When thinking about strategically managing online safety in school, we need
to consider what that means. It can seem quite daunting, as there are so many things to
do. But I like to keep things simple - pragmatic - so think of it in terms of: policy,
technology and safe use.
Simplistically, policy backs up what you're doing in
school. It's those documents that state your standardised processes, definitions,
responsibilities and more. So, obvious policies in the context of online safety
might be your safeguarding and child protection policy; might be your
eSafety policy; your ICT policy; and your anti-bullying policy. There are others
and some schools call them different things. But, with so many different
policies, it can be really frustrating and time-consuming juggling all of these
together, that it is easy to get confusing or conflicting information.
What's important here is that your policies are working together. I know
that sounds obvious, but let me give you an example. A part of your eSafety or your
online safety policy may mention cyber or online bullying. There's no need to go
into any depth within your eSafety policy -
you just need to cross-reference that to your anti-bullying policy. For example, a
statement such as: "Any incident of online bullying which is defined within
the school anti-bullying policy will be dealt with in accordance with the school
behavior policy."
Tthis keeps things nice simple clear and eliminates that the possibility of
mistakes if policies are reviewed at different periods or by different people.
I've carried out scores of audits in schools and a couple of things
I come across quite commonly are worth a particular mention. Firstly, there's
nothing wrong with downloading a template from the internet. There's no
need to be reinventing the wheel and there's plenty of good examples, but
remember that's all it is:
a template. You must ensure that it is tailored to your particular setting. For
example, during an audit, when I ask what the school will do
in response to a certain incidence, I sometimes come across what they say
they'll do is different to what it says in the policy. And that's usually because
the template hasn't been tailored. Just remember that when you're reviewing your
policies that you're doing it with others. For example, when you're reviewing
your eSafety policy annually, ensure mention of child protection processes is
reviewed with a designated safeguarding lead. Again,
I know that sounds obvious, but it is something I've come across on a number
of occasions in past. Another one worth mentioning is a statement that's very
commonly seen and goes something along the lines of, 'whilst all
measures are put in place to protect children from inappropriate content on
the internet, the school cannot be held responsible etc'. And whilst that
statement is understandable, bear in mind it has no basis in law; as the corporate
parent you ARE responsible. If you're using technology in your school to
mitigate risk, then you must use it to its full potential - and that brings us on
to the next section.
In the context of this video, technology isn't the tech
you're using with students - it's the technology that is used as part of the
safeguarding role: for example, filtering and monitoring tools. As I've mentioned
before, it's important that you adopt a whole-school approach. Technical tools
are usually managed by technical people, but it's really important that
responsible persons (such as senior leaders and governors) have a knowledge
of how those tools work (but from a non-technical level) and what is available
within those tools that may assist with their role. For example, good Internet
filters have reports available within them.
So what reports are available within your filter? Who's looking at them? And
how often are those reports or summaries are made available to senior leaders?
Monitoring tools such as NetSupport DNA go a lot deeper than that, so it's
important that senior leaders have a knowledge of what's available with those
sorts of tools in order that expectations
can be set in regards to its use. Again, coming back to policy, you could
include a statement that, it's the role of such and such a person (or example
network manager or IT department) to make reports available, and the period you
would like - for example, weekly - and to whom.
So again, this standardises the process so that everybody is aware.
Safe use is the
educational aspects - the curriculum is the obvious one here - but it doesn't just
have to mean the students. We also need to give good consideration of training
to all staff, governors and parents, as well. For staff and governors, it's
important that you have an understanding of their baseline of knowledge and
importantly where there are gaps in knowledge. Many people still see online
safety as an IT issue and this simply isn't the case. Understanding what staff
do and don't know allows you to strategically plug those gaps and build
on their knowledge. And probably easiest way of doing this is by sending out a
questionnaire. There's an example on my website on the resources page that you
can have a look at; or you could even consider an online poll, if you have a
facility in school - or if not, look at something like SurveyMonkey. Keeping
staff regularly updated is important, but what does 'regular' mean? Once a year?
Once a term? And what are you updating them with? Personally, I would
say termly or half-termly. This can be done in short 10 minute sessions as
part of a regular staff meeting, for example. Updates will be given on areas
such as new statutory requirements; or guidance, such as the new sexting
guidance that came out in August 2016; new research that might change opinion;
or perhaps patterns of incidents that have been happening in school and how
the school has responded to these incidents.
Parental engagement can be a
hugely frustrating area, but it is a really important one.
How do you currently engage with parents? Perhaps with a regular
newsletter or even via social media. Use these channels to send out regular
snippets of information
in order to raise the awareness and interest levels of the parents. And
also let parents know how the school can help and support if they have a question
or concern. Another way of keeping staff and parents up to date is to subscribe
to my #Ditto magazine. This is completely free and comes out regularly.
Just sign up on my website and I'll let you know when a new one comes
out. So hopefully that's given you an understanding as to how you can
strategically manage eSafety in your school.
It can seem daunting, but if you break it down into the simple areas of policy,
technology and safe use, it does make it much easier. I haven't gone into any
depth in this video; it's just setting the groundwork for the moment - and some
of the topics we'll go into a little deeper in future articles and videos.
So thank you for watching and see you next time.