On the 10th February 2010, Ofsted published its report: "The
Safe Use of New Technologies". This report is based on evidence from a
small-scale survey carried out between April and July 2009 in 35 maintained
schools in England (Including a variety of settings including Primary,
Secondary, Special, PRU contexts), which included a Primary and a Secondary
School in Kent!
The report evaluated the extent to which the schools
taught pupils to adopt safe and responsible practices in using new technologies,
and how they did (or did not) achieve this. It also assessed training on
internet safety for the staff in the schools visited and considered the
schools' links with families in terms of e-safety.
All of the schools visited reported that they had dealt
with a variety of e-safety incidents, such as pupils accessing inappropriate
websites, as well as problems with social networking sites and instant chat
sites.
The inspectors focused on 5 key areas:
-
Overall effectiveness of e-Safety
-
Outcomes for pupils
-
E-Safety provision
-
Leadership and management
-
Training for all staff
The provision for e-safety was outstanding in five of the
schools, good in 16, satisfactory in 13, and inadequate in one.
The 21 most effective schools were considered to have a
well-considered, active approach to keeping even the youngest pupils safe when they were online and were helping
them to take responsibility for their safety with knowledge that is appropriate to and
sufficient for their age and stage of development. The schools carefully considered
the pupils' knowledge and understanding and supported them accordingly. The
staff training was well established, incidents and activities were logged and
recorded and the e-Safety curriculum was planned and coordinated effectively across
all subjects and Key stages.
In the "outstanding" schools all the staff, including
members of the wider workforce, shared responsibility for e-Safety and its delivery
and development across the school. Assemblies, tutorial time, personal, social,
health and education lessons, and an age-appropriate curriculum for e-safety all
helped their pupils to become safe and responsible users of new technologies. Senior
leaders, governors, all members of staff and families worked together to
develop a clear strategy for e-safety and policies and procedures were reviewed
regularly in light of technological developments. These schools also recognised
that, although they had excellent relationships with families, they needed to
keep developing these to continue to support e-safety at home.
All of the ‘outstanding' schools used ‘managed' systems
to help pupils to become safe and responsible users of new technologies. ‘Managed'
systems (filtering and monitoring systems) have fewer inaccessible or blocked
sites than ‘locked down' systems and so require pupils to take responsibility
themselves for using new technologies safely. ‘Locked down' Systems were felt
not to provide pupils with enough opportunities to learn how to assess and
manage risk for themselves online. 13 schools used ‘locked down' systems which
kept their pupils safe while in school, Ofsted felt that such systems were less
effective in helping them to learn how to use new technologies safely. These pupils
could therefore be considered more vulnerable overall. This was considered to
be a particular concern when pupils were educated away from their main school,
e.g. in work-based learning.
The area Ofsted felt to be the weakest aspect of
provision in those schools visited was the extent and quality of training
provided for staff. It did not always involve all the staff (including all
member of the school support and site team) and was not provided systematically
and monitored. In addition, although many schools had policies and procedures
for e-safety, most of the schools did not review or evaluate these regularly
and include input from stakeholders including pupils, families and governors.
Ofsted felt that the schools visited needed to focus more
consistently on a number of important areas, including:
-
developing a curriculum for e-safety which
builds on what pupils have learnt before and which reflects their age and stage
of development
-
providing training which enables all staff,
not just teachers, to support pupils
-
helping families to keep their children safe
To do this, Ofsted felt that schools need more support
from the Department for Children, Schools and Families, Becta, the Child
Exploitation and Online Protection Centre (CEOP) and local authorities, in
developing and maintaining good practice.
The recommendations that Ofsted are now making to schools
are that they should:
-
audit the training needs of all staff and provide training to
improve their knowledge of and expertise in the safe and appropriate use of new
technologies
-
work closely with all families to help them
ensure that their children use new technologies safely and responsibly both at
home and at school
-
use pupils' and families' views more often to
develop e-safety strategies
-
manage the transition from locked down
systems to more managed systems to help pupils understand how to manage risk;
to provide them with richer learning experiences; and to bridge the gap between
systems at school and the more open systems outside school
-
provide an age-related, comprehensive
curriculum for e-safety which enables all pupils to become safe and responsible
users of new technologies
-
work with their partners and other providers
to ensure that pupils who receive part of their education away from school are
e-safe
-
systematically review and develop their
e-safety procedures, including training, to ensure that they have a positive
impact on pupils' knowledge and understanding.
The full report can be found here: http://www.ofsted.gov.uk/Ofsted-home/Publications-and-research/Browse-all-by/Documents-by-type/Thematic-reports/The-safe-use-of-new-technologies
and includes details about the process
and what some schools had implemented in order to achieve their grading. There
are also some useful hints and tips which schools may find helpful!
The BBC's education coverage can be seen here: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/education/8505914.stm
As a result of this report Kent County Council will be reviewing its
current procedures and policies including a discussion about the use of ‘locked down' and ‘managed' systems in our Primary and Special schools.
We welcome any comments or views on how Kent County Council
can help schools achieve an ‘outstanding' grading below.
Rebecca Avery, e-Safety Officer
Brand new and updated resources are now
available from CEOP
in time for Safer Internet Day (9
th Feb 2010)
"Lee
and Kim's Adventures: Animal Magic". New KS1/Foundation Stage Resource
Lee
and Kim's adventure is a cartoon which features Lee and his sister Kim playing
on their favourite online game "Animal Magic". The video explains the
dangers of sharing personal information and introduces Superhero SID who
protects children on the internet! The video includes SID's song which along
with several lesson plans and activities (including mask, puppets, games and
song sheets) can be downloaded separately.
These
resources are suitable for Foundation Stage (Some content is still to be
released) and Key Stage One - although adults and Key Stage Two children are
sure to enjoy and learn from the show too!
You
need to be registered at www.thinkuknow.co.uk/teachers to be able to
download all the resources.
Version
3 Think U Know Presentation: KS3/4
The
Think U Know presentation for 11 to 16 yr olds has been updated and
re-launched. It includes sections on Sexting, Spim and Cyberbullying as well as
new video content and has 5 supporting lesson plans to accompany the resource.
To download all the 11-16 content you must be a registered Think U Know
trainer.
New
Online Surveys
Due
to demand, CEOP
are now providing online surveys for staff and students - links can be found
below.
Hector's
World survey (for teachers to complete) - http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/hectorsworld
ThinkUKnow 8-10 survey (for pupils from 8-10 to complete) - http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/TUK8to10survey
ThinkUKnow 11-16 survey (for pupils from 11-16 to complete) -
http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/TUK11to16survey
Also don't forget to register your plans for SID10 on the Activity
Map!