Scoil Íosagáin Acceptable Use Policy

Date of Commencement 12/12/2020

Contents

1. Introduction

2. General Approach

3. Content Filtering

4. Web Browsing and Downloading

5. Email and Messaging

6. Social Media

7. Personal Devices

8. Images & Video

9. Cyberbullying

10.School Websites

11.Distance Learning and Blended Learning

General Approach

The aim of this Internet Acceptable Use Policy (AUP) is to ensure that pupils and staff will benefit from the learning opportunities offered by the school’s internet resources in a safe and effective manner.

During periods of lockdown, when school is closed, the aim of the AUP is to continue to support pupils while learning at home and to facilitate staff in the teaching and learning process.

Internet use and access is considered a school resource for pupils and staff alike.

If the school AUP is not adhered to appropriate sanctions will be imposed.

When using the internet pupils, parents and staff are expected:

  • To treat others with respect at all times.

  • Not undertake any actions that may bring the school into disrepute.

  • Respect the right to privacy of all other members of the school

  • community.

  • Respect copyright and acknowledge creators when using online content

  • and resources.

This Acceptable Use Policy applies to pupils who have access to and are users of the internet in Scoil Íosagáin and at home.

  • It also applies to members of staff, volunteers, parents, carers and others who access the internet in Scoil Íosagáin and while engaged in distance learning.

Misuse of the internet may result in disciplinary action, including written warnings, withdrawal of access privileges and, in extreme cases, suspension or expulsion. The school also reserves the right to report any illegal activities to the appropriate authorities.

Scoil Íosagáin will deal with incidents that take place outside the school that impact on the wellbeing of pupils or staff under this policy and associated codes of behaviour and anti-bullying policies. In such cases Scoil Íosagáin will, where known, inform parents/carers of incidents of inappropriate online behaviour that take place out of school and impose the appropriate sanctions.

Scoil Íosagáin implements the following strategies on promoting safer use of the internet:

  • Pupils will be provided with education in the area of internet safety as part of our implementation of the SPHE curriculum.

  • Internet safety advice and support opportunities are provided to pupils in Scoil Íosagáin on an ongoing basis.

  • Teachers will be provided with continuing professional development opportunities in the area of internet safety.

  • Scoil Íosagáin participates in Safer Internet Day activities to promote safer more effective use of the internet.

  • Scoil Íosagáin is working with the Anti-Bullying Centre (ABC) in DCU to deliver the FUSE anti-bullying programme.

This policy and its implementation will be reviewed regularly by the following stakeholders:

  • Board of Management, teaching staff, and support staff.

This policy has been developed by a working group including: Principal, Assistant Principal with responsibility for digital technologies, School Completion Project Worker and representatives of the Board of Management.

The school will monitor the impact of the policy using:

  • Logs of reported incidents.

  • Monitoring logs of internet activity (including sites visited).

  • Internal monitoring data for network activity.

  • Surveys and/or questionnaires of pupils.

  • Surveys and/or questionnaires of pupils, parents, and teaching staff

Should serious online safety incidents take place, the Principal or Deputy Principal should be informed.

The implementation of this Internet Acceptable Use policy will be monitored by the Principal, the Board of Management and the Assistant Principal with responsibility for digital technologies.

Content Filtering

Scoil Íosagáin has chosen to implement the following level on content filtering on the Schools Broadband Network:

  • Level 4 - This level allows access to millions of websites including games and YouTube but blocks access to websites belonging to the personal websites category and websites such as Facebook belonging to the Social Networking category.

Pupils taking steps to by-pass the content filter by using proxy sites or other means may be subject to disciplinary action, including written warnings, withdrawal of access privileges and, in extreme cases, suspension or expulsion.

Web Browsing and Downloading

Pupils will not intentionally visit internet sites that contain obscene, illegal, hateful or otherwise objectionable materials.

Pupils will report accidental accessing of inappropriate materials in the classroom to their teacher.

Pupils will report accidental accessing of inappropriate materials in school but outside the classroom to their designated responsible staff member at that time (for example a SET or an SNA).

Pupils and staff will not copy information from the internet without acknowledging the creator and referencing the source of the content.

Pupils and staff will be aware that any usage, including distributing or receiving information, school-related or personal, may be monitored for unusual activity, security and/or network management reasons.

Pupils will use the school’s internet connection only for educational and associated activities.

Pupils will not engage in online activities such as uploading or downloading large files that result in heavy network traffic which impairs the service for other internet users.

Pupils and staff will not download or view any material that is illegal, obscene, and defamatory or that is intended to annoy or intimidate another person.

  • Downloading by pupils of materials or images not relevant to their studies is allowed with staff permission.

Recommended, child-friendly search engines include: Kiddle and DuckDuckGo.

Email and Messaging

  • Pupils and staff should not under any circumstances share their email account login details with other pupils.

  • Pupils should not use school email accounts to register for online services such as social networking services, apps, and games.

  • Pupils should be aware that email communications are monitored.

Pupils and staff will not send any material that is illegal, obscene, and defamatory or that is intended to annoy or intimidate another person.

Pupils should immediately report the receipt of any communication that makes them feel uncomfortable, is offensive, discriminatory, threatening or bullying in nature and must not respond to any such communication.

Pupils should avoid opening emails that appear suspicious. If in doubt, pupils should ask their teacher before opening emails from unknown senders.

Communication from the school, including texts, emails and links, should not be shared with other persons, other than the intended audience.

Staff should only use school-related platforms (including school email, Aladdin, SeeSaw, etc.) for appropriate school-related business. Furthermore, these school-related platforms should not be used for private purposes.

Social Media

Staff and pupils must not use social media and the internet in any way to harass, insult, abuse or defame pupils, their family members, staff or other members of the Scoil Íosagáin community.

Staff and pupils must not discuss personal information about pupils, staff and other members of the Scoil Íosagáin community on social media.

Staff and pupils must not use school email addresses for setting up personal social media accounts or to communicate through such media.

Staff and pupils must not engage in activities involving social media which might bring Scoil Íosagáin into disrepute.

Staff and pupils must not represent their personal views as those of Scoil Íosagáin on any social medium.

Staff, pupils and parents should be aware that taking, making or posting recording or images of pupils and/or staff to private social media accounts may breach GDPR regulations.

Personal Devices

Pupils using their own technology in school should follow the rules set out in this agreement, in the same way as if they were using school equipment.

The following statements apply to the use of internet-enabled devices such as tablets, gaming devices, and digital music players in Scoil Íosagáin:

  • Pupils are only allowed to bring personal internet-enabled devices into Scoil Íosagáin with expressed permission from staff.

  • Pupils are only allowed to use personal internet-enabled devices during lessons with expressed permission from teaching staff.

  • Pupils are not allowed to bring mobile phones or similar communication devices to school.

Images & Video

Care should be taken when taking photographic or video images that pupils are appropriately dressed and are not participating in activities that might bring the individuals or the school into disrepute.

At Scoil Íosagáin pupils must not take, use, share, publish or distribute images of others without permission.

Taking photos or videos on school grounds or when participating in school activities is allowed once care is taken that no harm is done to staff or pupils of Scoil Íosagáin, or that no staff member or pupil is brought into disrepute. Furthermore, taking photos or videos on school grounds must only be for the agreed intended purpose.

Taking photos or videos on school grounds or when participating in school activities is only allowed with expressed permission from staff. This also applies to school equipment being used on outings.

The school's admissions form seeks written permission from parents or carers before photographs of pupils are published on the school website or related school social media, including the school's Facebook page.

Pupils and staff must not share images, videos or other content online with the intention to harm another member of the school community regardless of whether this happens in school or outside.

Sharing explicit images and in particular explicit images of pupils and/or minors is an unacceptable and absolutely prohibited behaviour, with serious consequences and sanctions for those involved. Sharing explicit images of other pupils automatically incurs suspension as a sanction.

Cyberbullying

When using the internet pupils, parents and staff are expected to treat others with respect at all times.

Engaging in online activities with the intention to harm, harass, or embarrass another pupil or member of staff is an unacceptable and absolutely prohibited behaviour, with serious consequences and sanctions for those involved.

Measures are taken to ensure that staff and pupils are aware that bullying is defined as unwanted negative behaviour, verbal, psychological or physical, conducted by an individual or group against another person (or persons) and which is repeated over time. This definition includes cyber-bullying even when it happens outside the school or at night, which only needs to occur once to be considered bullying.

The prevention of cyber bullying is an integral part of the anti-bullying policy of our school.

School Websites

Pupils will be given the opportunity to publish projects, artwork or school work on the internet in accordance with clear policies and approval processes regarding the content that can be loaded to the school’s website.

The website will be regularly checked to ensure that there is no content that compromises the safety, privacy, or reputation of students or staff.

Web pages allowing comments or user-generated content will be checked frequently to ensure that they do not contain any inappropriate or offensive content.

The publication of student work will be coordinated by an appropriate staff member.

Personal student information including home address and contact details will not be published on web pages.

Distance Learning and Blended Learning

Pupils’ engagement with the Internet may not be limited to in-school use. Where distance learning or blended learning occur, pupils and staff are expected to uphold the same standards of use as outlined in the sections above.

In the cases where video conferencing technologies, including Zoom are used the links to the meeting must not be shared with other persons. This must be strictly adhered to, to avoid the risk of harm to the intended audience.

Pre-recorded videos, resources and images created for the pupils must not be shared with other persons, other than the intended audience.

Teachers may choose to use a number of tools for classroom communication. Examples include Zoom, Seesaw, email and Padlet. These communication tools will be used more extensively during periods of school closure, due to lockdown, to facilitate distance learning.

Some of these tools (Zoom) provide synchronous video opportunities whereby a staff member directly speaks to the children live - e.g. through a webinar or online meeting. The staff member invites pupils and their families to these meetings using a code. The following are ground rules for synchronous lessons online.

  • All meetings will be password protected.

  • All people involved in the meeting will conduct themselves in a similar manner that would be expected in a regular class.

  • All people involved in the meeting will be dressed appropriately.

  • A family member is expected to be close by when a pupil is engaging in a meeting.

  • While chat may be available in an online meeting, it is the responsibility of the child’s family to ensure that any interaction is appropriate.

  • Under no circumstances can pictures or recordings be taken of video calls.

  • Staff will use security measures including:

    • use of the “waiting room” facility before allowing entry to the live meeting.

      o removing or suspending participants whose behaviour is inappropriate.

      o “locking” the meeting to prevent unauthorised entry.