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Hi,
Does any school have a policy for student and staff briinging in their own equipment and using in school, we are looking at updating our policy to cover these for any eventualities sch as:
Staff brings in netbook to school
Netbook gets stolen
Netbook has inappropriate material on it
Pupils found viewing inappropriate material
Where do we go from here :)
Do you have an AUP? I would say that they are allowed to bring in but need to work by the AUP and own equipment is not liable in any way to the school. But i would also say that we would not configure them in any way to work with the network as there are staff machines/laptops for that. Just saves lots of trouble with proxy/internet issues.
Well there's several issues to the scenario you have painted.
1. Insurance. Staff need to check they are covered by their personal insurance for bringing stuff like that into school. They are probably ok but you never know. Also check if they are covered when laptops etc are in their cars. That's always a good one people get caught out on.
2. Staff in possession of inappropriate materials on school premises. This is a no brainer IMHO. Just because it's on their laptop doesn't make it any different than if it was on a usb stick, their file area or even a magazine in their briefcase. AUP/Policy and resulting disciplinary systems should cover this anyway. Serious stuff needs to be referred to the police too ofc.
3. Pupils stealing. Again, fairly straightforward. Existing pastoral care/student behaviour policy should cover you. Staff are ofc free to report theft to the Police and take things further themselves.
We have a large e-safety AUP, I just didn't know if other schools had a specific policy to cover this.
Thanks to those who responded.
Not an e_Safety policy specifically. Staff at my school are not permitted to use their own cameras or phones to take pictures of the students. They must use school cameras - that is in the AUP
As Geoff says, inappropriate material on any device would kick off the Safeguarding procedure - Go straight to the Designated CPO, Do not pass Go, Do not collect £200
Theft is dealt with by the Disciplinary Policy
We do have a policy for Electrical Devices - I can't remember the exact wording, but it's along the lines of
- brought in at own risk
- Must be declared to the Bursar and PAT tested before use in school
- May not be connected to any school equipment including the school's ICT network, without permission of the Bursar and NM if appropriate.
2 things ... firstly, as most others have said, you treat this in line with other policies ... just because it is tech it makes little difference.
Secondly ... define inappropriate. It is almost a case of pointing people back at stage one and think about what other things might be inappropriate to have in school and what might be deemed fine as long as it is not taken out of the teacher's possession.
If a member of staff had a pr0n mag in a locked briefcase in the classroom would that be inappropriate? The briefcase is not opened in front of the children and it might simply be put in there along with other personal effects such as a toothbrush. If the briefcase gets stolen then it is not that the member of staff is distributing pr0n, but that they own some and it was stolen by pupils. Some schools might decide a rampant rabbit is inappropriate to have in a handbag, yet others might said it is a personal item in a personal bag.
Perhaps the policy should have guidance around things like password protecting personal devices, not leaving devices around, that whilst in school the device is expected to operate to the same standard as how a member of staff / child / guest would operate whilst logged onto the network (catch all to say that they have to be good), etc.
Slight detour, but GrumbleDook's post above (with all its talk of pr0n and rampant rabbits) is currently accompanied on my screen by an advert with the text "WATCH WINDOWS PHONE SPANK OTHER SMARTPHONES".
Sounds like a pretty niche market of pr0n to me...