Community Directorate
Education Service
Boclair House
100 Milngavie Road
Bearsden
Your Ref: G61 2TQ
Our Ref: GC/PD/0001L Telephone: 0141 578 8709
If `phoning or calling ask for Gordon Currie Fax: 0141 578 8653
Ext No: 8709 e-mail: [email address]
12th November 2009
Mrs Fitzsimons
Dear Ms Fitzsimons
FOI Request: Child Safety on the Internet
Thank you for your FOI request regarding the above subject. I have now collated the appropriate information and offer you the following response:
1. Internet Safety Education provided as part of the school curriculum.
a) Within your schools has a specific program aimed at teaching children about staying safe online, including cyber bullying been integrated into the curriculum?
Yes (5)
Programme for P1-P7 based on Think You Know and Netsmartz for the last two years.
Covered as part or our Health Week activities.
Police Officer (schools presentation officer) raised awareness on a yearly basis. This was followed up by classroom teachers. (10)
Online internet safety is taught / discussed through the following: feature of school health week, PSD curriculum in the upper school to consider best practice online, recent Cluster initiative with to share case studies and best practice with parents and pupils, Annual Child protection meetings with staff looking specifically at case studies relating to online safety, EDC leaflet campaign to highlight concerns of using internet.
There was a substantial input to all staff at recent training on child protection
We use Anti Bullying week annually to launch school behaviour programme and Anti bullying strategies, this year we will also use this in conjunction with self esteem and confidence programmes such as Cool in School. We look at bullying through role play and stories and use these themes during assemblies too:- Social bullying, Physical, Emotional and the use if ICT devices such as facebook, twitter, texting etc. Evidence of this in various power points. The programme that the Police Officer ran was imperative to help teachers and parents understand the safety element of interest usage and the potential dangers of unsupervised access by children. This will also be a feature in our parent and child room when this is up and running.
Some work has been done over the last few sessions including input from Police Officer seconded to support schools in this area to the P6 classes and then drama work which was presented to parents before a Parent's info evening on internet safety. Whole school assembly also
Cyber bullying is covered in PSD as another way in which children can be bullied / become bullies.Community Policeman covered this aspect with senior pupils as part of PSD / Citizenship programme.
The needs of the children mean that we recommend to parents that children do not use the internet unsupervised. Staff have had training as part of Child Protection training. Pupils at our school are never allowed internet access without adult support due to their developmental stage.
There is no whole school programme although the matter is discussed during circle time, PSD lessons, during general discussions about bullying.
Focus on S1; Internet Safety; direct police involvement in delivery
Planning to trial SQA's online internet Safety qualification.
Cyber Café. Confidence to Thrive upper Primary bullying resource.
As part of their planning for the teaching of ICT, teachers take into account “Developing Informed Attitudes”, which aims to enable pupils to; appreciate the need for responsible uses of ICT, the need to protect information, individuals and society from its misuse and appreciate when it is and is not appropriate to use ICT
We do not have a specific programme of study on this subject,
however internet safety is integrated into the curriculum in the
following ways; During "Health Week" a presentation is given to upper school pupils on Internet Safety by "Glasgow Safety Centre", Police Community Officers have also delivered a talk at assembly to
pupils on this subject, P6 and P7 discuss this topic as part of their "Personal and Social Development", All pupils in P4-7 are reminded about internet safety before each ICT lesson in out ICT suite, all pupils in P1-3 are reminded that their mum or dad should always be close by if they are on the computer at home, A section on Internet Safety and on Cyberbullying is posted on our school website for both pupils and parents.
In P 6 & 7 - Children type out 5 Key Rules of Internet Safety.
At present this is delivered to our pupils via their mainstream provision for our primary pupils and is covered in S1-S2 for our secondary pupils. Within the service Teachers regularly discuss issues relating to internet safety with the pupils, but we are not using a specific programme.
We have held two internet safety presentations for parents, one was
linked with the cluster. The children have also had internet
safety talks as part of our health programme.
A programme delivers these keys messages through S1 PSE. This is supported by input in S1, P6 and 7 by police presentations. Last school year, all of S3 benefited from “Cyberspyder” production and workshops. It was very powerful and warmly received by all pupils. An evening performance was also offered to parents and staff. (Staff in Computing and BIS also reinforce this message but there is a need to make this more explicit.)
b) If yes, who is responsible for delivery and what accreditations/training have they received? For example, teacher, CEOP trained ambassador.
Teacher - No formal accreditation or training to date. (5)
Teacher has been trained.
Has been delivered by Police Schools Presentation Officer. (4)
Last session all our teachers received training from Police Officer as part of our CSD training programme.
Teachers with PGDE qualifications in ICT
DHT co-ordinates Health & Wellbeing and attends Health Forum. Class teacher delivers programme. DHT liaises with external agencies to give input to pupils and parents. Also link with anti-bullying programme.
Overall responsibility for PSE is (DHT). All PSE staff involved in delivery supported by Strathclyde police.
Guidance Teacher
Our ICT coordinator has lead on this in the school.
Computing Teacher
Recently been trained as a CEOP Ambassador and plan to deliver internet safety training for staff to deliver in their classrooms
The staff who deliver S1 PSE are all experienced in pastoral care and are PT Pupil Support. DHT Pupil Support would ensure appropriate professional opportunities and training are made available and the impact of these would be measured and linked to our Improvement Plan. DHT S4 has the responsibility for CPD for all staff.
No member of staff currently holds any accreditation. All staff have
responsibility to deliver internet safety.
c) If yes, how often is internet safety training integrated into the school curriculum, i.e. weekly, monthly etc
The programme is delivered in a term block, usually the final term (3)
All our pupils and parents have a responsible user agreement signed at the start of each year alerting then to the dangers of using the internet and technology in an inappropriate manner. We also incorporate this theme into personal safety programmes and again it is highlighted during our Health and Well Being Week where pupils are given presentations on internet safety eg Hectors House etc. Discussed at assemblies periodically. This is included in our school's new citizenship and sexual health and relationship programmes to be launched in the New Year. We also respond to local and national events to reinforce this issue - for example the HT will sensitively raise this issue with the school during our Friday assembly in light of the Sedgefield incident.
Specific input at certain times of the year and frequent reminders from class teachers working with ICT during the course of the year.
Not integrated formally. However, teachers regularly remind pupils about inherent dangers
It is delivered once per year but followed up regularly through input by the class teacher.
Informally taught whenever internet is used.
Plans to integrate internet safety education into the school curriculum will be considered by our Health & Wellbeing Working Party.
Done as a special project once a year in P7
Annually and during each school term. ICT Lessons are carried out in our ICT suite weekly where pupils are reminded about internet safety.
Ongoing issue - dealt with during Computer programme throughout sessions.
The children are reminded regularly by class teachers and through
safety assemblies. They also know to report anything inappropriate.
Currently this is done through the PSE curriculum - one period a week for S1 and inserts for S3. The S3 PSE programme is currently under review. Middle school classes are informed and reminded of the above throughout the year in BIS and Computing. In conjunction with PT BIS, PTs Pupil Support and school librarian, we are looking to implement a far more rigorous approach to this topic which builds up from primary school experience to appropriate input for S6. The timescale for this to be in place is August 2010 and will link in with all the work we are doing in terms of Health and Wellbeing across learning.
Annually in PSE for pupils S1-S4 (5)
As a component of the S1, PSE course
If no, what steps/timeframes are being taken for implementation?
Highlighting the issue to parents via the newsletter that info leaflets are available via our school website. During review of school Care & Welfare policy we recognise it is something we will have to include in our programmes.
The needs of the children mean that we recommend to parents that children do not use the internet unsupervised.
Staff have had training as part of Child Protection training. Pupils at our school are never allowed internet access without adult support due to their developmental stage.
Hopefully further training offered for teaching staff to attend in session 09/10. Once this is done offer information session to parents of P6 & P7 pupils.
This will be incorporated into the Health and Wellbeing programme of study currently being planned as part of our work on implementation of Curriculum for Excellence.
Discussions taking place on how to integrate this into our PSD. Curriculum.
Still use Police Officer's programme as well as regular reminders at assembly about safe use of internet etc.
This will be addressed collegiate meeting
Pupils constantly supervised by adult, who moves around supporting pupils as they work on-line. Bright posters displayed around the ICT suite reminding pupils about staying safe on-line. Websites are screened by the Local Authority. Inset day on Child Protection featured section on Internet Safety
Police Officer has provided an internet safety presentation for all P4 - P7 pupils. At a staff meeting all were shown on-line support materials from CEOP. All staff are planning to use these materials as appropriate. A whole school programme will then be created to ensure all children receive internet safety education in a planned, progressive basis.
Will follow local authority guidance (2)
Being looked at as part of our review of health and well being next sessions.
We are planning to introduce a series of lessons about internet safety into the ICT programme. We would expect that this will be in place by the end of this current session.
Health and Well Being is on this session's improvement plan 09-10 and personal safety will be part of the programme of study, internet safety will be part of this development.
For several years the school has benefited from the input the Schools Police Presentations Officer. He spoke to each class, each year about Internet Safety. He also held drop-in events regarding Internet Safety at parents' evenings and had an Information Evening as part of the school Health Week. The teachers in the school have been informed of the website thinkuknow.co.uk and advised that this is useful for internet safety education.
Although we already feel we integrate internet safety into our
curriculum, we plan to have pupils design "warning" and "reminder"
flashcards which will be attached to every computer reminding pupils
not to give personal information on the internet etc.
Although we have no formal programme, throughout all stages in our school we have raised awareness of the issue of staying safe online through PSD programmes and through I.C.T. programmes e.g. GLOW. In addition to this awareness is also raised during our health month through external partnerships working with the Police. Parental involvement is also evident at this time.
We are planning to introduce a series of lessons about internet safety into the ICT programme. We would expect that this will be in place by the end of this current session
We are currently reviewing our whole S3-S4 curriculum and seeking to incorporate internet safety etc into this new programme. We are aiming to begin this in the new session.
2. Internet Filtering
a) Do the primary and secondary schools within your authority have internet filtering in place?
Yes all Education establishments have a filtering solution in place...this is a Central Enterprise solution located in the Education Data Centre.
b) If yes, what tools do you use? e.g. Hardware or Software?
Central Proxy, Management and Load Balancing Servers with filtering software installed..
c) If yes, what is the name of your internet filtering supplier and when was their contract last renewed/due for renewal?
RM Safety Net Plus...the contract was renewed in March 2009.
3. Internet Filtering Breaches
a) Have any of the Schools within the past 24 months experienced a breach of Internet Filtering where children were able to access pornography or Indecent images. Please provide details of School Type (Primary or Secondary), Date of Breach and Type of Unsuitable material accessed.
I am not aware of any incidents where children were exposed to unwanted or indecent images.
b) If a breach of security occurred how was your authority notified? For example, by a parent, by the school, through an automated alert provided by hardware/software supplier.
This would be highlighted in various ways...either by a member of staff or the pupil, the school or through report logs generated through the system.
Yours sincerely
GORDON CURRIE
Head of Education
c.c. Stephen Armstrong, FOI Officer
Claire Robertson, Public Affairs
5
GORDON CURRIE
HEAD OF EDUCATION