Online Safety in School

At Uphall Primary School we ensure every effort is made to keep our children safe whilst they surf the internet and use the schools networked equipment.

We have in place software, hardware and policies that reduce the risk of them viewing sites that are not intended for their age groups as well as measures that help prevent cyberbullying or malicious behaviour on the school network.

In the the current KCSIE (Keeping Children Safe in Education 2024) it states:
“Governing bodies and proprietors should ensure their school or college has appropriate filtering and monitoring systems in place and regularly review their effectiveness.”

At Uphall Primary School we have had these systems in place for many years as safeguarding and online safety is very important to us. Please read below for more information.

Web Filtering

To prevent children viewing websites that are not suitable for them, we use web filtering software called ‘School Protect‘ that is provided by the LGFL. ‘School Protect’ monitors the incoming web pages for inappropriate language and websites and ‘filters’ the content out so children cannot see or access it.

If a child uses a school device at home it will include our home filtering software called ‘Home Protect‘. This ensures that the child is protected even when data is not being directed through our onsite filters.

See a list of accredited filtering providers here.

You can read the ‘Filtering and monitoring standards for schools and colleges‘ here.

Monitoring

We have software on the school network called ‘Smoothwall Monitor‘ that monitors digital activity and keeps students and staff safe.

Designated school staff are alerted in real-time and within minutes of an event being detected. The system is monitored 24/7, 265 days a year by a highly trained, human moderation team. Notifications are by email, and by phone for the highest suspected risks. All alerts come with contextual evidence to support next step decision-making.

Email Security

All emails are passed through the LGFL ‘MailProtect‘ service. It uses multiple scanning products that significantly enhance the system’s ability to recognise new and existing dangers and protect email users from ‘zero hour’ attacks. It also helps ensure that users are protected against a wide range of threats as well as offensive images and general spam or bulk mail. Emails which are trapped by the active filters are held in quarantine and can be released if necessary.

Antivirus

At Uphall we use Sophos Intercept X for our Antivirus solution. Intercept X offers a comprehensive, defence-in-depth approach using deep learning malware detection, exploit prevention, anti-ransomware technology, application whitelisting, active adversary protection, and in-depth root cause analysis.

Discover and protect workloads on Microsoft Azure and Amazon Web Services
Protect against ransomware on servers, including remote attacks from rogue endpoints
Server Lockdown whitelists applications
Block advanced hacking techniques and exploits
Root cause analysis details the cause of attacks and infection path
Synchronized Security shares threat, health, and security information across multiple Sophos products
Simplified management from Sophos Central

Click here for more information.

Training

Not everything we do regarding online safety is technology based and one of the most important aspects of the subject is keeping staff trained.

Uphall Primary school is dedicated to keeping its staff fully trained and up to date with the ever changing landscape, risks and threats in the subject.

We use LGFL training as well as other sources such as the LEA and outside providers to run training sessions for our staff.