Who checks your e-safety / safe guarding alerts?

[Liam]

Recently made some changes to try and involve the pastoral team. I think it was a good idea as they know the kids better than me.

 

Just wondering how others do it. I bet that it falls under the responsibility of most Ict teams out there as it's software but I don't think we are the right people.

 

I know there are third party companies but I can't justify the cost when I already have impero and it's part of the sub.

 

Thanks

 

Liam

[Liam]

Oh I certainly agree there is a level of responsibility on the teacher but they can't possibly watch everyone at once, nor be expected to review any alerts during a lesson. Right?

[Liam]

Is that how you do it at your school? What do you use for classroom management ?

[Liam]

What if it's not a behavioural issue though but a cry for help? The teacher may not be privy to some of the more sensitive issues in their lives. I get that the teacher is responsible for them playing on games when they should be on task etc.

[Liam]

Yea but even teachers are unaware of some of the more confidential issues ?

[Liam]

Yes of course I'm not saying that. Staff will know enough to be able to make a judgement call but I'm also sure that many teachers would argue they don't have the time during a lesson to ensure nothing untoward is happening. Well certainly at my place of work anyway. If that's the case then why we we spend money on filters? Should be say well here's your unfiltered internet connection . it's fine because the teacher will manage the class and the students can be trusted not to misbehave. Its the same thing right? I support your argument that the teacher should have overall control of their class but I don't think a level on control and responsibility to ensure it doesn't happen.. but the saying 'it could happen here' tells me that we have to be more vigilant

[Liam]

Anyway I only asked for who did it. Each school will be different. That's why I'm asking.

[elsiegee40]

Anyway I only asked for who did it. Each school will be different. That's why I'm asking.

 

Safeguarding concerns flagged by the software should be seen by the DSL. It's their responsibility to decide what, if anything, happens as a result of what's flagged... nobody else's

[Liam]

Yes that's what I thought and that's what I'm trying to achieve.

[RichCowell]

I believe they get extensive training for these situations. I don't.

Don't get me wrong ... we are all supposed to be part of child protection blah blah, but I don't have time to look into penis searches in biology classes. Or child abuse searches for child care classes. Or semi naked historical masterpieces in art classes. The tools are in place to ensure gov standard filtering is in place and the teacher has all the tools required to manage the class. If they dont cop for it in class or look at any of the alerts in place than that is there call. Same as if they dont check books to see if any actual work has been done, its there lesson and their responsibility.

 

We have no level of secondary classroom management here, if the staff don't catch is in lesson then chances are they failed on safeguarding.

 

To say any teacher with a class in an ICT Suite should be responsible for all violations in that lesson is wrong. Teachers can't be expected to pay that much attention to the screen when they're teaching. If they're using the classroom management solution (Impero in all our cases) it should be for behavioural use - making sure they're sticking to task etc. and not playing games...

 

While all staff have some level of safeguarding training, they may not all be privy to specific ongoing issues about students, and therefore can't be expected to know to look out for everything.

 

Most of the time when ICT suites are used for lessons other than ICT/Computing, it's so the students can type up work / research etc. so many times the teacher won't even need to bother logging on. If they do happen to spot something they should report it following school policies, but the school would be remiss if they relied solely upon the classroom teachers monitoring everything.

 

The Pastoral team are responsible for that level of monitoring, whether it be Heads of Year monitoring and acting on it, or an Online Safety Officer and/or DSL is up to the school - all schools do things differently...

 

The Heads of Year / e-safety Officers / DSLs have that title and role for a reason, the online safety is part of it...

 

 

This was discussed at some of Impero's seminars in the past 12 months too, having tried it various ways in the past, it definitely seems to be the most efficient way of doing things, as a lot of people I've spoken to it have agreed.

[RichCowell]

All alerts for the lesson should be picked up by the class teacher on their impero console. ~They then have a responsibility to follow them up by referring to the safeguarding lead~

All schools are different, but at the point of lessons delivery this would be the first level where it should be picked up and would be expected to be referred in this instance.

 

If they see it, yes, I agree, but the school should not rely on this being the case. Teachers don't always need to use the computers, when I've been in the suites and it's not been an IT lesson, the teachers are usually going between the students helping/discussing etc. i.e. teaching, as they should be... It's wrong to force them to, in effect, also be e-safety officers.

 

There is also the case for supply teachers - who may not know how to use Impero let alone perform any sort of monitoring on it. I'm no expert with regard to Ofsted, though I have an inspector on the staff at my school so will discuss this further with her, but if they found out any school's only method of being alerted to possible concerns was the classroom teachers teaching the lessons, I'm sure they wouldn't look upon it favourably!

 

There needs to be either one person, or a team of people, responsible for monitoring the violations/alerts and acting on them. Not 40-50 people who might see the violations.

[Liam]

All alerts for the lesson should be picked up by the class teacher on their impero console. ~They then have a responsibility to follow them up by referring to the safeguarding lead~

All schools are different, but at the point of lessons delivery this would be the first level where it should be picked up and would be expected to be referred in this instance.

 

I would have to completely disagree. I assume that all your staff are suitabley trained to use impero then? Even those grads that have booked in ICT room to do some typing up or research?

From experience i know how difficult it is to get teachers to buy into many solutions and impero is one of them. Only a hand full of staff use ir properly here. They use it to demo, lock screen, prevent internet, mute sound, enforce white/blacklists and yes If they do see a violation in the lesson they will deal with it.

That being said, there are 50 other teachers that may have never used it depite me offering training on many occasions.

You said your self in an earlier post that if its missed in that lesson then you have failed safeguarding!

I can't possibly comment on how your school do it, but surely statistics provide enough information to backup the argument that ICT teams and teachers should not be responsible.

[elsiegee40]

The class teacher does have safeguarding responsibility, and so do pastoral staff, but the person whose responsibility and role is to piece the jigsaw together and with whom sole responsibility for Safeguarding Decisions lies is the Designated Safeguarding Lead (DSL)

 

This person must be the one who ultimately judges whether or not there is concern. If they only see some of the things flagged then an important part of a complex puzzle may be missed.

Edited September 20, 2016 by elsiegee40

[RichCowell]

The class teacher does have safeguarding responsibility, and so do pastoral staff, but the person whose responsibility and role to piece the jigsaw together and with whom sole responsibility for this lies is the Designated Safeguarding Lead (DSL)

 

This person must be the one who ultimately judges whether or not there is concern.

 

I agree completely, what I'm debating (and I think @Liam is too), is that schools should not solely rely upon teachers to monitor the violations/alerts...

[RichCowell]

have an inspector on the staff at my school so will discuss this further with her, but if they found out any school's only method of being alerted to possible concerns was the classroom teachers teaching the lessons, I'm sure they wouldn't look upon it favourably!

 

She just popped in for a brew... her response... "They'd get hammered"

e-safety would be flagged as an area of concern, and the inspectors would start looking more closely into all aspects of it, including interviewing students and staff about various areas of online safety and monitoring.