Bushey Middle School

Policy for the use of the Internet

The internet is an extremely rich resource both for learning and for recreation.

We will encourage children to make effective use of the rich information resources available on the internet both for study and for recreation. We will encourage children to develop the appropriate skills and understandings that will enable them to use these resources well and safely, as well as the ability to analyse and evaluate the resources they find. These skills will be fundamental in the society our pupils will be entering. Children will be encouraged to make use of both the world wide web and email.

To prevent children having access to any materials on the internet which may be illegal, defamatory, inaccurate, obscene or offensive, the school’s internet access will be through a recognised educational service provider, offering a filtered service. In addition, use of the internet in school by pupils will only be permitted whilst they are supervised by an adult. 

The school will build and maintain a site on the World Wide Web. Pupils whose work or images appear on the school’s website will be identified only by their first names. Should any parent or carer particularly wish their child’s name or photograph not to appear on the school’s website their wishes will be respected.

Children using the school’s computing facilities will be expected to comply with the following rules. Failure to keep to the rules may result in a temporary or permanent ban on a pupil’s use of the facilities.

•	I will only use the internet when I am being supervised by an adult.
•	I will not email or display offensive messages or pictures.
•	I will not send emails using obscene language.
•	I will not send emails which annoy, insult or attack other people. 
•	I will not do anything that might cause damage to computers or data stored on computers.
•	I will respect the copyright of other people’s work and will not copy or download anything that belongs to someone else, without their permission. 
•	I will respect other people’s work and not use other people’s passwords or interfere with their work or files.
•	I will not deliberately waste limited resources.