Design note 4 - what do we mean?

In addition to the similarities between our new icon and the real Northern Lights, we particularly liked some of the themes the Northern Lights icon represented, namely:

  • Uniqueness
  • Reaching for high standards
  • Our Trust on a journey to Remarkable
  • Whether you are a student, a teacher or a trusted partner, everyone is on a unique journey, one that will take them to new places and opportunities.

Design note 3 - a bold look

To complement our dynamic new Northern Lights icon, we needed a strong colour pallette and confident, contemporary font.
The contrasting yet complimentary colours in our logo symbolises our value of diversity and unity. We often talk about 'the same but different' at Beckfoot Trust to acknowledge that whilst we have a very clear One Trust identity and clarity on what remarkable means, we also know that one size does not always fit all. 

Design note 2 - our Northern Lights

Perhaps the most important part of our new Beckfoot Trust logo is the icon, shown to the right here.

We call it our Northern Lights.

In nature, the Northern Lights are seen as something unique and truly Remarkable that are associated with the North.

Our Northern Lights icon represents The Beckfoot Trust which is also on a constant journey to Remarkable and is strongly associated with the North of England.

As part of our ongoing Journey to Remarkable we felt it was important to give The Beckfoot Trust a strong, confident and contemporary logo and brand that was worthy of an organisation with such high standards and aspirations.

The new Trust logo was a departure from the previous logo style and was definitely designed with the future in mind.

Online Safety and IT Use Policy

In this document

1.0 Policy Statement

1.1 Beckfoot Trust recognises that Information and Communications Technology (ICT) in a useful resource to support teaching and learning and is an inevitable feature in the everyday lives of children, young people and adults.

1.2 We also recognises that the use of technology has also become a significant component of many safeguarding issues, including Child Sexual Exploitation, radicalisation, child on child abuse and sexual harassment, and understands that technology can be used as a platform to facilitate harm.

1.3 Beckfoot Trust aims to protect and educate students and adults in their use of technology and has in place mechanisms to identify, intervene in, and escalate any incident where appropriate. It recognises the vulnerability of students online, but particularly groups who are more susceptible such as those with SEND and protected characteristics. 

1.4 Beckfoot Trust ensures that each school has appropriate filters and monitoring systems in place to safeguard children from potentially harmful and inappropriate online material and does all it reasonably can to limit students’ exposure to the above risks from the School’s IT system. Students’ access to the internet via their personal mobile devices on school premises is limited and regulated. As part of our safeguarding practice staff accounts are also monitored too.

2.0 Scope and Purpose

2.1 DFE Guidance

This policy is based on the Department for Education’s (DfE) latest statutory safeguarding guidance, Keeping Children Safe in Education. Also, the following DfE advice for schools:

It reflects existing legislation, including but not limited to the Education Act 1996 (as amended), the Education and Inspections Act 2006 and the Equality Act 2010. In addition, it reflects the Education Act 2011, which has given teachers stronger powers to tackle cyber-bullying by, if necessary, searching for and deleting inappropriate images or files on students’ electronic devices where they believe there is a ‘good reason’ to do so.

The policy also considers the National Curriculum: computing programmes of study and the Online Safety Act 2023

2.2 Links with other Trust policies:

  • Trust Child Protection and Safeguarding Policy
  • Trust Behaviour Policy
  • Trust Disciplinary Policy
  • Trust Data Protection Policy
  • Trust Freedom of Information Policy and Publication Scheme
  • Trust Privacy Notices
  • Trust Complaints Policy
  • Trust Code of Conduct for Employees

3.0 Overarching Principles

3.1 ICT covers a wide range of resources including web-based and mobile learning. It is also important to recognise the constant and fast paced evolution of ICT within our society. Currently the internet technologies staff, children and young people are using both inside and outside of the classroom include:

  • Websites
  • E-mail, instant messaging and chat rooms
  • Social media including Facebook and Twitter (including, although not exhaustibly Facebook, X, Snapchat, Instagram, TikTok, WhatsApp, Discord)
  • Mobile phones, cameras, other devices with imaging and sharing capabilities with text, video and/or web functionality – referred to throughout as mobile devices
  • Making/receiving phone calls via their mobile devices
  • Other mobile devices with web functionality i.e., Smart watches
  • Gaming, especially online
  • Learning Platforms and Virtual Learning Environments
  • Blogs and Wikis
  • Podcasting
  • Video Broadcasting
  • Music Downloading

The increasing prevalence of self-generative artificial intelligence is a growing concern, with pupils potentially having access to tools that generate text and images at home or in school.

These tools not only represent a challenge in terms of accuracy when young people are genuinely looking for information, but also in terms of plagiarism for teachers, and above all, safety. None of the mainstream tools have end-user safety settings and will easily produce inappropriate material despite the age limits that are in place on them.

Beckfoot Trust recognises that since the Covid-19 pandemic, more children have access to the online world in its various forms and therefore we recognise young people are exposed to more online harms than ever before.

3.2 Keeping Children Safe in Education references four areas of risk online within part two, these being:

Content: being exposed to illegal, inappropriate or harmful content, for example: pornography, fake news, racism, misogyny, self-harm, suicide, anti-Semitism, radicalisation, extremism misinformation, disinformation (including fake news) and conspiracy theories.

Contact: being subjected to harmful online interaction with other users; for example: peer to peer pressure, commercial advertising and adults posing as children or young adults with the intention to groom or exploit them for sexual, criminal, financial or other purposes

Conduct: personal online behaviour that increases the likelihood of, or causes, harm; for example, making, sending and receiving explicit images (e.g. consensual and non-consensual sharing of nudes and semi-nudes and/or pornography, sharing other explicit images and online bullying

Commerce: risks such as online gambling, inappropriate advertising, phishing and or financial scams

As with all other risks, it is impossible to eliminate these risks completely. It is therefore essential, through strong educational provision that we build our pupils’ resilience to the risks to which they may be exposed, so that they have the confidence and skills to face and deal with these risks. This involves all stakeholders.

4.0 Responsibilities and Arrangements

4.1 The Trust Board and CEO

4.1.1 The Trust Board has overall responsibility for monitoring this policy and holding the CEO to account for its implementation, including the scrutiny of filtering and monitoring data. 

Online safety will be audited as part of the external safeguarding review, and these reports will be shared with the Trust Board.

All Board members will:

  • Ensure that they have read and understand this policy.
  • Agree and adhere to the terms on acceptable use of the Trust IT systems and the internet (Appendix 2).

There is a named trustee who has responsibility for Safeguarding and Child Protection. This responsibility includes online safety.

4.2 The Safeguarding Trustee

4.2.1 The role of the safeguarding Trustee is to seek further assurance on behalf of Trust Board on how safeguarding is managed in the Trust for the safety and wellbeing of the children. The role includes:

  • Understanding the requirements of the Governance Handbook and the latest Keeping Children Safe in Education
  • Seeking assurance, supporting and challenging the Executive Member for Safeguarding, the Trust Safeguarding Lead and DSLs on the standards of safeguarding in the Trust
  • Confirming that consistent and compliant safeguarding practice takes place across the Trust
  • Reporting to the board of trustees about the standard of safeguarding in Trust schools
  • Ensure that, where necessary, teaching about safeguarding, including online safety, is for vulnerable children, victims of abuse and some pupils with SEND because of the importance of recognising that a ‘one size fits all’ approach may not be appropriate for all children in all situations, and a more personalised or contextualised approach may often be more suitable.

4.2.2 The Executive Member for Safeguarding and the Trust Safeguarding Lead and the safeguarding trustee meet on a regular basis to discuss safeguarding issues and to agree steps to continuously improve safeguarding practices in the trust.

4.3 Trust Leaders with responsibility for Safeguarding and IT

4.3.1 These leaders are responsible for:

  • Identifying risks
  • Setting expectations of staff
  • Co-ordinating the responsibilities of IT leadership and school safeguarding teams to ensure the provision and management of online tools meets the DFE guidance for safeguarding and IT standards.

4.3.2 They are also responsible for making sure that all staff:  understand their role and are appropriately trained to follow policies, processes and procedures and act on reports and concerns.

4.4 Executive Leader for Safeguarding (supported by the Lead Safeguarding and SEND Practitioner):

4.4.1 This leader is responsible for:

  • Working with the Central Team Leader with responsibility for IT to review the Guardian Web Filter Policy elements
  • Reviewing filtering and monitoring to identify current provision, any gaps, and the specific needs of our pupils and staff taking into consideration:
    1. the risk profile of pupils, including age range, pupils with special educational needs and disability (SEND), pupils with English as an additional language (EAL) 
    2. what the filtering system currently blocks or allows and why
    3. any outside safeguarding influences, such as county lines
    4. any relevant safeguarding reports
    5. the digital resilience of our pupils
    6. teaching requirements, for example, our RHSE and PSHE curriculum 
    7. the specific use of our chosen technologies

4.5 Central Team Senior Leader with responsibility for IT

4.5.1 This leader is responsible for:

  • Procuring filtering and monitoring systems
  • Working with the Bradford Learning Network and Smoothwall to ensure our internet connection is aligned with the DFE monitoring and filtering standards
  • Reviewing the effectiveness of the provision
  • Ensuring that filtering and monitoring provision is reviewed, including an annual online safety and cyber security review

4.6 Service Development Manager

4.6.1 This leader is responsible for:

  • Working to trust and DfE standards in putting in place an appropriate level of security protection procedures in line with the DFE Filtering and monitoring standards for schools and colleges.
  • Ensuring that the Trust IT systems are secure and protected in line with the DFE Cyber security standards for schools and colleges.
  • Ensure file storage is in line with the DfE Servers and storage standards for schools and colleges
  • Conducting security checks and monitoring Trust IT systems on a regular basis.
  • Blocking access to potentially dangerous sites and, where possible, preventing the downloading of potentially dangerous files.
  • Maintaining block and allow lists for staff and students, ensuring consistency across all schools.
  • Ensure device monitoring systems are working as expected

4.6.2 Working with the Trust Safeguarding Leader to review the Guardian Web Filter Policy elements:

  • Who:The individual user or user-group to whom the policy applies
  • What:The web content category, or a group of categories, to be actioned by the policy
  • Where:A network location (an IP or range of IP’s) that the policy will apply too
  • When:A time-slot during which the policy will be active
  • Action:How the Smoothwall will action the policy

4.7 The Headteacher

4.7.1 The Headteacher is responsible for ensuring that staff understand this policy, and that it is being implemented consistently throughout the school.

4.7.2 Ensuring that, where necessary, teaching about safeguarding, including online safety, is adapted for vulnerable children, victims of abuse and some pupils with SEND because of the importance of recognising that a ‘one size fits all’ approach may not be appropriate for all children in all situations, and a more personalised or contextualised approach may often be more suitable.

4.8 The Designated Safeguarding Lead

4.8.1 Details of the school Designated Safeguarding Lead (DSL) and Deputies are set out in the school protocol.

4.8.2 Day to day management of filtering and monitoring systems requires the specialist knowledge of both safeguarding and IT staff to be effective. The DSL should work closely together with IT service providers to meet the needs of the setting and may need to ask filtering or monitoring providers for system specific training and support.

4.8.3 The DfE Filtering and monitoring standards for schools and colleges expect that the DSL should take lead responsibility for safeguarding and online safety, which could include overseeing and acting on:

  • Filtering and monitoring reports
  • Safeguarding concerns
  • Checks to filtering and monitoring systems

4.8.4 The DSL takes lead responsibility for online safety in school, in particular:

  • Supporting the Headteacher in ensuring that staff understand this policy and that it is being implemented consistently throughout the school
  • Working with the Headteacher, IT Manager and other staff, as necessary, to address any online safety issues or incidents
  • Managing all online safety issues and incidents in line with the school child protection protocol
  • Ensuring that any online safety incidents are logged on CPOMS and dealt with appropriately in line with this policy
  • Ensuring that any incidents of cyber-bullying are logged and dealt with appropriately in line with the school behaviour protocol and school child protection protocol
  • Updating and delivering staff training on online safety annually
  • Liaising with other agencies and/or external services if necessary
  • Providing regular reports on online safety in school to the headteacher and/or LSC/Trust Board

4.9 All staff, volunteers, contractors, visitors and agency staff (this list is not intended to be exhaustive)

4.9.1 All staff need to be aware of reporting mechanisms for safeguarding and technical concerns. They should report if:

  • They witness or suspect unsuitable material has been accessed 
  • They can access unsuitable material  
  • They are teaching topics which could create unusual activity on the filtering logs 
  • There is failure in the software or abuse of the system 
  • There are perceived unreasonable restrictions that affect teaching and learning or administrative tasks 
  • They notice abbreviations or misspellings that allow access to restricted material

4.9.2 All staff, including contractors and agency staff, and volunteers are responsible for: 

  • Maintaining an understanding of this policy.
  • Implementing this policy consistently.
  • Agreeing and adhering to the terms on acceptable use of the Trust’s IT systems and the internet (Appendix 2) and ensuring that students follow the Trust terms on acceptable use (Appendix 1).
  • Working with the DSL to ensure that any online safety incidents are logged and dealt with appropriately in line with this policy.
  • Ensuring that any incidents of cyber-bullying are dealt with appropriately in line with the school behaviour policy.
  • Responding appropriately to all reports and concerns about sexual violence and/or harassment, both online and offline and maintaining an attitude of ‘it could happen here’
  • Understand the unique risks associated with online safety and be confident that they have the relevant knowledge and up to date capability required to keep children safe whilst they are online at school.
  • Can recognise the additional risks that children with SEN and disabilities (SEND) face online, for example, from online bullying, grooming and radicalisation and are confident they can support SEND children to stay safe online.
  • Any photographs/video footage must be taken using school equipment.
  • Employees must only save images on school IT hardware/computers. 
  • Adults must not use any personal electronic communication devices in school areas where children are present unless there are exceptional circumstances and they have requested and been given explicit permission to do so by the Headteacher.

4.10 Families

4.10.1 Beckfoot Trust would ask that all of our families to support the aims of this policy by:

  • Ensuring their child (where age appropriate) has read, understood and agreed to the terms on acceptable use of IT and internet
  • Helping and supporting the school in promoting online safety with their children
  • Discussing online safety concerns with their children, showing an interest in how they are using technology, and encouraging them to behave safely and responsibly when using technology
  • Consulting with their Beckfoot Trust School if they have any concerns about their child’s use of technology
  • Supporting Beckfoot Trust’s approach to online safety and not deliberately post comments or upload any images, sounds or text that could upset or offend any member of the school community or bring the school into disrepute

4.10.2 Parents can seek further guidance on keeping children safe online from the following organisations and websites:

4.11 Pupils

4.11.1 All pupils at in Beckfoot schools are expected to:

  • Take responsibility for their own and each other’s’ safe and responsible use of technology wherever it is being used, including judging the risks posed by the personal technology owned and used by them outside of school
  • Ensure they respect the feelings, rights and values of other pupils in their use of technology at school and at home
  • Understand what action should be taken if they feel worried, uncomfortable, vulnerable or at risk whilst using technology, or if they know of someone to whom this is happening
  • Report all online safety incidents to appropriate members of staff in school
  • Discuss online safety issues with family and friends in an open and honest way
  • Know, understand and follow school policies on the use of technology to an age appropriate level
  • Support their school approach to online safety and not deliberately post comments or upload any images, sounds or text that could upset or offend any member of the school community or bring the school into disrepute.

See the pupil Acceptable Use Policy for more details.

4.12 Visitors and members of the community

4.12.1 Visitors and members of the community agree to the terms and conditions of the acceptable use policy (see Appendix 2) when signing in at reception. Safeguarding information sheets are distributed on arrival to make visitors aware of the Trust’s IT systems. Internet access to guest WIFI is time limited and accessible through a code distributed on arrival. 

5.0 Preventative Action

5.1 There are four stages of prevention and action when managing online safeguarding:

  • Education – School’s preventative curriculums help pupils understand how to stay safe online and why certain content is unacceptable
  • Prevention – All staff are vigilant and don’t rely on technical monitoring
  • Reaction – All staff should address unacceptable and unsafe behaviour and the DSL should investigate any online safeguarding incidents
  • Reporting and monitoring – Leaders should review reports …so that strategies are put in place to ensure safe use of technology in our schools

5.2 The DfE Filtering and monitoring standards for schools and colleges states clearly that technical monitoring systems do not stop unsafe activities on a device or online. Staff should:

  • Provide effective supervision
  • Take steps to maintain awareness of how devices are being used by pupils
  • Report any safeguarding concerns to the DSL

6.0 Educating Students About Online Safety 

Students will be taught about online safety as part of the curriculum. 

In Key Stage 1, students will be taught to:

  • Use technology safely and respectfully, keeping personal information private
  • Identify where to go for help and support when they have concerns about content or contact on the internet or other online technologies

In Key Stage 2, students will be taught to:

  • Use technology safely, respectfully, and responsibly
  • Recognise acceptable and unacceptable behaviour
  • Identify a range of ways to report concerns about content and contact

In Key Stage 3, students will be taught to:

  • Understand a range of ways to use technology safely, respectfully, responsibly, and securely, including protecting their online identity and privacy
  • Recognise inappropriate content, contact, and conduct, and know how to report concerns

In Key Stage 4, students will be taught:

  • To understand how changes in technology affect safety, including new ways to protect their online privacy and identity
  • How to report a range of concerns

Individual school curriculums should address online safety through the four categories of risk; content, contact, conduct and commerce (See Section 3).

The safe use of social media and the internet will also be covered in other subjects where relevant. 

The school will use assemblies to raise students’ awareness of the dangers that can be encountered online and may also invite speakers to talk to students about this.

Where necessary, teaching about safeguarding, including online safety, will be adapted for vulnerable children, victims of abuse and some pupils with SEND.

7.0 How to Report a Range of Concerns

Individual school curriculums should address online safety through the four categories of risk; content, contact, conduct and commerce (See Section 3).

The safe use of social media and the internet will also be covered in other subjects where relevant. 

The school will use assemblies to raise students’ awareness of the dangers that can be encountered online and may also invite speakers to talk to students about this.

Where necessary, teaching about safeguarding, including online safety, will be adapted for vulnerable children, victims of abuse and some pupils with SEND.

8.0 Educating Parents/Carers about Online Safety

Schools will raise parents’ awareness of internet safety in various ways e.g. parents’ evenings, letters, news items etc. through the school website or parental communication systems.

If parents/carers have any queries or concerns in relation to online safety, these should be raised in the first instance with the Headteacher and/or the DSL.

Concerns or queries about this policy can be raised with any member of staff or the Headteacher.

Schools may need to seek further advice if they are concerned parents/carers are not addressing online safety.

9.0 Online Safety Trends

9.1 At Beckfoot Trust, we are mindful that the online world is ever developing and we recognise that we must be vigilant in being aware of and responding to new risks that may harm our pupils. For example, the increasing prevalence of self-generative artificial intelligence is a growing concern, with pupils potentially having access to tools that generate text and images at home or in school. These tools not only represent a challenge in terms of accuracy when young people are genuinely looking for information, but also in terms of plagiarism for teachers, and above all, safety. None of the mainstream tools have end-user safety settings and will easily produce inappropriate material despite the age limits that are in place on them.

Against this background, the Ofcom ‘Children and parents: media use and attitudes report 2024’ has shown that an increasing number of younger children are having a presence online, there has been a rise in online gaming activity across children of all ages, and children have been twice as likely as adults to have used artificial intelligence technology.

9.2 We are aware many children and young adults struggle to identify harmful content and challenges online. Incidents which affect the wellbeing and safeguarding of our students include:

  • Sharing inappropriate images via chat groups out of school
  • Incidents of online bullying using chat groups and messaging apps
  • Pupils playing games that are not age appropriate
  • Pupils contacting / being contacted by unknown individuals using online game platforms
  • Searching for inappropriate terms using school resources, including:
    • Andrew Tate
    • Online gaming platforms
    • YouTube videos
  • Pupils following online trends and dares using platforms such as TikTok

9.3 We are mindful other issues that may affect our schools include:

  • Increase in the number fights being filmed and shared
  • Increase in the cases of self-harm and sexual abuse being coerced with threats of violence
  • Increase in unpleasant and even cyberbullying behaviour between pupils through social media apps
  • Increase in the number of fake profiles causing issues including:
    • where the school logo and/or name have been used to share inappropriate content about students
    • spreading of defamatory allegations about staff
    • using fake profiles to bully others (sometimes even pretending to be one student to bully another student)

Risk is constantly reviewed at both school and trust level to try to mitigate against concerns as much as possible.

10.0 Cyber-bullying

Definition:

Cyber-bullying takes place online, such as through social networking sites, messaging apps or gaming sites. Like other forms of bullying, it is the repetitive, intentional harming of one person or group by another person or group, where the relationship involves an imbalance of power. (See also the school Behaviour Policy.)

10.1 Preventing and addressing cyber-bullying

To help prevent cyber-bullying, we will ensure that students understand what it is and what to do if they become aware of it happening to them or others. We will ensure that Students know how they can report any incidents and are encouraged to do so, including where they are a witness rather than the victim.

The school will actively discuss cyber-bullying with students, explaining the reasons why it occurs, the forms it may take and what the consequences can be. Class teachers and Tutors will discuss cyber-bullying with their tutor/registration groups, and the issue will be addressed in assemblies.

Teaching staff are also encouraged to find opportunities to use aspects of the curriculum to cover cyber-bullying. This includes personal, social, health and economic (PSHE) education, and other subjects where appropriate.

All staff, board members and volunteers (where appropriate) receive training on cyber-bullying, its impact, and ways to support students, as part of safeguarding training (see section 17 for more detail).

The school also sends information/leaflets on cyber-bullying to parents/carers so that they are aware of the signs, how to report it and how they can support children who may be affected.

In relation to a specific incident of cyber-bullying, the school will follow the processes set out in the school behaviour policy. Where illegal, inappropriate, or harmful material has been spread among students, the school will use all reasonable endeavours to ensure the incident is contained.

The DSL will consider whether the incident should be reported to the police if it involves illegal material and will work with external services if it is deemed necessary to do so.

11.0 Students Using Mobile Devices in School

11.1 It is recognised that extensive mobile device use is detrimental to children’s mental health and wellbeing. However, we understand that many families want older children to have a phone for safety reasons when travelling to and from school. All Beckfoot Trust schools have a policy where mobile devices should be switched off, out of sight, and wherever possible locked away. Please see each school’s local protocol for what a child should do with their mobile device whilst at school. Mobile device usage in lesson time or at social time is not permitted (with the exception of Post-16 students). Please see the Trust behaviour policy and specific school protocol for further guidance.

11.2 Examining electronic devices

School staff have the specific power under the Education and Inspections Act 2006 (which has been increased by the Education Act 2011) to search for and, if necessary, delete inappropriate images or files on Students’ electronic devices, including mobile phones, iPads and other tablet devices, where they believe there is a ‘good reason’ to do so.

When deciding whether there is a good reason to examine or erase data or files on an electronic device, staff must reasonably suspect that the data or file in question has been, or could be, used to: 

  • Cause harm, and/or
  • Disrupt teaching, and/or
  • Break any of the school rules

If inappropriate material is found on the device, it is up to the staff member in conjunction with the DSL or other member of the senior leadership team to decide whether they should: 

  • Delete that material, or
  • Retain it as evidence (of a criminal offence or a breach of school discipline), and/or
  • Report it to the police*

*Staff may also confiscate devices for evidence to hand to the police, if a pupil discloses that they are being abused and that this abuse includes an online element.

Any searching of students will be carried out in line with:

Any complaints about searching for or deleting inappropriate images or files on students’ electronic devices will be dealt with through the school complaints procedure.

12.0 Acceptable Use of the Internet and Devices

All students, parents, staff, volunteers, and Board members are expected to sign an agreement regarding the acceptable use of the Trust IT systems and the internet (Appendices 1 and 2). Visitors will be expected to read and agree to the Trust terms on acceptable use if relevant.

Use of the Trust internet must be for educational purposes only, or for the purpose of fulfilling the duties of an individual’s role.

We will monitor and filter the websites visited by students, staff, volunteers, Board members and visitors (where relevant) to ensure they comply with the above.

More information is set out in the acceptable use agreements in Appendices 1 and 2. 

12.1 Beckfoot Trust Staff personal use of social media

12.1.1 Employees must not identify themselves as employees of the Trust in their personal ‘social’ online spaces such a X and Facebook. This is to prevent information on these sites from being linked with the Trust and to safeguard the privacy of staff members, particularly those involved in providing sensitive frontline services.

12.1.2 Where employees choose to present themselves in their professional role on sites such as LinkedIn, they must ensure that nothing that they post has the potential to bring the trust, school or profession into disrepute. For safeguarding reasons, as a trust, we do not engage with X (formerly Twitter) and we do not encourage our students to interact with us on this forum. Our Code of Conduct policy (4.10) reminds colleagues of their online responsibilities, particularly in relation to contact with children and families. All employees are also reminded in this policy that they must avoid all electronic communication that might be misconstrued in a way that could damage our Trust’s reputation, even indirectly. Employees have a duty to report any activity from our students or other colleagues that is of concern.

12.1.3 The Trust does not expect employees to discontinue contact with their family members via personal social media once the Trust starts providing services for them. However, any information employees obtain in the course of their employment must not be used for personal gain or be passed on to others who may use it in such a way.

12.1.4 Employees must not have any contact with pupils’ family members through personal social media if that contact is likely to constitute a conflict of interest or call into question their objectivity.

12.1.5 Employees must decline ‘friend requests’ from pupils they receive in their personal social media accounts. Instead, if they receive such requests from pupils of any school who are not family members, they may discuss these in general terms in class where the pupils attend the school and signpost pupils to become ‘friends’ of the official school site if there is one.

12.1.6 Information employees have access to as part of their employment, including personal information about pupils and their family members, colleagues, and other parties and Trust corporate information must not be discussed on their personal online space.

12.1.7 Photographs, videos, or any other types of images of pupils and their families or images depicting employees wearing clothing with school logos on must not be published on personal web space.

12.1.8 Trust/school email addresses and other official contact details must not be used for setting up personal social media accounts or to communicate through such media. 

12.1.9 The Trust only permits limited personal use of social media during designated break points. However, employees are expected to devote their contracted hours of work to their professional duties, and, in practice, personal use of the internet should not be in the Trust’s time. This is subject to such use:

  • Not depriving pupils of the use of the equipment and/or
  • Not interfering with the proper performance of employee’s duties

12.1.10 Caution is advised when inviting work colleagues to be ‘friends’ in personal social networking sites. Employees are advised that they set the privacy levels of their personal sites as strictly as they can and to opt out of public listings on social networking sites to protect their own privacy. Employees should keep their passwords confidential, change them often and be careful about what is posted online. It is not appropriate to reveal home addresses, telephone numbers and other personal information.

  • Using social media on behalf of the Trust

12.2.1 Employees can only use official Trust sites for communicating with pupils or to enable pupils to communicate with one another.

12.2.2 Employees should seek permission from the Headteacher before creating an official Trust related site explaining their business reasons for doing so.

12.2.3 Any official Trust sites created must not breach the terms and conditions of social media service providers, particularly regarding minimum age requirements. 

12.2.4 Employees must always act in the best interests of children and young people when creating, participating in or contributing content to social media sites.

12.2.5 If you are contacted for comments about the Trust for publication anywhere, including in any social media outlet please direct the enquiry to the Headteacher.

  • Use of Trust IT

12.3.1 Staff who use the Trust’s IT and communication systems:

  • Must use it responsibly
  • Must keep it safe
  • Must keep passwords confidential and must report any breach of password confidentiality to the Headteacher or nominated IT team as soon as possible.
  • Must report any known breaches of this policy, including any inappropriate images or other material which may be discovered on the Trust’s IT systems.
  • Must report to the Headteacher or designated safeguarding officer any vulnerabilities affecting child protection in the Trust’s IT and communications systems.
  • Must not install software on the Trust’s equipment unless authorised by the IT leadership.
  • Must comply with any IT security procedures governing the use of systems in the school, including anti-virus measures.
  • Must ensure that it is used in compliance with this policy.

12.3.2 Any equipment provided to a Trust employee is provided for their sole use. Any use of the equipment by family or friends is not permitted and any misuse of the equipment by unauthorised users will be the responsibility of the staff member.

  • Email and communications systems usage

12.4.1 The following uses of IT are prohibited, may amount to gross misconduct, and could result in dismissal. Please see the Disciplinary Policy for further guidance.

  • To make, to gain access to, or for the publication and distribution of inappropriate sexual material, including text and/or images, or other material that may deprave or corrupt those likely to read or see it
  • To make, to gain access to, and/or for the publication and distribution of material promoting homophobia or racial or religious hatred
  • For the purpose of bullying or harassment, or for or in connection with discrimination on the grounds of gender, race, religion, disability, age or sexual orientation
  • For the publication and/or distribution of libellous statements or material which defames or degrades others
  • For the publication of material that brings the Trust/school or its pupils or employees into disrepute
  • For the publication and distribution of personal data without authorisation
  • Where the content of the email correspondence is unlawful
  • To participate in on-line gambling
  • Where the use infringes copyright law
  • To gain unauthorised access to internal or external computer systems (commonly known as hacking)
  • To create or deliberately distribute IT or communications systems viruses
  • To record or monitor telephone or email communications without the express approval of the Trust. In no case will such recording, or monitoring be permitted unless it has been established that such action is in full compliance will the relevant legislation i.e. the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act 2000.
  • To participate in “chain” e-mail correspondence
  • In pursuance of personal business or financial interests or political activities (excluding the legitimate activities of recognised trade unions).

13.0 Staff Using Work Devices Outside School

13.1 Staff members using a work device outside school must not install any unauthorised software on the device and must not use the device in any way which would violate the Trust’s terms of acceptable use, as set out in Appendix 2. 

13.2 Staff must ensure that their work device is secure and password-protected, preferably encrypted where possible and practical, and that they do not share their password with others. Any USB, disks or portable hard drives devices containing Trust or school data must be encrypted/password protected.

13.3 Staff must take all reasonable steps to ensure the security of their work device when using it outside school. For example, but not limited to:

  • Not connecting to an unprotected WIFI connection
  • Using the device where the screen may be visible by others when accessing personal data e.g. student and staff records:
  • Making sure the device is locked if left unattended
  • Not sharing the device among family or friends

14.0 Insurance Requirements for Work IT Equipment and Mobile Devices

  • It is a condition of the Trust Insurance Policy that whenever hardware e.g., laptops and mobile devicesareleftinanunattendedvehicle,theymustbekeptoutofsightinaluggagecompartment, glovecompartment,orsimilarcontainerandallwindowsoropeningsmustbeclosedandalldoors locked. If the items are left inan unattended vehicle overnight, thevehicle must bein asecure or attended garage or compound.In the event of a theft, failure to adhere to these conditions will result in an insurance claim being refused.

If staff have any concerns over the security of their device, they must seek advice from the IT team or Cluster Business Manager.

14.2 Work devices must be used solely for work activities. 

14.3 Loss or theft of any work equipment must be reported to the police immediately and IT Team or Cluster Business Manager immediately. Full details of the loss or theft will be required together with the crime reference number for insurance purposes.

15.0 Filtering and Monitoring

  • Filtering

15.1.1 In order to ensure that appropriate online filtering is in place across our Trust, Beckfoot Trust uses LGFL School Protect, a cloud-based web filter which is designed specifically for schools. This blocks internet access to harmful sites and inappropriate content, meeting all of the technical requirements set out by the Department for Education and specifically blocking access to illegal content including child sexual abuse material. Our filtering system filters all internet feeds, across all devices and operating systems, providing a dashboard showing online activity and attempts to access any web content that has been blocked. LGFL School Protect identifies the device/IP address (and where possible the individual), time and date of attempted access and the search term or content being blocked.

15.1.2 A managed IT service desk system is in operation and can make real-time changes should a site need to be blocked/un-blocked urgently. As an additional check, the DSL checks that our internet filtering is effective in blocking certain harmful material by using http://testfiltering.com/

  • Monitoring

15.2.1 In line with DFE IT standards, Beckfoot Trust have keystroke monitoring in place through Smoothwall Monitor, who have been a member of the Internet Watch Foundation since 1st June 2007. Smoothwall Monitor is a real-time, digital monitoring solution that flags safeguarding incidents as they happen when users view or type harmful content. This is able to capture activity that may indicate a risk, even outside of the regular web browser – such as in a Microsoft Word document etc. All Smoothwall Monitor alerts are reported to the DSL via an email alert so that a safeguarding response can be implemented. Where there is an immediate risk of harm, Smoothwall Monitor will phone the school immediately

  • Monitoring of staff usage

15.3.1 The Trust (where authorised by the Headteacher) reserves the right to monitor usage of its internet and email services without prior notification or authorisation from users.

15.3.2 Case example: A recent European Court of Human Rights case ruled that an employer was legitimately entitled to access an employee’s social media messenger account. This was because the messages had been sent during working hours, from a work account and on a work device. Therefore, users of the Trust’s email and internet services should have no expectation of privacy in anything they create, store, send or receive using the Trust’s IT system. As such employees should not use the school’s IT resources or communication systems for any matters that are private and confidential.

16.0 Generative AI

16.1 Any use of generative AI by staff and students should be carefully considered and assessed, evaluating the benefits and risks of use in the education setting. The intended use should be specified and have clear benefits that outweigh the risks. Safety should not be compromised. Schools should also consider that there may be uses of generative AI by staff or students that have not been explicitly approved or adopted and monitor the suitability and safety of this.

16.2 Our trust follows the age restriction guidance of AI platforms and we do not make these solutions available to students in our schools.

16.3 Staff have access to some generative AI tools through third party applications we use or by unfiltering Chat GPT. We expect staff to consider the following:

  • Personal data must be protected at all times and must never be shared with platforms outside of our organisation (eg. uploading a spreadsheet to ChatGPT for analysis is a breach of data privacy).
  • Copyrighted materials should not be used with AI tools but only original creative artwork.
  • We support the use of AI where it improves the care and education of children and learners but we expect all teaching staff to consider if the generated resources are accurate and if the learning outcome is enhanced or diminished by the solution.
  • We expect staff to remember that generative AI can be: inaccurate, inappropriate or unsafe, biased, taken out of context, taken without permission (intellectual property infringement), out of date or unreliable, low quality
  • Further guidance can be found here Using AI in education settings: support materials – GOV.UK

17.0 Breaches of the Policy

17.1 Any breach of this policy will be fully investigated and may lead to disciplinary action being taken against the employee/s involved in line with the Trust’s Disciplinary Policy and Procedure.

17.2 A breach of this policy leading to breaches of confidentiality, or defamation or damage to the reputation of the Trust/school or any illegal act/s that render the Trust/school liable to third parties may result in disciplinary action or dismissal.

17.3 Contracted providers of the Trust’s services must inform the Trust immediately if they become aware of any breaches of this policy so that appropriate action can be taken to protect confidential information and limit damage to the reputation of the Trust.

17.4 Under the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act (2000) the Trust can exercise the right to monitor the use of the Trust’s/school’s information systems and internet access where it is believed that unauthorised use may be taking place, to ensure compliance with regulatory practices, to ensure standards of service are maintained, to prevent or detect crime, to protect the communications system and to pick up messages if someone is away from school.

17.5 In certain circumstances the Trust will be obliged to inform the Local Authority Designated Officer (LADO) and/or police of any activity where there are concerns that it may constitute a safeguarding issue or potentially involve illegal activity.

18.0 How the Trust will Respond to Issues of Misuse

18.1 Where a student misuses the Trust’s IT systems or internet, we will follow the procedures set out in the Trust Behaviour Policy and school protocol. The action taken will depend on the individual circumstances, nature, and seriousness of the specific incident, and will be proportionate.

18.2 Where a staff member misuses the Trust’s IT systems or the internet or misuses a personal device where the action constitutes misconduct, the matter will be dealt with in accordance with the staff disciplinary procedures. The action taken will depend on the individual circumstances, nature, and seriousness of the specific incident.

18.3 The Trust will consider whether incidents which involve illegal activity or content, or otherwise serious incidents, should be reported to the police.

18.4 Any incidents which result in the unauthorised access, processing or sharing of personal data this will be considered a data breach under the Trust GDPR Data Protection and FOI Policy and must be notified immediately to the Cluster Business Manager.

19.0 Training

19.1 All new staff members will receive training, as part of their induction, on safe internet use and online safeguarding issues including cyber-bullying and the risks of online radicalisation.

19.2 All staff members will receive refresher training at least once each academic year as part of safeguarding training, as well as relevant updates as required (for example through emails, e-bulletins and staff meetings).

By way of this training, all staff will be made aware that:

  • Technology is a significant component in many safeguarding and wellbeing issues, and that children are at risk of online abuse
  • Children can abuse their peers online through:
  • Abusive, harassing, and misogynistic messages
  • Non-consensual sharing of indecent nude and semi-nude images and/or videos, especially around chat groups
  • Sharing of abusive images and pornography, to those who don’t want to receive such content
  • Physical abuse, sexual violence and initiation/hazing type violence can all contain an online element
  • Safety should be the top priority when deciding whether to use generative AI in the classroom

Training will also help staff:

  • Develop better awareness to assist in spotting the signs and symptoms of online abuse
  • Develop the ability to ensure pupils can recognise dangers and risks in online activity and can weigh the risks up
  • Develop the ability to influence pupils to make the healthiest long-term choices and keep them safe from harm in the short term

19.3 The DSL and Deputies will undertake child protection and safeguarding training, which will include online safety, at least every 2 years. They will also update their knowledge and skills on the subject of online safety at regular intervals, and at least annually.

19.4 Board members will receive training on safe internet use and online safeguarding issues as part of their safeguarding training.

19.5 Volunteers will receive appropriate training and updates, if applicable.

More information about safeguarding training is set out in our Child Protection and Safeguarding policy.

20.0 Policy Monitoring Arrangements

This policy will be reviewed every year by the Executive lead for Safeguarding and ratified by the Board of Trustees. Given the ever-changing nature of technology, we will ensure that this review is supported by ongoing risk assessment which reflects current online safety issues that children face. This is important because technology, and the risks and harms related to it, evolve and change rapidly.

We will monitor the impact of the policy using:

  • Logs of reported incidents in the Online Safety and Filtering and Monitoring categories on CPOMS
  • Internal monitoring data for network activity gathered through filtering and monitoring software
  • Pupil, staff and family voice

21.0 Review

This policy will be reviewed annually.