TCES National Online school delivers all learning, therapy and pastoral support online and the main medium of communication in the community is online, in addition, TCES National Online school supports vulnerable children, who have disengaged from school for a variety of reasons, with one of these often being bullying. Therefore, keeping our students safe online is of paramount importance. 

How we protect our network and keep students and staff and their data safe when using IT

We employ a number of methods as follows:

Data Protection

We collect personal data about the people we deal with during the course of carrying out our business and delivering our services.

We take data protection seriously and place a high importance on the correct and lawful processing of all personal data as well as respecting the rights and privacy of our students, clients and employees.

Our GDPR Policy sets out in detail how we collect and protect data.

Safeguarding

All members of the school community have a role to play in keeping students safe online, from the Head of Service to parents/carers and the students themselves. Our E-safety/Acceptable Use Policy sets out the key principles expected of all members of the school community with respect to the use of ICT-based technologies including how to

1. Safeguard and protect the children and staff at school
2. Assist School staff working with children to work safely and responsibly with the Internet and other communication technologies and to monitor their own standards and practice
3. Set clear expectations of behaviour and/or codes of practice relevant to responsible use of the Internet for educational, personal, or recreational use
4. Have clear structures to deal with online abuse such as cyber-bullying which are cross-referenced with other school policies
5. Ensure that all members of the school community are aware that unlawful or unsafe behaviour is unacceptable and that, where appropriate, disciplinary, or legal action will be taken
6. Minimise the risk of misplaced or malicious allegations made against adults who work with students

How do we protect our network and IT equipment

We are certified under Cyber Essentials Plus which is a Government backed scheme that gives us peace of mind that our defences will protect against the vast majority of common cyber-attacks simply because these attacks are looking for targets which do not have the Cyber Essentials Plus technical controls in place.

Every student is provided with their own a pre-configured Chromebook which includes software called Impero which restricts access to unsuitable websites as well as other security options.

For a more detailed overview of our security please see our TCES Security overview below.