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 devices, ensuring that they are properly “logged-off” at the end of any session in which they are using personal data. Transfer data using encryption and secure password protected devices. Minimise the chance of equipment being stolen from their car or home. Communications A wide range of rapidly developing communications technologies has the potential to enhance learning. The following table shows how the school currently considers the benefit of using these technologies for education outweighs their risks / disadvantages: Staff & other adults Pupils Communication Technologies Allowed Allowed at certain Allowed for selected staff Not allowed Allowed Allowed at certain Allowed with staff permission Not allowed Personal mobile phones and tablets may be brought to the school / academy X x x Use of personal mobile phones in lessons for exceptional circumstances x x x
Where excessive personal use of social media in school is suspected, and considered to be interfering with relevant duties, disciplinary action may be taken Monitoring of Public Social As part of active social media engagement, it is considered good practice to pro-actively monitor the Internet for public postings about the school The school should effectively respond to social media comments made by others according to a defined policy or process The school’s use of social media for professional purposes will be checked regularly by the Online Safety co-ordinator to ensure compliance with the school policies. Unsuitable / inappropriate activities Some internet activity e.g. accessing child abuse images or distributing racist material is illegal and would obviously be banned from school and all other technical systems. Other activities e.g. would be banned and could lead to criminal prosecution. There are however a range of activities which may, generally, be legal but would be inappropriate in a school context, either because of the age of the users or the nature of those activities. The school believes that the activities referred to in the following section would be inappropriate in a school context and that users, as defined below, should not engage in these activities in / or outside the school when using school equipment or systems. The school policy restricts usage as follows: User Actions Acceptable Acceptable at certain Acceptable for nominated users Unacceptable Unacceptable and illegal shall not visit Internet sites, make, post, download, upload, data transfer, communicate or pass on, material, remarks, proposals or comments that contain or relate to: sexual abuse images –The making, production or distribution of indecent images of children. Contrary to The Protection of Children Act 1978 X Grooming, incitement, arrangement or facilitation of sexual acts against children Contrary to the Sexual Offences Act 2003. X bullying
Possession of an extreme pornographic image (grossly offensive, disgusting or otherwise of an obscene character) Contrary to the Criminal Justice and Immigration Act 2008 X Criminally racist material in UK – to stir up religious hatred (or hatred on the grounds of sexual orientation) - contrary to the Public Order Act 1986 X Pornography X Promotion of any kind of discrimination X threatening behaviour, including promotion of physical violence or mental harm X Promotion of extremism or terrorism X Any other information which may be offensive to colleagues or breaches the integrity of the ethos of the school or brings the school into disrepute X Using school systems to run a private business X Using systems, applications, websites or other mechanisms that bypass the filtering or other safeguards employed by the school / academy X Infringing copyright X Revealing or publicising confidential or proprietary information (eg financial / personal information, databases, computer / network access codes and passwords) X Creating or propagating computer viruses or other harmful files X Unfair (downloading / uploading large files that hinders others in their use of the internet) X On-line gaming (educational) X On-line gaming (non-educational) X On-line gambling X On-line shopping / commerce X File sharing X Use of social (in accordance with technology section of policy) X Use of messaging apps (in accordance with technology section of policy) X Use of video broadcasting e.g. Youtube (in accordance with technology section of policy) X