Acceptable Use Policy

The following is an extract from the school’s ICT policy relating to the use of all ICT equipment in school. Please read it carefully as breaches of this policy will be regarded as a serious matter.

Acceptable Use Statement

The computer system is owned by the school. “The computer system” means all computers and associated equipment belonging to the school, whether part of the school’s integrated network or stand-alone, or taken offsite.

Professional use of the computer system is characterised by activities that provide children with appropriate learning experiences; or allow adults to enhance their own professional development. The school recognises that technologies such as the Internet and e-mail will have a profound effect on children’s education and staff professional development in the coming years and the school’s Internet Access Policy has been drawn up accordingly.

The installation of software or hardware unauthorised by the school, whether legitimately licensed or not is expressly forbidden.

The school reserves the right to examine or delete any files that may be held on its computer systems or to monitor any Internet sites visited.

All members of staff, students on placement, supply teachers etc must sign a copy of this policy statement before a system login password is granted. All children must be made aware through class discussion of all the important issues relating to acceptable use, especially the monitoring of Internet use.

Internet Access Policy Statement

All Internet activity should be appropriate to staff professional activities or the children’s education;

• Access is limited to the use of authorised accounts and passwords, which should not be made available to any other person;

• The Internet may be accessed by staff and children throughout their hours in school;

• Activity that threatens the integrity of the school’s computer systems, or that attacks or corrupts other systems, is prohibited;

• Users are responsible for all e-mail sent and for contacts made that may result in e-mail being received. Due regard should be paid to the content. The same professional levels of language should be applied as for letters and other media;

• Use of the school’s Internet for personal financial gain (including the use of online auction sites), gambling, political purposes or advertising is excluded;

• Copyright of materials must be respected. When using downloaded materials, including free materials, the Intellectual Property rights of the originator must be respected and credited. All material saved on the school’s network is the property of the school and making unauthorised copies of materials contained thereon maybe in breach of the Data Protection Act, Individual Copyright or Intellectual Property Rights;

• Use of materials stored on the school’s network for personal financial gain is excluded;

• Posting anonymous messages and forwarding chain letters is excluded;

• The use of the Internet, e-mail, or any other media to access inappropriate materials such as pornography, racist or any other offensive material is forbidden;

• All web activity is monitored, including the content of e-mail, therefore it is the responsibility of the user to ensure that they have logged off the system when they have completed their task;

• Children must not be given unsupervised access to the Internet. For the purposes of this policy, “supervised” means that the user is within direct sight of a responsible adult;

• The teaching of Internet safety is included in the school’s ICT Scheme of Work, but all teachers within all year groups should be including Internet safety issues as part of their discussions on the responsible use of the school’s computer systems;

• All children must understand that if they see an unacceptable image on a computer screen, they must turn the screen off and report immediately to a member of staff.

Internet and System Monitoring

Through the enter name of cache box, filter service etc, all Internet activity is monitored by the system. It is the responsibility of the ICT co-ordinator to review this activity periodically. It is the duty of the ICT co-ordinator to report any transgressions of the school’s Internet policy and/or use of obscene, racist or threatening language detected by the system to the Headteacher. Occasionally, it may be necessary for the ICT co-ordinator to investigate attempted access to blocked sites, and in order to do this, the ICT co-ordinator will need to set his/her Internet access rights to “Unrestricted”. Whenever this happens, this should be recorded in the ICT violations register, and the Headteacher notified.

All serious transgressions of the school’s Internet Access Policy are recorded in the school’s ICT violations register. The violations register can be found in the Central Resource Library in the ICT folder.

Transgressions of Internet Policy and use of inappropriate language can be dealt with in a range of ways, including removal of Internet access rights; computer system access rights; meetings with parents or even exclusion; in accordance with the severity of the offence and the school’s Behaviour Policy.

Breaches of Internet Access Policy by staff will be reported to the Headteacher and will be dealt with according to the school’s and LEA’s disciplinary policy, or through prosecution by law.

Internet Publishing Statement

The school wishes the school’s web site to reflect the diversity of activities, individuals and education that can be found at Anytown Primary School. However, the school recognises the potential for abuse that material published on the Internet may attract, no matter how small this risk may be. Therefore, when considering material for publication on the Internet, the following principles should be borne in mind:

• No video recording may be published without the written consent of the parents/legal guardian of the child concerned, and the child’s own verbal consent; (See pro forma)

• Surnames of children should not be published, especially in conjunction with photographic or video material;

• No link should be made between an individual and any home address (including simply street names);

• Where the person publishing material suspects that there may be child protection issues at stake then serious consideration must be taken as to whether that material may be published or not. In the case of a simple piece of artwork or writing, this may well be fine, but images of that child should not be published. If in any doubt at all, refer to the person responsible for child protection.

Use of Portable Equipment

The school provides portable ICT equipment such as laptop computers, colour printers and digital cameras to enhance the children’s education and to allow staff to make efficient use of such equipment to enhance their own professional activities.

Exactly the same principles of acceptable use apply as in the Acceptable Use Statement above.

• Equipment may be in the care of a specific individual, but it is expected that all staff may wish to benefit from the use of a laptop computer and access should be negotiated with the individual concerned. Any difficulties should be referred to the ICT co-ordinator;

• Certain equipment will remain in the care of the ICT co-ordinator, and may be booked out for use according to staff requirements. Once equipment has been used, it should be returned to the resource area;

• Equipment such as laptop computers are encouraged to be taken offsite for use by staff in accordance with the Acceptable Use Statement and Internet Access Policy and that the equipment is fully insured from the moment it leaves the school premises. Note: our school insurance policy provides cover for equipment taken offsite, provided it is looked after with due care, i.e. not left in view on a car seat etc; (check situation in your school)

• Any costs generated by the user at home, such as phone bills, printer cartridge etc. are the responsibility of the user;

• Where a member of staff is likely to be away from school through illness, professional development (such as secondment etc.) or maternity leave, arrangements must be made for any portable equipment in their care to be returned for school. In the event of illness, it is up to the school to collect the equipment if the individual is unable to return it;

• If an individual leaves the employment of the school, any equipment must be returned;

• The use of USB pens, re-writeable CDs, floppy disks etc. to transfer data from external computer systems is forbidden. Where information has been downloaded from the internet, or copied from another computer, wherever possible, it must be emailed to school to ensure that it undergoes anti-virus scanning. If this proves to be impossible, (due to file size, technical difficulty etc.) express permission must be sought from the ICT co-ordinator prior to the data being transferred; (check practicality in your school)

• Staff may install software on laptops to connect to the Internet from home. If in doubt seek advice;

• No other software, whether licensed or not, may be installed on laptops in the care of teachers as the school does not own or control the licences for such software;

• All staff are encouraged to make use of the school’s anti-virus software for installation on any computers at home that they routinely use for school work. (check if your school’s av licence allows teachers to use it at home)

I confirm I have read and understood the above statement.

Signed:

Date:

Name:

Institution (school, college etc.):

Copyright note: Schools are free to copy, amend and distribute this document provided that the source is credited. Creative ICT welcomes feedback and comments and would like to share these with our customers. Please send a copy of your edited version of this document to john@creativeict.co.uk

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