COMPUTING ACCEPTABLE USE POLICY

Principles

We recognise the rights which are extended to all children, everywhere. Every adult in the school shall consider the impact of their actions on our students’ fundamental rights, above anything else. We share the duty to teach our students to behave in ways that ensure their rights, and the rights of others, are upheld. Our policies and practices must be free from unlawful discrimination and must comply with current legislation.

The School operates its local network, Internet connection and service for the benefit of the whole School community. This policy has been drawn up toprotect all parties – the student, staff and school.

  1. It is each user’s responsibility to keep his/her password confidential. No user shall make use of the user identity or password of any other person to access electronic mail, Internet or any files or documentsheld by another user.
  1. All IT use, Internet or otherwise shall be appropriate to staff professional activity or students’ education. Any other IT use may be inappropriate.
  1. No user shall knowingly obtain material in any format (including text, graphics, moving images, photographs, sound files etc.) that contravene school policies, is illegal under the terms of the Obscene Publications Act, the Race Relations Act or any other legislation applicable in the UK. Any such material downloaded accidentally must be deleted immediately.
  1. No software downloaded from the Internet, or obtained from any other source outside the School, shall be installed by users on Schoolequipment without the specific agreement of the IT Manager.
  1. Activity that threatens the integrity of the school’s IT systems, or thatattacks or corrupts other systems, is forbidden.
  1. Users are responsible for e-mail that they send and for contacts made that may result in e-mail being received. The posting of anonymousmessages and forwarding chain letters is forbidden.
  1. Users shall apply the same standards to e-mail as written paper based letters and are reminded that e-mail content carries identical legalobligations.
  1. Copyright of materials and intellectual property rights must berespected.
  1. It is the responsibility of every user to ensure that safe working practices are followed. Users must work safely. Users must reporthealth and safety hazards to a member of the computing department.
  1. The computing areas are shared by many people, users shall behavewith consideration to others at all times.
  1. The use of social networking sites and un-moderated website hosting sites is only acceptable on specifically enabled school equipment. Users accessing it on their personal devices must adhere to the relevant policies.

All users should be aware that activities on school IT equipment aremonitored.

Any person who finds evidence of non-adherence to this policy should inform a member of the School Computing Staff. The School reserves the right to amend or delete any electronic documents stored on itsequipment.

Created by:SLTDate Created:12/3/09

Owning Committee:ResourcesDate of next update:Summer 09

Page Number:1Total Pages:2

Users who fail to adhere to this policy may have their access to computing equipment limited or removed at the discretion of the Computing Department. They may face disciplinary action under the School regulations. Legislation such as the Computer Misuse Act may allow for the prosecution of individuals who access the system with the intention ofcausing damage or inconvenience.

Monitored by:Resources

Evaluated by:LG and Governors

Created by:SLTDate Created:12/3/09

Owning Committee:ResourcesDate of next update:Summer 09

Page Number:2Total Pages:2