At Hartismere we recognise how useful the internet is for education. We are also fully aware of the potential dangers of misusing the internet.
All internet access in school is filtered for staff and students. Different levels of filter are applied to different age groups: Years 7 and 8 have filters suitable for middle school children while Years 9 to 13 have secondary school level filters. Sixth Form students are welcome to bring their own laptop into school, and these also work through the school's internet filters.
These proxy/cache filters are owned and maintained by Suffolk County Council who are members of the East of England Broadband Consortium.
In addition to the Authority's filters, the school operates its own filters and we also block all Instant Messenger style programs and Peer-to-Peer networking.
At Hartismere we believe that filtering access for students is only half the story. We also educate children to use the internet safely and responsibly. In Year 7 we have a discrete unit of work that discusses chat rooms, mobile phone use and protecting personal information, while other Year groups complete an assessed assignment as part of their OCR Nationals in ICT award that deals with emails.
Hartismere operates a Safeguarding and Child Protection policy which is strictly adhered to.