Safety on the Internet

The Internet is educative, informative and fun. It's second nature to teenagers and enables pupils to communicate with friends, family and one another, especially in the boarding community. Online communications are increasingly accessible, not just from school PCs and laptops, but also from the students' own smart mobile phones, other handheld devices and gaming equipment.

Problems associated with the potential anonymity of digital communication including viruses, hacking, cyberbullying, inappropriate content, on-line predators and abuse of privacy. Increased use of social media like Facebook poses further threats to the privacy and personal safety of pupils, as well as their reputations. The school uses teaching, assemblies and other information to encourage students to promote positive online profiles and follow safe online practices. A Year 9 parents' information evening during Internet Safety Week in the Michaelmas term explores these risks with parents and covers ways of encouraging children to adopt positive online practices.

Ultimately students need to manage risks themselves but, to protect pupils and the school from potential abuse caused by misuse of technologies, we:

  • ask all students and staff to sign an IT Code of Conduct agreement in which they contract to use our computer networks safely, securely and legally
  • filter and monitor all internet traffic to and from school
  • restrict access by site, time or age-group, with routine reviews of these filters

 The following websites are a good source of advice and information for families:

To discuss any of these issues, please contact the Pastoral Deputy Head, Miss Theresa Homewood, at tmh@sevenoaksschool.org or the Director of Information Systems, Mrs Sarah Williamson, at sxw@sevenoaksschool.org

Internet Safety Week

w/c 26 September 2011

Internet Safety Week runs at the end of September to raise awareness of the risks and dangers involved in online activities, whilst also acknowledging the positive benefits of the internet.

Activities included:

Year 7: ThinkUKnow taught programme and phone safety
Year 8: ThinkUKnow assembly recapping themes taught last year and safe social networking
Year 9: Cyberbullying assembly and safe social networking
Year 9 Parents: Coverage during "Living with Teenagers" evening (Wednesday 28 September)
Year 10: Lesson - students discuss Sexting, its risks and avoidance strategies
Lower 6: Visiting speaker on positive online profiles and assembly on social networking in 2011
Upper 6: Assembly on positive online profiles and the role of social networking in 2011

Mobile phones and the internet

With increasing numbers of students using internet enabled phones and other devices, we would draw your attention to some of the associated risks. Mobile internet access can occasionally be useful for students, especially in the Sixth Form, but it also gives users unrestricted access to web content that might be inappropriate, upsetting or disruptive in school.

Internet access is filtered for appropriateness by site, age or time on school computers and devices connected through the wireless network. During Online Safety Week every year, we explore some of the risks with students and explain ways to surf safely. The school’s IT Code of Conduct sets the standards expected from all students as they use IT in school. Ultimately students need to manage risks themselves but we would encourage parents to use restrictions and other controls to mobile devices used by students by:

  • applying age-appropriate settings to the devices or through contracts with service providers
  • making sure students know how to switch off Bluetooth settings on phones when not in use, with visibility settings switched to ‘hidden’ to prevent phones from receiving unsolicited and unwelcome messages

The websites listed in the section above provide details about online risks, with tips and techniques that you and your child might find helping in managing them. Orange publishes a useful publication called Mobile Phones: What Parents Need to Know.

Despite their value, mobile phones are often mislaid on campus. Please ensure that any phone brought to school is labelled (e.g. by student code) in a way that will help us to find the owner if it is lost. Note that there is no designated storage on campus for pupils' own comuters, iPads or other vulnerable devices, which day students are not expected to need in school.