In April 2023, and via the statutory Keeping Children Safe in Education Document, the government has released guidance for schools.

Meeting digital and technology standards in schools and colleges.

Key areas of the guidance:

• Annual review of systems as a minimum or when a safeguarding risk is identified, a change in working practice or introduction of new technology
• Involvement of members of SLT, DSL, the IT service provider and governors
• Review of blocklists which should be modified in line with changes to safeguarding risks
• Recording logs of monitoring e.g. When the checks took place / Who did the checks / What they tested/checked / Resulting actions
• Effective monitoring strategies that meet the safeguarding needs of YOUR school. The DSL should take lead responsibility for any safeguarding and child protection matters that are picked up through monitoring:
  • Incidents should be urgently picked up, acted on and outcomes are recorded
  • It should be clear to all staff how to deal with these incidents and who should lead on any actions
  • Training should be provided to make sure their knowledge is current

Filtering and Monitoring at Rickleton Primary

Rickleton Primary School is committed to  doing all we reasonably can to limit children’s exposure to the risks from the school’s IT system. We have an appropriate filtering and monitoring system in place, which alerts the Headteacher daily.

Rickleton Primary School adheres to the following filtering and monitoring standards to meet our duty.

Meeting digital and technology standards in schools and colleges - Filtering and monitoring standards for schools and colleges - Guidance - GOV.UK

In order to meet our duty around filtering and monitoring we have the following in place; 

• Mr Baker ( Deputy Headteacher ) is lead person for filtering and monitoring.
• The filtering and monitoring provision is reviewed at least annually by Omnicom (our technology support company).
• Harmful and inappropriate content is blocked  without unreasonably impacting learning. The content covered is set by IWF (Internet Watch Foundation) who set the international standard for filtering. All blocked websites/words etc are determined by them as default but can also be tailored by school leaders. They are also set at levels suggested by CTIRU (Counter terrorism organisation) to include keyword and categories linked to PREVENT and radicalisation.
• Effective monitoring strategies are in place which meet their safeguarding needs. This is managed by the moitoring system 'SECURUS'. (www.securus-software.com). Information, including viewed websites or typed terminology, are flagged up immediately via the system to school safeguarding leads for investigation (monitored by J Price and A Baker). 

In addition to the statutory standards above, filtering and monitoring is also monitored and discussed via:

- regular safeguarding updates between J Price and M Thompson (Governor for Safeguarding)

- termly meetings of the '360 Safe' panel ensuring that school meet all internet safety standards (www.360safe.org.uk). The panel is made of A Baker (Deputy Head), S Robinson (Computing and Esafety Lead) and D Mowbray-Pape (Governor for Computing and Esafety).

- meetings with Mark Duffy (Lead technician with Omnicom) to review provision.

- regular filter checks carried out by Omnicom technician.