Dovedale Primary SchoolOn-line safety and filtering
Online Safety
Online Safety is an important part of keeping children safe at Dovedale Primary School . We have extensive security measures in place in school, which are monitored both internally and externally, to help safeguard pupils from potential dangers or unsuitable material. Any Online Safety incidents are recorded and managed.
Online Safety is taught to all pupils explaining and demonstrating how to stay safe and behave appropriately online. Each half term we have an Online Safety week where all pupils, across both key stages, take part in lessons ranging from digital wellbeing to cyberbullying and keeping information safe. We also have one eCadet from each class, in Key Stage 2, who assists in delivering assemblies as well as giving support and sharing their expertise.
Think before you click
At school we follow the policy 'Think before you click'. Children are aware of the potential dangers online and are educated on how to use the internet safely. Every child also signs an Acceptable Use Agreement (kS1) and Acceptable Use Agreement (kS2) so that we know they have read and understood our school's rules on staying safe.
We can only be successful in keeping children safe online if we work with parents to ensure the Online Safety message is consistent. It is important that parents speak to their children about how they can keep safe and behave appropriately online.
We use ‘Be internet legends’ for our Online Safety lessons in Key Stage two and we have taken part in live assemblies with a clear focus on staying safe online.
Here are some resources that parents may find useful:
https://www.internetmatters.org/schools-esafety/parent-online-support-pack-teachers/
https://www.ceop.police.uk/safety-centre/
Filtering and Monitoring
Schools in England and Wales are required “to ensure children are safe from terrorist and extremist material when accessing the internet in school, including by establishing appropriate levels of filtering”. Furthermore, it expects that they “assess the risk of [their] children being drawn into terrorism, including support for extremist ideas that are part of terrorist ideology”.
The Department for Education’s statutory guidance ‘Keeping Children Safe in Education’ obliges schools and colleges in England to “ensure appropriate filters and appropriate monitoring systems are in place and regularly review their effectiveness” and they “should be doing all that they reasonably can to limit children’s exposure to [Content, Contact, Conduct, Contract] risks from the school’s or college’s IT system” however, schools will need to “be careful that “over blocking” does not lead to unreasonable restrictions as to what children can be taught with regards to online teaching and safeguarding.”
To ensure this is in place Dovedale uses LGfL who provide us with SchoolProtect-Webscreen filtering. The filtering system is robust and meets all of the requirements set out by the DfE in KCSIE 2023.