Safeguarding
With the benefits of technology in the classroom comes the risk of pupils being exposed to harmful content. Education providers have a strict duty of care to protect learners and staff while they use IT. Increased legislation has helped to set out clear processes for schools to follow, although it is sometimes a difficult area to navigate. The good news is that we can advise on the type of cost-effective measures you need to put in place for your school to ensure you stay compliant and keep your learners safe.
Computer Talk also offer a full range of related safeguarding products such as door entry, visitor management and CCTV.
School filtering and monitoring
The Government states in its Keeping Children Safe in Education 2021 that schools must ensure they have appropriate web filtering in place to safeguard learners against online threats and harmful content such as radicalisation, abuse and bullying. Certain categories need to be blocked as a minimum, in accordance with the guidance and the Internet Watch Foundation, but with filtering software, you can create a bespoke policy to suit your school such as blocking certain categories or particular websites. We hold long-term relationships with well-established filtering providers Netsweeper, Smoothwall and EXA (SurfProtect) enabling us to provide cloud and on-premise options to safeguard learners and staff.
The guidance also states that appropriate monitoring systems should be in place. Monitoring software is available which provides alerts with screenshots of a user’s activity. Users’ search terms and activity can flag safeguarding issues at an early stage, providing further protection for schools in addition to web filtering. We can provide monitoring and classroom management software from EdTech specialists Senso and Impero to assist in meeting these safeguarding requirements.
Visitor management
Ensuring the safeguarding of pupils is the most important thing for any School. With this in mind Computer Talk became an authorised InVentry Partner in 2018 allowing us to offer a full Visitor Management Solution to our schools.
Managing visitors can now be a seamless and speedy process with InVentry. Visitors are presented with an intuitive screen that significantly speeds up the signing in process. They can even self-service their way through to printing an ID badge that can be worn around your site.
Visitor information is stored directly in the system and allows you to accurately track who is on your site, accurately recording everyone entering or leaving your site, in case of an emergency. It provides site access in a way that safeguards those who are in your school, and removes the need for paper-based visitor books.
Additional features have been added during the course of the year its offering in light of Covid-19 including a health declaration and capacity management.
