Student electronic communication safety policy agreement.

(including the internet, email, mobile ‘phones, ipods/ other mp3 players, PDAs, digital cameras and other electronic devices).

Please read this policy carefully as you will be deemed to be aware of its contents.

1. Aims

The Mission of our School is to provide a high quality education within the context of a Christian environment. An understanding of the Roman Catholic faith, in line with the Gospel message, will underpin the whole work of the school.

The main aim will be to develop the self-esteem, dignity and respect of all members of the community by concentrating on each person's infinite worth in the eyes of God.

We want to encourage members of the St Peter’s community to make effective use of the Internet and other electronic communication devices. Such use should always be lawful and appropriate. It must not compromise the school’s information and computer systems nor have the potential to damage the school’s reputation.

2. Preamble

The purpose of this policy is to ensure that users of electronic communication methods at St Peter’s understand the way in which such technologies are to be used and aims to ensure that they are used effectively for their intended purpose.

3. Obligations for students

St Peters High School expects all users to use electronic communication methods responsibly according to the following conditions:

Users shall not:

§ Visit Internet sites, make, post, download, upload or pass on, material, remarks, proposals or comments that contain or relate to:

o pornography

o promoting discrimination of any kind

o promoting racial or religious hatred

o promoting illegal acts

o any other information which may be offensive to any member of the school community

§ Visit sites or transfer (communicate) material that might be defamatory or incur liability on the part of St Peter’s High School or adversely impact on the image of the school

§ Upload, download, or otherwise transmit (make, produce or distribute) commercial software or any copyrighted materials belonging to third parties outside of the school, or to the school itself

§ Intentionally interfere with the normal operation of the Internet connection, including the propagation of computer viruses and sustained high volume network traffic (sending or receiving of large files or sending and receiving of large numbers of small files or any activity that causes network congestion) that substantially hinders others in their use of the Internet

§ Use St Peter’s High School ICT facilities for activities other than organized learning programmes

4. Notes

Monitoring

Use of the Internet is monitored to see whether users are complying with the policy. Any potential misuse identified will result in sanctions being taken against those involved.

Incidents which appear to involve deliberate access to Web sites, newsgroups or online groups that contain illegal material will be treated as being extremely serious.

(If you accidentally access inappropriate material, you should immediately report the details to a member of staff so that this can be taken into account during the monitoring process.)

What to do if you receive an abusive electronic communication.

Staff will investigate all instances of abusive emails or other electronic content that come to light.

If you receive an abusive email or text you should report the matter to a member of staff as soon as possible. You should include details such as a copy of the email with full headers plus dates and times. Staff will investigate all complaints of abuse and take action accordingly.

If you are receiving spam email, please notify one of the ICT teaching staff or IT technician team.

JD

December 2006