Vocational, social and leisure use in libraries, clubs and at home;
• Access to experts in many fields for students and staff;
• Professional development for staff through access to national developments, educational materials and effective curriculum practice;
• Collaboration across support services and professional associations;
• Improved access to technical support including remote management of networks and automatic system updates;
• Access to learning wherever and whenever convenient.
USING THE INTERNET TO ENHANCE LEARNING
• Staff should guide students in on-line activities that will support the learning outcomes planned for the students’ age and maturity.
• Students will be educated in the effective use of the Internet in research, including the skills of knowledge location, retrieval and evaluation.
HOW STUDENTS WILL LEARN HOW TO EVALUATE INTERNET CONTENT
The college will ensure that the copying and subsequent use of Internet derived materials by staff and students complies with copyright law.
• Students should be taught to be critically aware of the materials they read and shown how to validate information before accepting its accuracy.
• Students will be taught to acknowledge the source of information used and to respect copyright when using Internet material in their own work.
• The evaluation of on-line materials is a part of every subject.
MAINTAINING INFORMATION SYSTEMS SECURITY
• The server operating system will be secured and kept up to date.
• Virus protection for the whole network will be installed and current.
• Access by wireless devices will be pro-actively managed.
WIDE AREA NETWORK (WAN) SECURITY ISSUES INCLUDE
The security of the college information systems will be reviewed regularly.
Virus protection will be updated regularly.
• Unapproved system utilities and executable files will not be allowed in students’ work areas or attached to an e-mail.
• Files held on the college’s network will be regularly checked.
• The ICT co-ordinator/Senior IT Technician will review system capacity regularly.
MANAGING EMAILS
Students may only use approved e-mail accounts.
Students must immediately tell a teacher if they receive offensive e-mail.
Students must not reveal personal details of themselves or others in email communication, or arrange to meet anyone without specific information.
• Access in college to external personal e-mail accounts may be blocked.
• E-mail sent to external organisations should be written carefully and authorised before sending, in the same way as a letter written on college headed paper.
• The forwarding of chain letters is not permitted.
• Incoming e-mails should be treated as suspicious and attachments not opened unless the author is known.
MANAGING PUBLISHING CONTENT
The contact details on the website should be the college address, e-mail and telephone number. Staff or students’ personal information must not be published.
• The website should comply with the college’s guidelines for publications including respect for intellectual property rights and copyright.
• The Principal or nominee will take overall editorial responsibility and ensure that published content is accurate and appropriate.
PUBLISHING STUDENT’S IMAGES OR WORK
Students’ full names will not be used anywhere on the website, particularly in association with photographs.
• Written permission from parents or carers will be obtained before images of students are electronically published.
• Work can only be published with the permission of the student and parents. (Permission granted as a part of the annual data collation)
• Photographs that include students will be selected carefully so that images of individual students cannot be misused.
• Please see the Children’s Safeguards site, “use of photographic images of children”
• www.clusterweb.org.uk?safeguards (Policy and Guidance section)
MANAGING SOCIAL NETWORKING AND PERSONAL PUBLISHING
• The colleges will block/filter access to social networking sites.
• Newsgroups will be blocked unless a specific use is approved.
• Students will be advised never to give out personal details of any kind which may identify them and/or their location. Examples would include real name, address, mobile or landline phone numbers, college attended, Instant Messaging and e-mail addresses, full names of friends, specific interests and clubs etc.
• Students should be advised not to place personal photos on any social network space. They should consider how public the information is and consider using private areas. Advice should be given regarding background detail in a photograph which could identify the student or his/her location e.g. house number, street name or college.
• Students should be advised not to publish specific and detailed private thoughts or use obscene language at any time.
• Students must not send, display or print offensive messages or images.
• Students must not download inappropriate files or use proxy by-pass websites.
• Colleges should be aware that bullying can take place through social networking especially when a space has been setup without a password and others are invited to see the bully’s comments. Students must not insult or verbally attack others.
• Students must be made aware of how they can report abuse and that they should report abuse to a member of staff. Students should be advised on security and encouraged to set passwords, to deny access to unknown individuals and to block unwanted communications. Students should only invite known friends and deny access to others.
FILTERING SYSTEMS IN COLLEGE
The college will work with the LA and the Internet Service Provider to ensure that systems to protect students are reviewed and improved.
• If staff or students discover unsuitable sites, the URL must be reported to the Senior IT Technician.
• The Business Manager will ensure that regular checks are made to ensure that the filtering methods selected are appropriate, effective and reasonable.
• The college uses filtering software on its servers. A key feature of the filtering software is the ability to categorise websites and then allow or restrict users’ access by selecting categories.
• Examples of the categories are:
o Adult/Sexually Explicit
o Advertisements & Pop-ups
o Personal & Dating
o Proxies & Translators
• The supplying company updates its database of sites and categories daily and the update is provided to college.
• The college filtering software provides a further layer of protection. The Senior IT Technician at regular intervals monitors the list of recently visited Uniform Resource Locators and in real time whilst students are working.
• Control software operated by the teacher provides a further layer of protection. Teachers are able to switch off internet access completely or block sites at the classroom level.
• With a view to ensuring that our students are as safeguarded as possible, we have taken the step of installing Lightspeed software. The software covers the whole of the network. It enables every key stroke and all screen information to be monitored and recorded by the Lightspeed system.
• The system then identifies any possible threat of misuse or abuse with regard to computer activity for any workstation/laptop.
This will help to ensure that our safeguarding procedures are as effective as possible for all network users, both staff and students. This system identifies any potential misuse and alerts the Senior IT Technician accordingly.
PROTECTING PERSONAL DATA
Personal data will be recorded, processed, transferred and made available according to the General Data Protection Act 2018. See Part 3 (College Internet Use Staff).
ACCESSING THE INTERNET
The college will maintain a current record of all staff and students who are granted access to the college’s electronic communications.
Students are granted Internet access individually by agreeing to comply with the e-Safety rules within their planners. Should there be any concerns about a student’s access to the internet parents will be asked to sign and return a consent form for student access. (Appendix A)
ASSESSING RISKS
The college will take all reasonable precautions to ensure that users access only appropriate material. However, due to the global and connected nature of Internet content, it is not possible to guarantee that access to unsuitable material will never occur via a college computer. The college cannot accept liability for the material accessed, or any consequences resulting from Internet use.
The use of computer systems without permission or for inappropriate purposes could constitute a criminal offence under the Computer Misuse Act 1990.
E-SAFETY COMPLAINTS
Complaints of Internet misuse will be dealt with by a member of the Senior Leadership Team.
Any complaint about staff misuse must be referred to the Principal.
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