E-Safety Policy

Staff must always comply with the Online Safety policy and the Acceptable Use Policy. The only acceptable method of contact is via the use of school email accounts or telephone equipment.

Staff must not engage in inappropriate use of social media which may bring themselves, the school or the school community into disrepute. Staff must ensure their presence and actions on social media adheres to the school’s Social Media policy at all times and should adopt the highest security settings on any personal profiles they have.

Staff should exercise caution in use of social media or any other web-based presence they have. This includes written content, videos or photographs and views expressed either directly or by ‘liking’ certain pages or posts or following certain individuals or groups.

Staff must be vigilant when using dating websites/apps where staff could encounter students or ex-students. Staff should not make contact with students or ex-students or initiate/accept friend requests on any social media platform with students or ex-students. Staff must not communicate with students or ex-students via social media or text.

Staff should not make contact with a child’s family member, accept or initiate friend requests or follow a child’s family member’s account on any social media platform.

School acknowledges that staff who are also parents may wish to contact other parents, who are friends, over social media. Staff must exercise caution and professional judgement in these circumstances and should not have any contact with students’ family members via social media if that contact is likely to constitute a conflict of interest or call into question their professionalism.

Unless authorised by the Heads of Section/Head of School, mobile phones and personally owned devices such as tablets may not be used during lessons or formal school time. The Bluetooth functionality of a mobile phone or tablet should always be switched off. Mobile phones, personal recording devices, cameras and videoing equipment are not permitted in certain areas within the school site such as changing rooms and toilets.

The camera and filming functions of personal mobile devices must not be used in school, on school trips or on official school business. If staff receive permission from the Head of Section/Principal to use these devices for a specific purpose, the content should be deleted after use from the mobile and transferred to a more appropriate medium of storage. School cameras are available to be used for taking videos and images.

Mobile phones and personally owned mobile devices brought into school are the responsibility of the device owner. School accepts no responsibility for the loss, theft or damage of personally owned mobile phones or mobile devices.