Internet safety training

[mrhall]

We've got a few of us monitoring our school's computers - responding to flagged things from classroom.cloud and from smoothwall (needs a few of us because there are SO many things to check). School wondering whether there is any useful training that would help us be better equipped to know what things to worry about. Even the "urgent" captures from classroom.cloud seem mostly to be false alarms - so we'd like to be more than just rely on our gut instinct.

 

We could do the full DSL safeguarding training - but we're only really wanting to be better skilled at the filtering aspect of the role - so the DSL training seems too much.

 

Thanks

[JJonas]

I have not used classroom.cloud but we did have Securus and I was overwhelmed but they amount of information that produced. So I asked support what I should look at and what I should ignore and the told me to just look at the keyboard logs adding if it is in there then they typed it. This advice massively reduced my workload. Is there a similar feature in classroom.cloud?

[simpsonj]

I outsourced this last year and it's one of the best decisions I've made. It's not particularly expensive, and you get 24/7 coverage (if you have any devices that go offsite) and knowledge that the people looking at this know what they're looking for, and have direct contact numbers for the people who can deal with it (DSL, Headteacher, CEOP etc). I've never thought that this level of safeguarding was the IT department's responsibility, and every company I've talked to about it agrees. By all means use Classroom cloud to hunt out the flash games or other time wasting sites, but I would ask yourself the question, if a serious case occurred, and the police and courts got involved, how comfortable would you be under that level of questioning and scrutiny?

[mrhall]

Yes - so that is helpful - and does make things easier.

Part of the hassle is the difference between a sixth form student - studying criminology - looking up things that we'd be quite worried about a year 7 looking for - but thank you - this does help cut things down.

 

part of the challenge is looking during the school day - so that the students are still here if we identify issues needing dealing with.

 

- - - Updated - - -

 

Who did you outsource to? That's a solution that hadn't occurred to us...

[simpsonj]

 

Who did you outsource to? That's a solution that hadn't occurred to us...

 

We looked Securus and Smoothwall monitor, and went with Smoothwall in the end. Ties into CPOMS directly (if you use that platform) which is a big plus point for our DSL.

[msi_school]

When I worked in Warwickshire we outsourced this to the LEA who where fantastic. They had a team of experts monitoring the logs all day, they would do an assessment of the level of concern then report using the schools protocols.

 

Best thing I did at the school for safeguarding, they did it better than I could and allowed me to concentrate on the bits I am better at.

[Wave9_Lee]

We provide an 'outsourced' service for monitor/alert too via Lightspeed - if anyone requires any info or pricing, let me know. Lightspeed includes options for Classroom management amongst other things.

[Sylv3r]

The most recent Keeping Children Safe in Education document released for September puts the ball firmly in the court of the DSL as being responsible for the checking - the IT staff plays a supporting roll in checking the filtering is working etc but not the monitoring.

 

I know we've probably all done it in the past however.

 

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/keeping-children-safe-in-education--2

[mrhall]

Thank you!

 

I think we're trying to assembly a team of checkers - with the DSL taking the lead - but having more than one of us who could look - especially who could look before the school day has ended. So although the DSL is responsible - they might be able to delegate - but yes, they need to be the one who is sure the checks are actually happening.

[kennysarmy]

In terms of KCSIE23 I understand what is meant by filtering.

 

But what is everyone's understanding of the term "monitoring"?

[PotNoodleTech]

In terms of KCSIE23 I understand what is meant by filtering.

 

But what is everyone's understanding of the term "monitoring"?

 

Good Q

 

Monitoring.....

 

Reporting......

 

I would class as two very different activities?

[simpsonj]

I've understood monitoring to be the active monitoring of what is happening on your internet connection. For example, who is alerted if a student is looking up safeguarding concerns, what actions are taken, etc.

[kennysarmy]

I've understood monitoring to be the active monitoring of what is happening on your internet connection. For example, who is alerted if a student is looking up safeguarding concerns, what actions are taken, etc.

 

So only internet connection monitoring?

 

Not if someone is typing in to say, Notepad..."I want to harm myself....." ? Should that sort of activity be being monitored too?

[simpsonj]

So only internet connection monitoring?

 

Not if someone is typing in to say, Notepad..."I want to harm myself....." ? Should that sort of activity be being monitored too?

 

A fair question, and I think that would need to be risk assessed at school level. The monitoring used at my school includes key strokes, so would pick this incident up.

 

But ultimately, I would point you in the direction of the LGfL Online Safety Audit, and the section on Monitoring as that is pretty comprehensive and asks all the questions about your E-Safety provision that the IT and Safeguarding team should be answering.

[kennysarmy]

A fair question, and I think that would need to be risk assessed at school level. The monitoring used at my school includes key strokes, so would pick this incident up.

 

But ultimately, I would point you in the direction of the LGfL Online Safety Audit, and the section on Monitoring as that is pretty comprehensive and asks all the questions about your E-Safety provision that the IT and Safeguarding team should be answering.

 

Hi, what monitoring software do you use?

[simpsonj]

Smoothwall Monitor, but a good list to look through is the Safer Internet Responses and see which matches your needs.

[kennysarmy]

Smoothwall Monitor, but a good list to look through is the Safer Internet Responses and see which matches your needs.

 

We're also a Smoothwall (On-prem) filtering school so will be looking at that product, how are you finding it?

[simpsonj]

We're also a Smoothwall (On-prem) filtering school so will be looking at that product, how are you finding it?

 

One of the best investments the school has made in my opinion! The DSL likes it because it ties directly to CPOMS, and there is an escalation policy in place of who deals with what level of ticket. From an IT perspective, I like it because it's pretty easy to setup, and I no longer have to plough through thousands of captures every week!

 

I believe it's helped head off a few safeguarding issues, which is absolutely what it's designed for, and it's really not particularly expensive either. They gave us a months free trial around this time last year, so definitely worth checking out.

[GrumbleDook]

As already mentioned, this does fall under the remit of the DSL now but that doesn't mean that they are the only people to do things.

The most important things to be done during setup and review of any product or tools you use should be based on what you want to filter, monitor, put as priorities to be checked and the school's decision tree around risk.

 

To some extent, when we cover training on classroom.cloud, we try to make sure that the messages around how you tweak what gets reported or what alerts can be sent. A lot of products can have some level of this and so deciding where the risk is should be the first steps.

 

Yes, the IT might know the product better from when it was set up, but it truly is a whole school thing under the remit of teh DSL now.