Online safety at St Mildred’s

All children in our school are taught how to stay safe online and how to use online devices safely as part of our Online Safety curriculum.

Our Year group termly planning incorporates online safety.

We have a set of rules that the children agree to before they can use the internet or mobile devices. A copy of this agreement is also sent home as part of our New Parents Pack when they start in reception so that you can support your child in their use of ICT at home. (Copies of these agreements and our school policies can be found under Key information)

Use the web links to help your child learn about staying safe when using the internet. 

http://www.thinkuknow.co.uk/5_7/LeeandKim/              http://www.thinkuknow.co.uk/5_7/hectorsworld/  

Here are some links to useful information for parents to help you keep your children safe online.

CEOP Child Exploitation and Online Protection Centre – This is the National Crime Agencies website and is full of useful information for parents and children.            http://www.ceop.police.uk/safety-centre/

IF you have any immediate concerns or online issues click the Make a CEOP report button on this website (on the right hand side of the page) and you will receive help, advice and support.

Other useful websites with information, games and resources:

http://www.thinkuknow.co.uk/

www.bbc.co.uk/onlinesafety   

http://www.vodafone.com/content/parents/get-started.html

Keep Children Safe Online leaflet http://www.kelsi.org.uk/__data/assets/pdf_file/0004/43087/Keep-Children-Safe-Online-Leaflet.pdf

Common Sense Media

https://www.commonsensemedia.org/

Acceptable Use

All members of our school community are asked to sign an acceptable use policy which sets out the safe use of technology and the internet at St Mildred’s.

On entry to the school children and parents are asked to discuss our children’s acceptable use rules:

• I only use the internet when an adult is with me
• I only click on links and buttons online when I know what they do
• I keep my personal information and passwords safe online
• I only send messages online which are polite and friendly
• I know the school can see what I am doing online
• I will only use school devices and the internet to help me with my learning
• I know that if I do not follow the rules:​​​​​​
  • Then I may be stopped from using school devices and the internet.
  • I will need to talk about this with a teacher/Mrs Hill
  • It will be discussed with my parents/carers if necessary
• I always tell an adult/teacher if something online makes me feel unhappy or worried
• I can visit our school website www.st-mildreds.kent.sch.uk/online-safety-1/ or www.thinkuknow.co.uk/5_7/ to learn more about keeping safe online

These are revisited regularly with the children during their time at St Mildred’s and these posters are displayed around the school as a reminder.

Click here to read our Acceptable Use policy and information.

Filtering and Monitoring

At St Mildred's Infant School we take our role seriously in ensuring online safety systems are securely in place for pupils, staff and visitors.

Keeping Child Safe in Education (KCSIE) clearly outlines our schools' responsibility with regard to online safety including 'filtering and monitoring'.

At St Mildred's we have appropriate filtering and monitoring systems in place and regularly review their effectiveness. Staff have an awareness and understanding of the provisions in place and know how to escalate concerns if identified.  We are careful that "over blocking" does not lead to unreasonable restrictions as to what children can be taught with regard to online teaching and safeguarding.

It is important to recognise that no filtering systems can be 100% effective and need to be supported with good teaching learning practice and effective supervision.  As such, filtering systems should be recognised as one of the tools use to support and inform the broader safeguarding provision in settings.

In our school children do not have unsupervised access to school online technology and they do not bring personal technology in from home (including phones, tablets or smart watches).  Staff have personalised logins to access the school network which supports the appropriate filtering and monitoring systems we have in place.  Visitors are not able to access our network and can only use our Wi-Fi with permission from a senior leader, should this be identified as essential to their visit.  We have Acceptable Use Policies in place for pupils, staff and visitors.

BT is our Kent approved broadband provider.  We use Fortinet Filtering and Monitoring software provided by NCS Technology.  The UK Safer Internet Centre asked all UK web filtering providers to self-certify their filtering system using their checklist, so that schools and families can understand how illegal and appropriate content is filtered.

Their filtering and  monitoring checklist can be found below:

Microsoft Word - Appropriate-Filtering-Provider-Response-2023 - Fortinet-v3

Microsoft Word - Appropriate-Monitoring-for-Schools-Provider-Response-2023