Monday, March 01, 2010
Successful schools manage rather than restrict internet use.
New evidence suggests students need to manage their own online risks.
A review of the use of the internet in schools has been published by Ofsted as part of E-safety week. The Safer Use of Technologies report, evaluates school policy and practice and concludes the schools with the safest use of the internet have fewer blocked sites than others, but a policy of managed use encouraging student responsibility for internet use.
“Managed" online systems were more successful than "locked" ones at safeguarding pupils' safety.”
The area identified as needing the most improvement was staff training. Ofsted inspectors visited 33 primary and secondary schools, a special school and a pupil referral unit and found e-safety was outstanding in five, good in 16, satisfactory in 13 and inadequate in one. All five schools judged as outstanding were using managed systems.
The report highlights that although the children and students were safe in school where the systems of blocking internet sites and access was used, they were more vulnerable when using the internet outside of school. The schools taking a policy of managed use were equipping their students better for “whole-life” use of the internet.
“Where the provision for e-safety was outstanding, the schools had managed rather than locked down systems. "In the best practice seen, pupils were helped, from a very early age, to assess the risk of accessing sites and therefore gradually to acquire skills which would help them adopt safe practices even when they were not supervised.”
To read the report from Ofsted in full click here.
The newly launched digital code, for safe use of the internet, helps to support this type of practice. Zip it, Block it, Flag It is an easy to remember strategy to help children to stay safe online at school or at home.
Zip it: Keep your personal stuff private and think about what you say and do online.
Block it: Block people who send nasty messages and don't open unknown links and attachments.
Flag it: Flag up with someone you trust if anything upsets you or if someone asks to meet you offline.
The Click Clever, Click Safe Campaign has also been launched to help parents to use the code with their children at home. Visit direct.gov.uk/clickcleverclicksafe to find out a bit more about each aspect of the code.