The Acceptable Use Policy: All adults working in school

All adults working with ICT equipment in Birmingham schools must ensure that they have read and agree to abide by the Birmingham County Council Acceptable User Policy which can be found online at: http://www.bgfl.org/services/itconnect/aup.htm

This policy is very comprehensive and should be read carefully along with other usage policies and information linked to the use of ICT in school.

Here is a summary of some of the main points for personal use:

User Names and Passwords – Do not give anyone access to your login name or password especially students. If you suspect that your password is known by another user then you should change it immediately or seek help to do so.

Memory Sticks – Do not introduce floppy disks/memory sticks into the system without first having them checked for viruses. Do not carry personal information about students or staff on memory sticks without encrypting the information.

Other Users’ Data – Do not open other people’s files without express permission. Do not corrupt, interfere with or destroy any other user’s information.

Personal Details – Do not release personal details including phone numbers, fax numbers or personal e-mail addresses of any colleague or student over the Internet.

Copyright – Do not reproduce copyright materials without first getting permission from the owner. Many people will make their work freely available for education on request. Acknowledge sources on all resources used.

Internet Usage – Do not attempt to visit sites which might be considered inappropriate. All sites visited leave evidence on the computer. Downloading some material is illegal and the police or other authorities may be called to investigate such use. Staff laptops will be monitored for such misuse.

Personal Use – Use of school Internet access for business, profit, advertising or political purposes is strictly forbidden.
Care – Users should log out of the network and close their browser when their session has finished. Do not leave computers in a classroom which are logged in to Eportal, the Learning Platform or Email. Take appropriate care of ICT equipment at all times.

Personal E-mail
Follow school guidelines contained in the ICT policy for the use of e-mail.

Observe netiquette on all occasions. E-mail should not be considered a private medium of communication. Email styles vary from user to user but politeness and courtesy are always welcomed and do not take much more time!

Do not include offensive or abusive language in your messages or any language which could be considered defamatory, obscene, menacing or illegal. Do not use language that could be calculated to incite hatred against any ethnic, religious or other minority.
Make sure nothing in the messages could be interpreted as libellous.

Do not send any message which is likely to cause annoyance, inconvenience or needless anxiety.

Do not send any unsolicited promotional or advertising material nor any chain letters or pyramid selling schemes.

When using the Internet, Network, Web-site or e-mail with/without children
Remind children of the rules for using the Equipment, Internet, or e-mail. All students will be issued with a computer and Internet Usage agreement which they will sign. Students should be reminded of the sanctions that will be applied following disregard of this policy.
Watch for accidental access to inappropriate materials and report the offending site to IT Support.

Check before publishing children’s work; make sure that you have parental permission. Parents of students at Cardinal Wiseman are expected to sign an agreement to allow pictures of students to be published on the web site or in newspapers. It is the responsibility of students to make staff aware when they have NOT given that permission.

Ensure children cannot be identified from photographs.

Report any breaches of the school’s Internet policy to IT Support.

When taking either still or moving images of students only use school equipment. Once images have been collected only store them securely on the school’s network or laptop. If you have some special editing software on your home PC that means you can edit the images for the school related work then temporarily transferring the images to your PC would be allowed. It is advisable to inform the Director of ICT and e-Learning if you do this.

Do not allow students to play inappropriate games or access inappropriate sites during lesson times. All activities using ICT equipment should have direct educational value.