How our children are kept safe when accessing the internet within school

Our school uses the HfL Education school broadband offer, which includes a number of safeguards for accessing the internet.  All internet traffic from school must pass through the HfL firewall, which prevents access to a number of types of website.  This filtering is set to a level, used across Hertfordshire, which allows wide access whilst ensuring that the most risky sites are not available.  There are a number of safeguards to ensure that this system works as intended:

• RM Safety Net - This is a system which provides reports and accessibility around the filtering within school.  Should certain sites be accessed within school or attempted to access, reports will be sent to Mr Maher.  With the help our our IT provider, this can then be tracked back to individual users.
• Be Safe Monitoring - This is a monitoring system which tracks web access, typed words and viewed pictures on all school laptops and PCs.  Again, if anything is flagged as a concern, Mr Maher will receive a warning.
• Police Cyber Alarm - This system works to monitor incoming traffic, ensuring that the school is protected from cyber attacks and other concerns.  
• School Data Backups - All data held on the school network, including personal data is held securely in a number of places.  It is regularly backed up in case of data loss or cyber attack.  This includes on backup drives within school and on an off-site server (in the UK).

How we teach our children to keep themselves safe

Within school, we have a robust curriculum, which offers pupils a range of opportunities to learn about issues related to online safety.  A grid showing the key content of this can be viewed at the bottom of this page.  Staff remind pupils regularly of how we stay safe in school and issues surrounding online safety.  The curriculum input includes:

• Specific learning through our Computing curriculum units
• A dedicated online safety focus lesson at the start of each half term
• Specific learning through other curriculum area, for example PSHE.

We also run a number of special curriculum days, including Safer Internet Day, where we may have visits from key speakers.

Staff are well-trained in online safety, with all teachers and some support staff having completed the CEOP Think U Know training.  

Regular updates about online safety are sent to staff and included in school newsletters for parents.

Our local Family Support Service also offer bespoke support to families (in particular parents) around how they can work to keep their children safe whilst online.