Introduction
The Board of Management of Scoil Íosa recognises the Internet as an essential element for education, business and social interaction. The use of the Internet forms an integral facet of the revised curriculum making it a necessary tool for education. As such this policy was devised as a guide for acceptable Internet usage within our school. The policy is drawn up under the guidance of NCTE and using a combination of best practice in Irish Primary schools and guidelines as laid down in the ‘Webwise’ website.
Aims of Internet usage
The primary aims of Internet use in Scoil Íosa are as follows:
• To raise educational standards through integration of ICT across the curriculum.
• To promote and to increase pupil achievement,
• To support the professional development of staff through making content available for planning of effective lessons where relevant.
• To enhance the quality of lessons available to the children through the availability of supplementary content on the World Wide Web.
• To enhance the school’s management systems.
• Through the use of file sharing systems such as Dropbox, Delicious etc, to facilitate the staffs’ access to core school policies. ,
Aims of Acceptable Use Policy
The overall aim of our Acceptable Use Policy is:
• To ensure that pupils, teachers and parents will benefit from the learning opportunities offered by the school’s Internet resources in a safe, responsible and effective manner.
Implementation Strategies
In order to maximise opportunities for the pupils of Scoil Íosa, the school will employ the following implementation strategies:
• The use of the Internet by the pupils should be supervised by the relevant teacher at all times.
• Websites accessed will be closely monitored and will be relevant to the study area of research.
• Filtering software will be used with the aim of minimising the risk of exposure of the children to unsuitable and inappropriate material. Inadvertent exposure to such inappropriate material should be immediately reported to the teacher.
• Students will not have access to passwords where such are in operation.
• Teachers will be provided with training in the area of Internet safety.
• Uploading and downloading of any content to the world wide web will be strictly supervised.
• AVG Free Virus protection software will be installed and updated as appropriate
• The use of personal pen drives, CD-ROMs or DVDs in school will only be permitted under teacher supervision. All such devices must be virus scanned before use.
• Students will observe good “netiquette” (i.e. etiquette on the Internet) at all times and will not undertake any actions that may bring the school, their families or themselves into disrepute.
• Sites used by the children in school will be previewed by their teacher before use. Where possible, children will access web sites by using Web Quests or recognised search engines.
• Students will use the Internet for educational purposes only.
• Teachers and students will be familiar with the concept of copyright.
• Students will never disclose or publicise personal information.
• All personnel in Scoil Íosa having access to the world wide web should be made aware that such use will be subject to monitoring and may be re accessed through the temporary internet files or through search history.
• Students will not visit Internet sites that contain obscene, illegal, hateful or otherwise objectionable or subversive material. In cases where children do inadvertently access such sites the offending URL will be noted and the service provider (NCTE) will be informed.
Email
The children will not be permitted to access the school e mail account.
• Emails received by the school relating to the pupils will be opened by a teacher
• Children will not send or receive any material that is illegal, obscene, defamatory or any material that is intended to annoy or intimidate another person.
• Children will not reveal their own or other people’s personal details, such as addresses, telephone numbers or pictures.
• Children will never arrange a meeting with someone they are familiar with through emails or through any other form of internet communication software or media.
• Children will note that sending and receiving email attachments is subject to permission from their teacher and will be from email accounts set up for such purposes by the relevant teacher. Pupils will not be allowed to utilise personal email addresses for any school content.
• Children are forbidden to arrange any face to face meetings via email or internet chat rooms.
• Meetings with someone organised via Internet chat rooms and discussion forums is forbidden.
School Website
• Pupils will be given the opportunity to publish projects, artwork and school work on the World Wide Web with parental permission and under the supervision of the relevant class teacher.
• The publication of student work will be co-ordinated by a teacher.
• Pupils’ work will appear in an educational context on Web pages with a copyright notice prohibiting the copying of such work without written permission.
• Digital photographs, audio or video clips of identifiable individual students will not be published on the school website without explicit parental permission. As a general rule ,photographs, audio and video clips will focus on group activities.
• Personal pupil information including name, home address and contact details will be never be published to the school web site or to web sites associated with the school. The School and pupils will own the copyright on any work published.
Legislation
Attention is drawn to the following pieces of legislation pertaining to the use of the Internet and access to online content.
• Data Protection Amendment Act 2003
• Child Trafficking and Pornography Act 1998 –
• Interception Act 1993 – http://www.acts.ie/zza10y1993.1.html
• Video Recordings Act 1989 – http://www.irishstatutebook.ie/ZZA22Y1989.html
• The Data Protection Act 1988 – http://www.irishstatutebook.ie/ZZA25Y1988.html
Support Structures
Websites offering support and advice in the area of Internet Safety have been listed on the “Favourites” menu of each computer connected to the Internet. The following is a selection:
• NCTE – http://www.ncte.ie/InternetSafety/
• Webwise – http://www.webwise.ie/
• Make IT Secure – http://makeitsecure.ie
• Safe Internet – http://www.saferinternet.org/ww/en/pub/insafe/
The following guides/manuals are available in school:
• Be Wise on the Net …Information and Advice for Schools
• NCTE Internet Safety Awareness Education Programme Teachers’ Handbook SAFT Project (NCTE)
Sanctions
Misuse of the Internet may result in disciplinary action in accordance with the School’s Code of Behaviour. which includes written warnings, notification of parents, 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.