Child Safety on the Internet

Dear Mrs Fitzsimons

I refer to the above and your email dated 22 October regarding internet
safety, the content of which has been noted. Education Leeds will respond
on behalf of Leeds City Council.

Your request is governed by the Freedom of Information Act 2000 and has
been passed to me to deal with on this basis. At this stage it is too
early for us to confirm whether or not we hold the information you have
requested. However, we will inform you of the outcome of our deliberations
as soon as possible. In any event, we will ensure that you either receive
the information or an explanation as to why this will not be provided by
no later than 19 November. This will be twenty working days from receipt
of your request, as set out under Section 10 of the above Act.

Depending on the estimated amount of time involved in locating and
retrieving the information we may have to refuse your request. This will
only arise if the total estimated cost of dealing with the above exceeds
the limit set by the government (**450 or 18 hours). I will inform you of
our decision when I write to you next.

I trust that this is self explanatory although if you have any queries
then please don***t hesitate to contact me on Leeds 3950782 or in writing
by return email.

Kind regards

Nicola Palmer
Information Policy Access Officer
Education Leeds
Tel: (0113) 3950782 (ext 50782)
Fax: (0113) 2475354 (ext 75354)

The information contained in this message or any

of its attachments may be privileged and confidential

and intended for the exclusive use of the addressee.

If you have received this message in error, please notify

us at [email address] and

remove it from your system. Failure to comply with this

may lead to a breach of the Data Protection Act 1998.

Education Leeds Limited is wholly owned by

Leeds City Council, registered in England No. 4155758.

Registered Office: Merrion House (10th Floor East),

110 Merrion Centre, Leeds LS2 8DR.

Dear Mrs Fitzsimons

I refer to the above and your email dated 22 October. I have contacted the
relevant services and now provide the following response to your questions
relating to internet safety, which I will refer to individually.
1. Internet Safety Education provided as part of the school curriculum.
- Within your schools is there a specific program aimed at teaching
children about staying safe online, including cyber bullying been
integrated into the curriculum? If yes, who is responsible for delivery
and what accreditations/training have they received? For example, teacher,
CEOP trained ambassador? If yes, how often is internet safety training
integrated into the school curriculum, i.e. weekly, monthly etc? If no,
what steps/timeframes are being taken for implementation?

Every school in England and Wales is required to follow the Statutory
programme of Study for ICT, which sets out what must be taught in schools.
This can be found in detail at: http://curriculum.qcda.gov.uk/index.aspx

The Education Leeds Primary National Strategies team have produced
guidance materials for teaching esafety within the Primary Curriculum -
this is available free to all schools through the Primary ICT
Collaboration Zone on our Leeds Learning Network (LLN).

The following opportunities for training and support around esafety in
primary schools have been available from September 2008:

* New curriculum training delivered in 2008-9 to 115 primary school
teachers included elements of esafety.
* New Primary ICT subject leaders delivered in October 2009 - 8 schools
attended.
* Funding has been identified to provide 80 primary schools with support
on developing a curriculum for esafety within the spring term which
may be repeated in the summer term if the demand is high.

All primary school headteachers received a letter in September 2009
directing them to the esafety guidance on LLN and the BECTA website and
included OfSTED guidance on what good provision for esafety looks like.
The Education Leeds National Strategies team produced specific support and
guidance materials for Key Stage 3, copies of which were issued free to
all schools in April 2009. Additional copies of these were (and still are)
made available through the secondary ICT LLN collaboration zone.

The following opportunities for training and support around esafety in
secondary schools have been available from Sept 2008:

* Secondary ICT teachers / subject leaders - Curriculum Development Day
September 2008 - 20 schools attended.
* Secondary ICT teachers / subject leaders - Curriculum Development Day
June 2009 - 20 schools attended.
* Secondary ICT subject leaders had a specific input on an inspection
framework for esafety in June 2009 - 24 schools attended.
* Secondary Esafety training September 2009 - 18 schools attended.

In addition Education Leeds provides city wide Child Protection (CP)
training to all staff not just school staff and esafety forms a large part
of this training. Schools are provided comprehensive CP training every
three years and the designated CP officer for each school, every two
years. Education Leeds has a staff protocol regarding CP which is also in
place in schools and we also provide bespoke training should this be
required. In addition Leeds Safeguarding Children Board are also
investigating a training package which can be rolled out to parents.

2. Internet Filtering
- Do the primary and secondary schools within your authority have
internet filtering in place?
All but one school in Leeds has their Internet Feed filtered via Education
Leeds based Leeds Learning Network (LLN). The Leeds Learning Network has
achieved the prestigious Becta award for Internet provision for the
seventh year in a row. The award recognises the high standards of internet
safety provided by LLN to the entire learning community in Leeds. LLN is
the only LEA provided ISP to achieve the award for this number of
consecutive years. Becta accreditation requires months of rigorous testing
and evaluation to ensure that successful ISPs meet minimum safety
standards to protect learners from unsuitable Internet access. This
includes standards for email and Internet filtering, anti-virus and
anti-spam software and ensuring that email addresses protect pupils***
anonymity.

- If yes, what tools do you use? For example Hardware or Software?
The LLN uses Netsweeper Internet Filtering software, and a combination of
email anti-virus, and anti-spam filters.

- If yes, what is the name of your internet filtering supplier and when
was their contract last renewed/due for renewal?
This service is provided by our managed service partners, Synetrix, under
an agreement which expires in 2015.

3. Internet Filtering Breaches
- 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.
To our knowledge there have been no breaches of the filtering solution,
although we remain vigilant to protect the safety of our children.

- 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.
Not applicable.

I hope this information is useful to you, however if you are dissatisfied
with this response then you have a right to appeal to an independent
officer within Education Leeds. On appeal, your request will be
re-examined and an assessment made as to whether the requirements of the
Act have been adhered to. Should you wish to follow this course of action
then please address your concerns in writing to Moin Patel, Information
Management Team, 10th Floor East, Merrion House, Leeds, LS2 8DT or by
email at [email address].

You also have a right under Section 50 of the Freedom of Information Act
to ask the Information Commissioner to take a decision as to whether we
have met with our obligations under the Act. The Commissioner has made it
clear however that he expects all applicants to exhaust internal appeals
procedures prior to making such an application. Should you wish to contact
the Commissioner***s Office then you can write to the following address:

Office of the Information Commissioner,
Wycliffe House,
Water Lane,
Wilmslow,
Cheshire,
SK9 5AF.
You may also contact the Commissioner via his website at www.ico.gov.uk

I trust that this is self explanatory although if you have any queries
then please don***t hesitate to contact me on Leeds (0113) 3950782, Jane
Sheehan on Leeds 2243615, or by return email.

Kind Regards

Nicola Palmer
Information Policy Access Officer
Education Leeds
Tel: (0113) 3950782 (ext 50782)
Fax: (0113) 2475354 (ext 75354)

The information contained in this message or any

of its attachments may be privileged and confidential

and intended for the exclusive use of the addressee.

If you have received this message in error, please notify

us at [email address] and

remove it from your system. Failure to comply with this

may lead to a breach of the Data Protection Act 1998.

Education Leeds Limited is wholly owned by

Leeds City Council, registered in England No. 4155758.

Registered Office: Merrion House (10th Floor East),

110 Merrion Centre, Leeds LS2 8DR.