Online Advice (E-Safety)

Protecting students and staff while they use ICT and the internet is important at Hillside, we have a number of measures in place concerning E-safety.

Below is a list of measures implemented to protect and inform our users regarding e-safety and to minimise the risk from e-safety incidents:

• Secure internet connection provided by Virgin Media
• Internet content filtering provided Smoothwall
• Monitoring of pupils and staff using software called e-Safe
• Whole School E-safety policy with acceptable use policies (AUPs) for all users
• CEOP Report abuse buttons within internet browsers and intranet sites
• CEOP accredited training for staff
• CEOP accredited materials used within ICT and Citizenship/SMSC lessons
• Annual E-safety Assemblies (Internet Safety Week)
• E-safety workshops for parents.
• E-safety information within School newsletters
• E-safety page on school website
• E-safety noticeboard
• A copy of the current School e-safety policy is available from the School Policies page.

As mentioned above, e-safety is taught within Computer Science and Citizenship/SMSC lessons. The following information gives a brief explanation on how this is covered.

Computer Science

All classes in years 7, 8 and 9 have complete dedicated units of work covering different aspects of online safety.  Throughout the year, pupils also regularly learn about the following 

• how to stay safe online,
• risks of using the internet and how to protect yourself against being a victim of  online abuse

Year 10 and 11 Computer Science pupils learn about the following

•  Ethical, legal, cultural and environmental concerns

• System security

Citizenship/SMSC

Citizenship/SMSC explores the issue of prejudice, diversity and bullying in the first term in year 7. This is done to ensure that students are aware of the issues and expectations within the secondary school environment at the very start of their school career.

Online-safety is delivered during this time to raise awareness of potential threats to student safety through the use of a variety of technologies. An example of this would be cyber bullying using the internet.

There are a range of differentiated resources held on the school network from which form tutors can choose the most appropriate for their form group. These resources are accompanied by lesson plans to assist tutors in delivering the lessons effectively.

Lessons resources consist of:

• E-safety and cyber bullying information (leaflets, posters, articles etc.)
• CEOP / Thinkuknow video files
• Quiz based PowerPoint’s for teachers to use with the class
• Website shortcuts to locate up-to-date E-safety information
• Case Studies
• Diary tasks (to develop pupil empathy)

Shortly after the topic of E-safety finishes in year 7 Citizenship/SMSC, the content is reinforced and further developed by subject specialists in the schools ICT department. This cross-curricular approach emphasises and raises the profile of E-Safety across the school.