On Fri 16 Jun, Mark Evans wrote:
know that when a child at our place tried to look up ome 'offensive' material (just once) he was caught, nd then banned from accessing - full stop. Problem olved. Make sure everyone know's the rules. Make sure hey know that their emails will be scanned. I'm all or privacy, but if a child was verbally bullying, you ould listen in, then take appropriate action. Make no ppologies - they WILL be scanned. et me know if any of this is nonsense.Again no (but can we swap schools please?)
The problem is that e-mail and the web are an easy option for teachers, so little Freddie needs his e-mail (even if he misuses it) to do the 101 things that the teacher has asked the class to do.
Or that they have all their GCSE coursework in their network space, so they might fail if they can't use the computers...
Schools have a duty of care... monitoring of computer activity (even at Lunctimes, in the Library are whatever) falls in that category - and should be included in an AUP which should be part of School's discipline handbook. Scanning Emails for a list of words such as ... well you know....could be done without actually reading the text. The pupil should then be asked to explain how such words (if found) could be interpreted as acceptable. Ultimately - like any discipline measure suspension - even expulsion must be an option. Banning access to computer facilities in school would affect GCSE results - as indeed would suspension from lessons. It is a necessary step that should be able to be implemented - and parents need to be made aware of this. Like any/most rules from time to time it will be necessary for senior management of the school to demonstrate that they are prepared to go down this route. If not, you may as well not have rule which applies to some but not others if they don't want to. -- Alan Davies Head of Computing Birkenhead School