EMail and Staff Storage Policy

[Jay]

Might be worth having some sort of workshop where both you and the SMT can explain the facts of life to your staff. I'm sure that with good reasons for what you're doing the majority will accept the need for change. Worth checking with your SMTs first though.

I would guess your Offsted probably pointed out that IT wasn't a strong area given what you have said. You could indicate to your staff the failure in this area is one good reason for change. It's my experience that offsteds seem to scare the bejesus out of most teachers.

There is an AUP here that might be of use: Acceptable Use Policy (two links within) . It's fairly old and in need of updating but the principles should be the same.

J

[Hollie1985]

If staff suspect there email usage patterns are being monitored then 9 times out of 10 this will reduce email misuse we have found, once you have warned staff verbally and in the form of an email from SMT to warn this is happening..you should see an improvement.. you have full rights to monitor email to the body of the mail and some email archiving companies (Gartner Quadrant approved) have been known to stand up in court to represent their mail products in any email related issue

[G-Jackson]

We are currently looking into the use of 3rd Party Webmail because even though we have a School webmail system provided by EMBC our ISP alot of staff don't use it.

Our Deputy Head asked us to block Hotmail which has caused a bit of an uproar in certain depts - however he still uses his own externaly hosted e-mail

BECTA does recommend that schools should not use external webmail but as far as I'm aware our LA has no policy and neither does the school - although our new Network Manager is looking to introduce one.

I personally feel that all members of staff should use the school's e-mail full stop - I've never worked at a company where they would allow employees to use hotmail etc

1. It's unprofessional - I'm sure you wouldn't want to receive an e-mail from your doctor if the e-mail was bigdave@hotmail....

2. It's not secure - they could be e-mailing confidential information about students and that information could be stored on servers anywhere in the world and be accessible by god know who.

At the end of the day, the teachers are employees (as SMT are) the Governing Body should be the ones who say what goes (following LA and Government Guidelines)
If teachers won't sign the AUP then they shouldn't get access to the network and if that means they can't do their job then they should leave.

[Great_Scott]

We are very keen at our school to clamp down on what staff can and cannot do on the network. If they do not sign the AUP they do not get access. I do allow webmail access and other personal use but the AUP states that all network activity and use is monitored. We regularly brief staff on changes and policy specifics, we just have to ignore the moans, groans and whispers from the corners and accept that us IT staff are often loathed.

We still have staff taking liberties though and although it really winds me up I go and talk with the person causing the problem and make it clear that in a corporate environment they wouldnt get away with it, if that doesnt work I go straight to SMT who I'm pleased to say are on my side most of the time, I'm very fortunate in that respect.

We have a detailed and lengthy AUP which I'd be willing to share directly with those who are interested, as for Limewire, remove it immediately and tell the objectors your reason is because it is the primary distribution source for child related pornographic material - just run a search for Amy Winehouse content and you'll see what I mean and like Hollie wrote, you have every right to monitor what is happening on your network, otherwise how can you do your job?

[G-Jackson]

I'd love to see a copy of your AUP to pass on to my Boss.

[mac_shinobi]

Think there is a bit of software you can purchase to install on the server that will stop users writing to there home areas if they go over there quota but I also know you can do that on a server OS without that but for the life of me cant remember the name of the software and would be nice to find out what it was

[Hollie1985]

I would also like to see a copy of the AUP i know a few schools who would be interested in seeing this :-)

The only name of a product i can think of it could be is one called Insight i'm sure there are others

[G-Jackson]

If you're running MS Server you can just use the built in Disk Quota - you need to Enable Quotering on the disk and then set it up for the users... we just Quota our students but Staff are going a bit stupid now so we might start restricting them too.

[Theblacksheep]

If you're running MS Server you can just use the built in Disk Quota - you need to Enable Quotering on the disk and then set it up for the users...

Not any old MS server... Needs to be 2003R2 or above.

With that tho you can also do file screens for home areas and keep (legal) "teaching resouces" on a shared area.

[G-Jackson]

Hi blacksheep - True but I didn't think anyone would be using anything less... we don't have a massive IT budget and we've been on Server 2003 for ages. I expect we will remain their for some time to come.

[markcuk]

reminds me when I first started the ICT Co-ordinator had gigs of music in his home folder etc

first week I deleted it all (forgot about about the bit maybe I should of told him) but then again he should of known better..

We also had most web based email banned

[elloyd69]

At the end of the day, the teachers are employees (as SMT are) the Governing Body should be the ones who say what goes (following LA and Government Guidelines)
If teachers won't sign the AUP then they shouldn't get access to the network and if that means they can't do their job then they should leave.

Completely agree.........I am currently writing our staff AUP and laptop use policy.........if they refuse to sign then they shouldn't be allowed access to the network.........in the same way the kids aren't allowed access until they sign and return their AUP..........

I'm using the edugeek wiki on school policies to help write mine..........basic but very useful.

[teejay]

We are just going through the process of a proper staff AUP and have had staff/unions/SLT/governors involved. This is something that should be done in partnership with everyone and then you will get acceptance of it without so much of the hostilities. I have written it jointly with one of our SLT rather than solo.
What was interesting though is when the unions did their talk to staff and basically were ripping into them about their use of ICT equipment, websites such as Facebook and use of personal equipment and were demanding much tighter restrictions on their use than what was actually in our AUP, so if you have staff are threatening to go to the unions I expect they with get very short shrift.