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Filtering 15th November 2002
When asked back in May about the situation for primary schools accustomed to using Sourcerer, and of the situation for migrated primary schools, Paul Springford wrote:
Most primary and special schools have obtained their internet access by using the NGFL service provided through the county Council. This service includes a “walled garden” facility which restricts pupils to a limited range of websites unless the teacher’s password has been entered. It has not been possible for us to find an affordable way of maintaining this facility for schools who have broadband connection. Nevertheless, the broadband Internet feed will continue to be filtered in order to reduce the risk of pupils encountering inappropriate material.
Many schools have told us that they no longer require the walled garden feature. However, schools who wish to increase the basic level of protection are able to subscribe to RM’s Safetynet Plus service. This enables schools to override the filtering service by creating their own list of blocked or permitted sites, in effect creating their own walled garden. There is an annual fee of £99 for primary schools. Further details are available from the RM website: http://www.ifl.net/safetynet/ and schools can also contact us if they would like to discuss this option.
Access to Sourcerer remains available to broadband schools who have taken out an NGFL contract with us. At present, it’s usually necessary to enter a pupil or teacher password. I am not sure whether we can eliminate the password challenge without letting everybody in. I will try to get this clarified.
In a recent mail, Paul outlined the situation that:
At present, there is dual filtering on the Internet feed from both C&W/RM and Cambs. The reason is that we are not yet convinced that C&W's system is working properly on our network, so it's belt and braces at the moment. We're waiting for the corporate technical people to complete the testing, but it's tricky because they have to turn off our filter and let the cache clear, so it potentially means a period of time when we make schools vulnerable. I'm hoping for some news soon.
In the meantime, it would be wise for us to remember that all staff within school should be aware that Internet access should be supervised and that websites for pupil use should be researched first.
Through this, it seems prudent to have a blanket St.Ives Learning Community Internet user policy, which should be displayed prominently for all school staff, including voluntary helpers. |
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