The ICT Department - e-Safety
“Everyone has a role to play in empowering children to stay safe while they enjoy these new technologies, just as it is everyone’s responsibility to keep children safe in the non-digital world. This new culture of responsibility spans parents, children and young people supported by Government, industry and the public.” - Byron Report 2008
Mount Tamar School takes e-Safety seriously and has put into place a number of measures to make sure that pupils access to inappropriate websites and other unsavoury materials is reduced to a minimum.
Whilst Mount Tamar School has put in place these measures it is also the requirement of carers to guide their children in the use of the Internet and for children themselves to pass on details of any inappropriate websites and materials that they come across.
|
Department Policies
[edit]
ICT Specific Links
- DfES ICT Standards - [1]
- Materials for Learning - [2]
- Materials for Learning - [3]
- BBC Revisewise - [4]
- BBC Bitesize - [5]
- BBC GCSE Bitesize - [6]
[edit]
|
The ICT Department - Aspects of e-Safety
The Byron Report
"In today’s society, 99% of all children aged 8-17 say that they use the Internet, while two thirds of 5-16 year olds have their own video games console. For younger generations, the Internet and video games are as important as television. Our children have become the pioneers of the digital revolution."
"With the growth of new technology in daily life comes a wealth of new opportunities. Children and young people are learning new skills, increasing their knowledge and even making new friends. However, with these opportunities come some potential risks. Some of these risks are very real and parents are concerned about the risks their children may be exposed to. Other risks are sometimes exacerbated because of the lack of experience and confidence parents have with using new technology, leaving them feeling unable to deal with any problems."
"There are of course a wide range of safeguards already in place and many organisations and businesses are working tirelessly to make the Internet and video games safer for children. These include the Internet Watch Foundation, which works with the internet industry to block sites that contain illegal child abuse images, and the Cyberbullying Taskforce which is tackling the growth of bullying online. However, there is much more that we can do that can help us realise our vision to become world leaders in keeping our children safer in our digital world."
The Role of Carers
Carers are responsible for their children's well being and they need to discuss with their children how they use the Internet. As part of these discussions they are encouraged to put together a 'Family Code' for using the Internet'. Guidance for doing this can be found here. It is important that, at all times, carers know and understand what their children are accessing on the Internet.
The Role of Education
Mount Tamar School has policies in place and at Key Stage 3 one of the units of work looks at e-safety in detail. A poster has been developed to be displayed in all classrooms giving guidance to acceptable uses of school computers.
Social Networking
The Byron Report identifies Social Networking as being both an important part of today's technology but also an area where strict controls need to be imposed by both education and carers. To that end Mount Tamar School does not allow access to the major social networking sites but has set up its own social networking site MTSocNet which is 'wall gardened' to only allow staff and pupils from Mount Tamar School access via logins and passwords.
In addition to the normal access controls staff, carers and pupils need to be aware that items they add to a social networking site are accessible by many others. They need to understand that a published email address, telephone number or home address could invite undesirable attentions.
E-mail
Many pupils have email accounts outside of education and it should be the responsibility of carers to encourage their children to use those accounts in a sensible and constructive manner. Mount Tamar School sets up email accounts for pupils at Key Stage 3 via the SWGfL and these accounts are moderated so that undesirable and spam emails are filtered out.
When using email pupils are encouraged to use appropriate language in any email and double check an email before sending it. Pupils need to remember that emails can be forwarded on to other people so the content needs to be appropriate. Pupils should share inappropriate emails with staff and adults so that the source of any email can be tracked back and stopped.
Useful Links
The following links may be of use to education and carers when considering e-Safety in schools and the home:
|
The Role of Pupils
The Byron Report empowers pupils to use the Internet and all its constituent parts in an appropriate manner. They also need to be empowered to report to carers and staff any inappropriate content, emails, etc which they come across in their use of the Internet.
Internet Access
Mount Tamar School has implemented a number of controls to both allow and disallow pupil access to Internet Content. Initially pupils are given normal filtered access to the Internet but, via the Behaviourial Management (Trafficlights) Software three levels of access are available:
- Normal filtered access - via SWGfL normal filtering service
- White-listed access - via the White-list set up by staff which only allows access to a specified set of web sites and web pages.
- No Internet access - access to the Internet is stopped; pupils only have access to the Mount Tamar School Intranet services.
Learning Platform
Mount Tamar School has set up a learning platform MTSOC which contains course and unit materials for use by pupils and staff. Staff are encouraged to create course and unit content for the learning platform which pupils can then have access to both within school and via the Internet at home.
As with all the other services that Mount Tamar School provides, pupils are encouraged to access and use them both in school and via the Internet when away from school.
Intranet Content
The content side of the Intranet and the services broadcast via the Internet are constantly updated with the addition of different forms of content:
- Web pages - the school's web pages are added to on a weekly basis with new pages being created and other pages being updated with news and other content.
- MTSOC - the learning platform is being populated with units of work and courses; currently the ICT and Maths department are the active courses being developed.
- MTSocNet - the social networking platform is used both inside and outside of school for pupils to add and exchange messages and files.
- MTS OpenMeetings - this service adds to the learning platform audio and video communications. It also will allow staff to converse in private both singularly and in small groups.
- Behaviourial Management (Trafficlights) Siftware - whereas staff add content in the form of trafficlight spots and incident reports, pupils can now login and see their daily 'spots' and scores. In the near future the daily scores will be text via SMS to carers and/or pupil's mobile phones.
- PupilWiki - the pupils web pages. Pupils are not allowed editing access of the school's web pages but are allowed editing access of the PupilWiki which they can use to create content of their own to share with other staff and pupils. The service is not accessible from the Internet.
|
|
