• System security
• Unauthorised activities
• Social Networking sites
• E-mail
• Internet Access
• Laptops
• Resource Limits
• Privacy
• Sanctions

The Acceptable Use Policy should link with other safeguarding policies such as anti bullying, cyber bullying etc

All pupils in the school should be aware of potential risks and how to practise safe, responsible behaviour, wherever and whenever they are online.

Pupils should know where to seek help both in and out of school and how to report incidents. They should be trained using the 'ThinkUKnow' materials from the Child Exploitation Online Protection Centre (CEOP) and know when and who to use the Virtual Global Taskforce (VGT) icon available on some websites.

Pupils are not accountable for the actions that others may force upon them but there are sanctions that the school will impose if they act inappropriately when online.

Reporting Incidents

If a pupil receives an abusive e-mail or text they should report the matter to a member of staff as soon as possible. A copy of the e-mail with full headers, plus dates and times should be saved. Staff will investigate all complaints of abuse and take action accordingly.

Responsibility for handling incidents involving children will be taken by the ICT co-ordinator and the Designated Safeguarding Officer in consultation with the Head Teacher. If one or more pupils view inappropriate material the first priority will be to give them appropriate support. The pupil's parent'/carers will be informed and given an explanation of the course of action the school has taken.

If staff or pupils discover unsuitable sites, the ICT co-ordinator will report the URL (address) and contact to the ISP and the L.A. The filtering system used in all maintained schools in Somerset contains a mechanism for automatically reporting any attempts to access illegal sites on the Internet Watch Foundation list, to the Police. If it is thought that illegal material has been accessed outside of this filtering umbrella, after consultation with the Local Authority, the site will be referred to the Internet Watch Foundation (IWF) and the Police.

The school should provide guidelines for parents, carers and others on safe practice. The South West Grid for Learning in conjunction with the Avon and Somerset Police delivers a programme of parent's evenings. In Somerset, this is delivered to clusters of schools and every parent in Somerset has the opportunity to attend one of these meetings annually to keep up with the latest safety issues. The government have funded a DVD that informs parents of the issues and copies of this can be ordered by school for distribution to parents.

Senior managers in schools are required to respond to a wide variety of e-safety incidents on a daily basis. The majority involve students, but on occasion it may be a teaching or non-teaching member of staff whose conduct is in question. Many of these incidents will be covered in the school's acceptable use policy; where they are not, the Local Authority should be informed at the earliest opportunity so that appropriate action can be taken.

Age Restricted Material

Print publications are classified to provide information and protect people from viewing material that might be inappropriate or damaging to their moral and physical wellbeing. It is illegal to show, give or sell restricted materials to a person under a certain age. The Internet has little in the way of classification of materials, though several groups are attempting to introduce classification categories for describing web materials. Schools should ensure that processes are in place to minimise the risk of students gaining access to inappropriate materials, through supervision and monitoring. Blatant intentional exhibiting of age-restricted materials to pupils under the specified age is a serious breach of e-safety and may result in a criminal prosecution or suspension/dismissal.

Any incident that involves inappropriate adult access to legal material should be dealt with by the school's discipline policy and the Local Authority should be informed of any action taken.

Any incident of racially motivated abuse via technology needs to be linked in with the monitoring of racial incidents in the school. Where an incident involves racial abuse, the Local Authority should be informed and they will decide whether or not Police involvement is required.

Incidents involving staff

Any incident involving a member of staff is a serious and often complex matter. There may be implications for the safety of pupils, fellow employees and the learning environment, and for the reputation of the school.

Harassment or grooming of another person using technology, or breaching their right to privacy, poses a serious threat to their physical and emotional safety, and may have legal consequences.

In all disciplinary instances, a school should consult with HR and must be careful to follow disciplinary protocols, ensuring that proper documentation and recording of information occurs and that appropriate counselling and support are given. Parents/carers of the pupil involved must be kept fully informed of the matter.

Depending on the incident the designated person and head teacher will decide on an appropriate course of action. This may include involving external agencies. The e-safety co-ordinator should review e-safety policies as soon as possible after the incident in an attempt to prevent such an incident recurring, debriefing relevant staff accordingly, and providing school-wide training as appropriate.

In the school context, very serious incidents tend to involve illegal materials, (particularly the viewing, possession, making and distribution of indecent images of children) or grooming, stalking or harassment facilitated by communication technologies.

Indecent images of children are defined under Section 7 or the Protection of Children Act 1978 (as amended by Section 84 of the Criminal Justice and Public Order Act 1994) References to indecent photographs under the Act include data stored on a computer disk or by other electronic means that is capable of conversion into a photograph.

What to do in the event of discovery of illegal material

Discovery of illegal material within the school's network is a very serious situation, and must always be reported to the police. It is important that the material is not downloaded, printed or sent by e-mail, because doing so will be an offence in itself. If at all possible, do absolutely nothing to the suspect computer or computers, including turning them on or off as this could potentially compromise any evidence the device may contain. Ideally incident specific advice should be sought VERY quickly, either from the Police or Southwest One ICT as soon as the incident becomes known. The advice given will be incident specific and will be different in each case, depending on the number of workstations involved or if the incident involves the entire network and fileserver.

Basic steps

• Seek immediate and specific advice from either Southwest One ICT or the Police, relevant to this incident.
• Prevent any further physical access to the device until the correct advice is gained.
• Unless absolutely necessary DO NOT remove the power from a working PC and definitely DO NOT start a PC if it is already turned off.
• Consider if it is necessary to prevent remote access to the device. If you suspect that a member of staff or pupil who has left the site, could remove or damage evidence on the device remotely, unplug ONLY the network cable from the back of the device to prevent this access from taking place.
• If the PC is already turned off, and it is no longer realistically possible to prevent further physical access to the device, (i.e. lack of supervision, high levels of access or an unoccupied location) disconnect the power at the base unit (not the wall) and remove the battery from a laptop. Store this device securely in a location where no one else can gain access to it and make a note of the date, time and name of the individual who performed this action.

Under no circumstances should the e-safety co-ordinator, network manager or head teacher attempt to conduct an investigation of their own, or bring in an outside 'expert' to do so, as this may compromise the evidence if a legal case were to result. In some cases this may constitute a criminal offence in itself.

PROCEDURES TO FOLLOW IF AN ALLEGATION IS MADE AGAINST A MEMBER OF STAFF

Never let allegations by a child or young person go unrecorded or unreported, including any made against you. In all instances the Child Protection Officer must be informed. If the allegation concerns the Child Protection Officer, then the Head must be informed. If the concern involves the Head then the Chair of the Board of Governors must be informed.

In all situations the school County HR contact and the Local Authority Designated Officer for Allegations Management, must be informed. The contact details for the Local Authority Designated Officer are: cwinter@somerset.gov.uk or telephone 01823 355697

If you receive a disclosure it is important to reassure the child that what he says will be taken very seriously and everything possible done to help.

If you are in the room when a pupil begins to disclose concerns to another person, you should stay unobtrusively in the background. You may be able to support/witness what has been said if required.

EXTENDED SCHOOLS

Schools need to be clear about safeguarding procedures in relation to extended school activities. Activities organised by or with the school, should be incorporated within the school's safeguarding and child protection policy. Alternatively the provider of the extended school service should have a bespoke child protection policy, in which case the provider's policy and CRB checks will need to be assured. This is the responsibility of the school or the extended school co-ordinator in the locality.
However this is managed it is essential that child protection and safeguarding principles apply to extended school activities and responsibility for ensuring adherence to these principles is clearly established.

OFF-SITE PROVISION

When placing pupils with other Education Providers, Rode Methodist VC First School is responsible for checking that the provider has complied with required recruitment procedures and that individuals working with pupils are CRB checked. Within the provider contract, the manager of the provision should provide assurances, and sign the agreement that this requirement has been adhered to.

Professional judgement

Remember: value your professional judgement. School may be the only agency involved with the family at the time of referral, and always pass your concerns to your designated person(s).

This policy should be read in conjunction with other related policies in school such as:

Recruitment and Selection
Management of allegations against staff
Behaviour Management
Anti Bullying
Physical Interventions
Health and Safety
Safeguarding and ICT
Use of photography and videos
Drugs and substance misuse
Equal opportunities
First aid (including management of medical conditions)
PSHE Curriculum
Racial Equality
Safeguarding statement in school prospectus
Sex Education
Work placements

Useful Publications (All available from DCSF website)

PDF:'Safeguarding Children and Safer Recruitment in Education'

PDF: 'Working Together to Safeguard Children 2006'

PDF: 'What to do if you are worried a Child is being abused' -

PDF: 'Staying Safe Action plan'

Useful Websites

www.somersetsafeguardingchildrenboard.org.uk

www.everychildmatters.gov.uk

Useful Phone Numbers

Somerset Direct - 08453459122

Safeguarding for Schools Advisor (Liz Bidmead) - 01823 358269D

Local Authority Designated Officer (LADO) (Clare Winter) - 01823 355697