Online Safety

As Online-Safety is an important aspect of strategic leadership within the school, the Headteacher and Governors have ultimate responsibility to ensure that the policy and practices are embedded and monitored. The named e-Safety support in our school is Mr Mark White. All members of the school community have been made aware of who holds this post. It is the role of the e-Safety support to keep abreast of current issues and guidance through organisations such as CEOP and ‘Think U Know’.

The Online-Safety support updates the Headteacher and Governors.  All Governors have an understanding of the issues at our school in relation to local and national guidelines and advice.

Writing and reviewing this Online-Safety policy

This policy (for staff, governors, visitors and pupils), is to protect the interests and safety of the whole school community. It is linked to the following mandatory school policies: Home-school agreements, Behaviour, Health and Safety, Child Protection, and PSHE policies including Anti-bullying.

This e-Safety policy has been agreed by the Headteacher and Staff. This e-Safety policy and its implementation are reviewed annually.

All members of staff receive regular information and training on online-Safety issues via Mrs Williams at staff meetings or email memos.

All members of staff have been made aware of individual responsibilities relating to the safeguarding of children within the context of online-Safety and know what to do in the event of misuse of technology by any member of the school community.

All new members of staff receive information on the school’s Acceptable Use Agreement as part of their induction.

All members of staff incorporate online-Safety activities and awareness at the start of every term.

Community use of the Internet

External organisations using the school’s ICT facilities must adhere to the Online-Safety policy here. To use the RM filtering they download an RMSafetynet certificate. Without this, the Wifi cannot be accessed at all.

Internet use will enhance learning

The school will provide opportunities within a range of curriculum areas to teach Online-Safety.

Educating pupils on the dangers of technologies that may be encountered outside school is done informally when opportunities arise and as part of the Online-Safety curriculum.

Pupils are aware of the impact of online bullying and know how to seek help if these issues affect them. Pupils are also aware of where to seek advice or help if they experience problems when using the Internet and related technologies; i.e. parent/carer, teacher/trusted member of staff, or an organisation such as Childline/CEOP.

The school Internet access will be designed expressly for pupil use and will include filtering appropriate to the age of pupils.

Pupils will be taught what Internet use is acceptable and what is not and given clear objectives for Internet use.

Pupils will be educated in the effective use of the Internet in research, including the skills of knowledge location, retrieval and evaluation.

Managing Internet Access

Information system security

School IT systems capacity and security will be reviewed regularly. The school buys into the local authority for management, maintenance and filtering.

Pupils may only use approved e-mail accounts on the school system.

Pupils must not reveal personal details of themselves or others in e-mail communication, or arrange to meet anyone without specific permission.

E-mail sent to an external organisation should be written carefully and authorised before sending, in the same way as a letter written on school headed paper.

Published content and the school website

The contact details on the school website are the school address, e-mail and telephone number. Staff or pupils’ personal information is not published.  The head teacher will take overall editorial responsibility and ensure that content is accurate and appropriate.

Publishing pupil’s images and work

Written permission from parents or carers will be obtained before photographs of pupils are published on the school Website. This consent form is considered valid for the entire period that the child attends this school unless there is a change in the child’s circumstances where consent could be an issue.

Parents/carers may withdraw permission, in writing, at any time.

Photographs that include pupils will be selected carefully and will not enable individual pupils to be clearly identified.

Pupils’ full names will not be used anywhere on the school website, particularly in association with photographs.

Pupils’ work can only be published by outside agencies with the permission of the pupil and parents.

Photographs taken by parents/carers for personal use

In the event of parents/carers wanting to take photographs for their own personal use, the school will demonstrate our protective ethos by announcing that photographs taken are for private retention and not for publication in any manner, including use on personal websites, e.g. School performances and assemblies etc.

Social networking and personal publishing

The school blocks access to social networking sites.

Pupils and parents will be advised that the use of social network spaces outside school is inappropriate and or illegal (e.g. Facebook) for primary aged pupils.

Pupils are advised to set and maintain profiles on such sites to maximum privacy and deny access to unknown individuals.  

Our pupils are asked to report any incidents of bullying to the school.

School staff are advised not to add children, or parents as ‘friends’ if they use these sites.

Managing filtering

Has the educational filtered secure broadband connectivity through the local authority provider RM and so connects to the ‘private’ National Education Network.

RM filtering system will block sites that fall into categories such as pornography, race hatred, gaming, sites of an illegal nature, etc.  All changes to the filtering policy is logged and only available to staff with the approved ‘web filtering management’ status.

Information sent to the DfE, LA or Health Services are approved systems such as S2S, secured email to send personal data over the Internet and uses encrypted devices or secure remote access where staff need to access personal level data off-site.

It blocks all chat rooms and social networking sites except those that are part of an educational network or approved learning platform,

Managing emerging technologies

Emerging technologies will be examined for educational benefit and a risk assessment will be carried out before use in school is allowed.

The use of portable media such as memory sticks and CD ROMS will be monitored closely as potential sources of computer virus and inappropriate material.

Pupils are not allowed to bring personal mobile devices/phones to school. 

The sending of abusive or inappropriate text messages or emails outside school is forbidden.

Staff will use a school phone where contact with pupils is required via parent(s) .

The school will use information about pupils to further curriculum, professional and managerial activities in accordance with the business of the school and will contact the parents or carers if it is necessary, to pass information beyond the school/West Berkshire Council.

The school will hold personal information on its systems for as long as individual members of staff remain at the school and remove it in the event of staff leaving or until it is no longer required for the legitimate function of the school. We will ensure that all personal information supplied is held securely, in accordance with the – deleted – Data Protection Act 1998.

Each teacher has the right to view personal information that the school holds and to have any inaccuracies corrected.

Authorising Internet access

Pupil instruction in responsible and safe use should precede any Internet access and all pupils must sign up to the Acceptable Use Agreement (AUA) for pupils and abide by the school’s Online-Safety guidelines.

Access to the Internet will be by directly supervised and to specific, approved on-line materials.

All staff using a school laptop will be made aware of the schools Laptop Use Policy

Password Security

Adult users are provided with an individual network username and password, email address.

All members of staff are aware of the dangers inherent in leaving the SIMs system, for pupil-tracking and digital registers, open and of the importance of keeping passwords confidential.

All members of staff are aware of their individual responsibilities to protect the security and confidentiality of the school network, MIS systems.

Assessing risks

The school will take all reasonable precautions to ensure that users access only appropriate material. The school will audit provision to establish if the Online-Safety policy is adequate and that its implementation is effective using NSPCC training.

Handling Online-Safety complaints

Complaints of Internet misuse will be dealt with by the Headteacher or SBM and reported to the Online-Safety support teacher.

Deliberate access to inappropriate materials by any user will lead to the incident being logged by the Online-Safety support teacher.

Any complaint about staff misuse must be referred to the Headteacher.

Complaints and concerns of a child protection nature must be dealt with in accordance with school child protection procedures. For example evidence of: inappropriate online relationships; a child viewing pornography or any ‘18’ films on a regular basis; online/digital bullying, harassment or inappropriate image sharing or games with age restrictions etc.

Pupils and parents will be informed of the complaints procedure.

Introducing the Online-Safety policy to pupils

Online-Safety rules are displayed in classrooms. These are discussed with the pupils at the start of each term. All staff are aware that at least one dedicated online-safety lesson must be taught each term and at relevant points throughout e.g. during PSHE lessons/Safer Internet Day (February)

Pupils will be informed that network and Internet use will be monitored.

The school is vigilant when conducting ‘raw’ image search with pupils e.g. Google image search.

Pupils are required to individually sign an online-safety / acceptable use agreement form which is fully explained and used as part of the teaching programme

Staff and the Online-Safety policy

All staff must sign the Staff AUP and a copy is kept on file.

Any information downloaded must be respectful of copyright, property rights and privacy.

All members of staff are aware that Internet traffic can be monitored and traced to the individual user.  Discretion and professional conduct is essential.

A laptop issued to a member of staff remains the property of the school. Users of such equipment should therefore adhere to school policy regarding appropriate use with regard to Internet access, data protection and use of software, both in and out of school.

Parents and the Online-safety policy 

All parents, when their child joins the school, will be asked to sign the AUA for pupils giving consent for their child to use the Internet in school by following the school’s online-Safety guidelines and within the constraints detailed in the school’s online-Safety policy.

Parents/carers are required to make a decision as to whether they consent to images of their child being taken/used on the school website.

Parents are encouraged to look at the school’s online-safety policy and the two pupil ‘Acceptable User Agreements’ (for KS1 & KS2).

Concerned about children viewing inappropriate content on a device at home click here. Parental controls, do they still work on another Internet provider click here.

Monitoring and review 

This policy is implemented on a day-to-day basis by all school staff and is monitored on an annual basis by the e-Safety support teacher Mrs H Hartley.

This policy is the Governors’ responsibility and they will review its effectiveness annually. They will do this during reviews conducted between the e-Safety Support teacher and the Designated Safeguarding Lead. Ongoing incidents will be reported to the full governing board.

Miss Roberts termly checks filtering and alerts are emailed to her.

Updated 25.03.24