Esafety

[Quackers]

Just curious how other schools go about esafety. I have noticed that Ofsted seem to prefer the managed instead of locked down approach.

 

We had an incident a few weeks ago where a student had been using a proxy site in school to get on to a web based MSN client and this girl had been chatting to this old man and was going to go meet her, (and it got graphic) securus picked it up and we got parents in and they were very happy we had caught it, and after words the girl agreed it was stupid of her to think about going to meet him.

 

So do any schools allow social networking/instant messenger but monitor, teach and make them understand the risks them selfs or is everyone fully locked down?

[elsiegee40]

Ofsted are actually look for a consistent, whole school approach to Safeguarding; e-Safety is only a part of this.

 

Your school should have someone who is responsible for Safeguarding, often this is the HT. You should approach this person to find out how e-Safety can be integrated in the school's Safeguarding approach.

 

A school's duties under Safeguarding are that a student must be kept safe while at school and educated on how to stay safe off the premises.

 

Ofsted is not expecting you to generally allow social networking in school and locked down is absolutely fine. What they are expecting is that pupils, and staff, are educated in how to use the internet, including social networking, safely.

 

You do not say how old your students are. At primary level, this is taught very differently to secondary level. There are websites aimed at schools where social networking can be done, and taught, in a controlled way.

 

For you, I would start by getting yourself some training. The edugeek e-Safety Forum has many helpful resources and links.

 

I would suggest that get ThinkUKnow training as this not only trains you to present the ThinkUKnow programme, but gives you a very useful insight into what needs to be taught and how. Register on the ThinkUKnow website in the teacher's area to find out more and get resources you can use in school.

 

The CEOP Ambassadors and ThinkUKnow Trainers edugeek group, recently set up, has a small, but growing, number of people who are already CEOP trained who may be able to help you out too.