Mission Statement

The Cyber Ethics & Safety committee will promote and endeavour to ensure the welfare and safety of students in an ICT learning environment. This will be achieved through an infrastructure of whole-school awareness, designed responsibilities, policies and procedures.

Aims

The Cyber Ethics & Safety committee seeks to:

1. Develop a cyber safety policy to encourage safe Intranet/Internet practices whilst outlining the consequences for a breach of policy:
 

• identify and document the responsibilities of stakeholders within the school (e.g. HOY, teachers).
• develop a cyber safety Incident report which logs students’ incident and ensures that action is taken as swiftly as possible.
• maintain a log of all incidents relating to cyber safety for committee review.
• develop protocols which enable appropriate actions to be carried out whilst identifying problem students.
   

2. Review the existing acceptable use policy and update the policy on the basis of analysis of logs and emerging technological trends:
 

• identify some of the current cyber safety issues within the school.
• identify and incorporate emerging technologies into updated policy (e.g. camera phones, portable media players).
• incorporate consequences associated with a breach of policy.
   

3. Develop a comprehensive cyber safety education programme for the whole community:
 

·      provide students with an awareness of the issues and risks of using ICT, alongside the benefits, particularly in regards to Internet and other communication technologies.

·      integrate cyber safety education across the curriculum by producing lesson material and resources to support teaching staff.

·      develop collaborative projects (e.g. CyberSafe Schools & NetAlert projects) which encourage communication with outside agencies within a safe environment.

·      integrate cyber safety education with other school safety issues (e.g. copyright, bullying).

·      promote student awareness regarding the use of Internet/Internet facilities at the school as being strictly for educational purposes.

·      promote student awareness of cyber safety through a collection of resources available at the resource centre (e.g. Books – Chat Room by Barbara Biggs).

·      provide information nights for parents (e.g. Yr 7, Junior & Middle Schools).

·      provide cyber safety information through newsletters (e.g. monitoring electronic communication).

·      develop cyber safety section on school website providing the school community with resources including URLS to Internet safety websites.

·      display cyber safety posters around the school.

·      liaise with outside agencies (e.g. NetAlert) to offer extensive education programmes.

·      promote staff awareness of the professional responsibilities for students’ safety in the area of cyber safety.

·      encourage staff to seek professional development for developing and maintaining knowledge on cyber safety issues.
 

4. Improve the technical infrastructure to support safety practices:
 

• integrate appropriate and effective security measures (e.g. filters, monitoring and firewall technology).
• incorporate a continually updated URL ban list.
  
   

Cyber Ethics & Safety Committee