Mobile Phone and Electronic Devices Policy

MOBILE PHONE AND ELECTRONIC DEVICES POLICY

This policy has been written for all three sections of the School Rationale

Mobile phones and electronic devices represent an important advance in communication technology and we recognise the advantages to parents, students and staff. However, the potential disturbance caused by mobile phones and electronic devices in a school environment and the opportunity for misuse by students are the overriding principles in formulating our policies. We are also mindful of security issues arising when mobile phones are brought into school. Students have access to payphones at school and, in case of emergency, are allowed to use a school phone. Messages from parents to students are passed via tutors. For all of these reasons we recommend that students do not bring mobile phones into school, but they are allowed to do so within the guidelines set out in this policy.

Relating to mobile technology, the law has recognised that there is no longer a clear boundary between behaviour within a school and the external behaviour of its students. Unpleasant messages or images may be sent outside school time. Naturally we would expect parents to play the main role in dealing with any out-of school incidents. ‘If there is clear link between behaviour at school and inappropriate behaviour when students are not on the school premises (and not under the charge of a member of school staff) we reserve the right to take such action as is reasonable with a view to regulating conduct.’ This may involve a ban on bringing a mobile phone onto school premises or a search through a student's phone by Police where a student is reasonably suspected of involvement in an incident of cyber-bullying.

Use of Mobile Phones and Electronic Devices in School

1. Students in the Nursery School and the Preparatory School may not bring a mobile phone or electronic device into school. 2. Students in Years 7 and 8 may not have a mobile telephone/electronic devices in school. The exception to this rule is that students who travel to school by bus/coach may bring a mobile phone to school which must be left at Reception each morning and collected at the end of the day. Students in Years 7 and 8 who are boarders may have a mobile phone/electronic devices in the boarding areas, which they may use during their own free time in accordance with the boarding community guidelines. Should a parent need to contact their son/daughter in an emergency during the school day, they can contact main school reception and leave a message which will be passed to their son/daughter via the Tutor. Students will also be notified that they have a message via the television screens around school and will be asked to report to reception at break time or lunch time to collect their message. Equally, in the unlikely event that your son/daughter needs to contact home during the day, they can request to use the telephone in the main school office. Students may bring phones/electronic devices into school on Saturdays when involved in school fixtures. 3. For students in Years 9 and10, it is not necessary to have a mobile phone or electronic device in school, and for this reason, we do not recommend that students bring them into school. If, however, students in Years 9 and10 bring mobile phones and electronic devices into school, they must be turned off and kept in lockers during the School day, which includes lesson time and extra-curricular activities. Phones must not be accessed in between lessons under any circumstances. Students in Years 9 and 10 may check their mobile phones at break time and at lunchtime in the locker rooms only. At these times, students may communicate via text with parents for genuinely urgent reasons such as to amend arrangements for collection from school. Students may take their mobile phone/electronic device into supervised prep time and can use them to listen to music only.

4. Year 11 students may bring their mobile phone into school and carry them with them during the day. Mobile phones must be turned off during all lessons, prep times and other school activities. They must be used as a telephone only for genuinely urgent reasons during the day. This would normally be to arrange transport home at the end of the day. Year 11 students are permitted to text parents in their common room. Year 11 students may also access games and music via their mobile phone at breaktime, lunchtime and afterschool when they are in their common room. 5. Sixth Form students may carry their mobile phone with them during the School day, but this should be set to ‘airplane mode’ only. Mobile phones must not be used during lessons or when travelling to and from lessons or to and from the Sixth Form Centre. Sixth Form students may use their mobile phones to access music, send texts or access the internet when in the Sixth Form Centre lounge or café at break time, lunchtime or before morning registration or between the end of P6 and the start of Prep Time. This is a Sixth Form privilege and all students must use their phones responsibly and in accordance with the AUP. 6. Under no circumstances should pupils be using their phones around the school unless in a designated area (locker room or SFC). 7. Students who have been identified as having learning needs and require the use of a laptop may use these devices once permission has been granted by the Learning Support Department and teaching staff have been notified. These devices may be carried in a laptop bag around school. Students are not permitted to use these devices at any other time during the day. Students, who have been identified by the Head of Learning Support as having a learning need, may use a camera to assist with the recording of prep (Years 7 and 8) or a mobile phone (Year 9 and above) to assist with their learning with prior agreement. All staff will be informed of this arrangement as such pupils will be able to carry their phones around with them. 8. EAL students who have access to translator devices may use these in lessons if permission has been granted by the EAL Department. EAL students may not use their mobile phones as translators. 9. No student in the Senior School may use their mobile phone or electronic device in the corridor, Common Rooms, Refectory, Chapel, toilets or any thoroughfare before, during or after school. 10. Mobile phones or electronic devices must not be taken into an examination room during Public Examinations as this could result in a disqualification (see Public Examination Guidance for Students and Parents on the Ratcliffe College website). 11. Boarders may use their mobile phone or electronic device in the boarding house and in the School corridors before School up to 8.15am when their rooms are inspected. Electronic devices or mobile phones must not be taken into the Chapel or Refectory under any circumstances. They may be used for social calls in the evenings and at weekends.

12. Parents and students are reminded that iWatches or Apple Watches are not permitted in school. 13. The sending or recording of obscene or threatening messages is illegal, as are 999 calls when there is no emergency. 14. Possession of another person’s mobile phone, without permission, will be considered as theft and treated as such. 15. The School cannot be held responsible for the security of mobile phones unless they have been handed into Boarding Staff , Year Heads or the main School Reception for safekeeping.

Failure to comply with the School’s very reasonable guidelines will result in the following sanctions:

• First occasion – the phone will need to be taken to the main School Reception from where it can be collected at the end of the day (4.10pm). The member of staff will follow-up with the pupil and a behaviour referral will be made via Sims by the Front Office staff. The pupil will serve a School detention. • Second occasion -staff will confiscate the phone; the matter will now be treated as a serious disciplinary matter and dealt with by the Head of Year. Parents will be informed. A behaviour referral will be made via Sims and the pupil will serve a Saturday Detention. • Subsequent misconduct – Any further incidents involving the misuse of a mobile phone or electronic device will result in another Saturday detention.

Serious misconduct involving the use of a mobile phone and electronic devices will result in further sanctions being imposed. We are aware that the technology with regard to mobile phones and electronic devices is changing rapidly and the school reserves the right to change these guidelines as appropriate.

Use of Personal Music Systems in School

Although personal music systems are not banned in school, students are strongly discouraged from bringing them in. Items such as mp3 players and ipods must not be used in class, they must not be worn while moving around the school and they must not be used in the Refectory.

Students in Years 7 and 8 may listen to music during Prep but not on an electronic device that can link to the internet or be used as a phone. Personal music systems may be used by students who stay for prep in years 9 and above, and by Sixth Form students during private study lessons, but only if played at a volume that does not disturb others. They may also be used on coaches and minibuses while travelling to away fixtures or on other school trips. All mobile phones and electronic devices are brought to school at the owner’s risk (see section below about personal property). Parents are strongly advised not to allow students to bring these items to school.

Safe and acceptable usage of mobile phones and electronic devices

Safe and acceptable usage of the internet and any other electronic and digital services to which students have access (including boarders), whether or not provided by the School, is that which leads to positive outcomes in a student’s personal, social or academic development and which does not cause any offence or harm to others. This may include, but is not limited to, the use of mobile phones, wireless enabled laptops, PDA’s, palmtops and games consoles. For this reason all pupils and staff sign an Acceptable User Policy at the start of every academic year.

Guidelines for the safe and acceptable usage of mobile phones and online technologies for staff are also contained within the Safeguarding and Child Protection Policy.

Key Online Safety Advice for Students and Parents How to keep safe online and prevent cyber-bullying: advice to students

• Remember that anything you place on technology (examples listed above), can be made public within seconds. You have very little control over this. Nothing is guaranteed to stay private. Whatever you send to others can travel world-wide and could stay online forever. University admissions officers and future employers may be able to view messages, films and photos posted years before. • Be careful what you say online or in text messages. It is easy to upset someone by not reading carefully what you have written before pressing the SEND key. Be careful what images you send. • Do not send/post inappropriate images or videos; Sexting is illegal. • If you receive a nasty or rude message about someone, or a photo of them, do not forward it to anyone. Doing this means that you will be taking part in the bullying. You could even be breaking the law. • Keep your password to yourself. Do not let anyone see you key it in. Do not let anyone know it or use it. Change your password regularly. Choose hard-to-guess passwords with symbols or numbers. This makes it harder for others to hack into your account. • Only give your mobile number or personal website address to loyal friends whom you trust completely. Remember also that some people change friends often, especially in the early teenage years. • Choose the highest security settings on internet sites; do not rely on default settings. Use websites and services that let you block someone who is behaving badly or bullying you, and use the blocking facility. • Use websites and services which allow you to report someone who is bullying. • If you see cyber-bulling taking place, support the victim. Report the bully. Bullies get away with bad behaviour if no one tells.

How to respond if you are bullied: advice to students

• Do not reply to bullying messages. • Do not retaliate by sending unpleasant messages back. • Use the blocking and reporting facilities of the website. • If necessary, change your contact details such as your instant messaging identity or your mobile number. • Save the evidence. Keep copies, records and dates of offending messages, pictures and online conversations. Evidence will be needed by school, internet service providers and mobile phone companies. If the cyber-bullying breaks the law, the evidence may be needed by the police for an investigation.  Note that internet service providers will remove text or photos only if they break the law or the company's own terms and conditions.

To get help:-

• tell a parent, teacher or adult you trust • call a helpline like Childline on 0800 11 11 • check the provider's website to see how to report incidents • ask your school for support and advice  If the cyber-bullying breaks the law, your parents may decide to contact the police.

Cyber-bullying

Cyber-bullying is the use of information and communication devices and services to bully, harass or intimidate an individual or group, for example: The following technology may be involved:-

 Mobile phones Email Instant Messenger  Twitter  Chatrooms and message boards  Webcams Social networking sites  Virtual worlds  Video hosting sites  Gaming sites and consoles  Virtual learning environments

The school regards incidents of cyber-bullying as it does bullying in any other form and the school’s Anti-bullying Policy will be applied in the same way.

Sanctions Students found to be involved in cyber-bullying are likely to receive disciplinary sanctions. These sanctions must be applied fairly, proportionally, consistently and reasonably, taking account of any special educational needs (SEN) or disabilities that students may have and taking into consideration the needs of vulnerable children.

The disciplinary sanctions have three main purposes, namely to:

 impress on the perpetrator that what he/she has done is unacceptable;  deter him/her from repeating that behaviour;  signal to other students that the behaviour is unacceptable and deter them from doing it. The procedure is as follows: Discussion of the incident with parents and strategies put in place to help First offence change the student’s behaviour, which may include being prevented from bringing mobile technologies into school or confiscation of electronic items or removal of privileges for boarders.

Student may be placed in a Saturday detention.

As ‘First Offence’ with possible extended length of detention or Second offence suspension.

Parents invited in to discuss the matter and to suggest additional strategies and sources of help for the student.

Subsequent Student suspended from school, generally for two days. offences Letter home to parents, stating that on return to school the student will be monitored for an agreed period, and that any further infringement may lead to exclusion from the school with a loss of fees already paid.

In all cases of cyber-bullying or inappropriate use of mobile phones or electronic devices, the School will decide what course of action is appropriate. Depending upon the seriousness of the incident, the Headmaster may decide a fixed-term suspension from School is required.

In conjunction with disciplinary sanctions, there are a range of other strategies that can be used to combat cyber-bullying. These include:

 Engaging with parents promptly when issues of cyber-bullying come to light  Development of roles that students can play such as the trained Student Listeners  School Listener  Restorative justice approaches which hold students to account for their behaviour and engage with them to agree actions to be taken to repair the harm caused Implementation and Procedures

The following procedures with regard to misuse of mobile and electronic devices including cyber-bullying must be followed:

Reporting, Investigating and Managing Incidents Reporting Misuse or Cyber-bullying

1. Staff to whom an incident is reported, or who first discover an incident, must:  stay calm and avoid making snap decisions or attaching blame;  make the situation safe, if necessary;  report the matter to the Head of Year / Resident Senior Housemaster/Housemistress / Head of Preparatory School / Head of Nursery School (as appropriate) in the first instance. 2. Staff must record any incident as soon as possible after reporting it on SIMS. There is an option for cyber-bullying within the drop down menu within behaviour management. 3. It is vitally important that all records of incidents are stored appropriately by the relevant member of staff. This is usually the Head of Year / Housemaster/Housemistress / Head of Preparatory School / Head of Nursery School (as appropriate), but records of more serious incidents are kept by the Head of Boarding and Senior Deputy Head and/or the Headmaster.

Investigating and Managing Incidents

 Heads of Year / Housemaster/Housemistress / Head of Preparatory School / Head of Nursery School (as appropriate) take responsibility for initial investigations of any reported incidents;  students are interviewed in order to ascertain what happened;  written statements may be required from all parties involved, signed and dated;  if it is decided that further action is required then the Senior Deputy Head is informed;  the students involved (both bully and bullied) may be brought together with a member of staff present to try to talk it through, with the aim of apology and reconciliation, if this is appropriate;  clear guidelines for future behaviour are issued to both parties and a code of conduct agreed. Students should know that the situation will be monitored and know of consequences for the bully if bullying continues. The sanctions which might be applied are set out below and in the Behaviour, Rewards and Sanctions Policy;  parents of bully and bullied should be kept informed, where necessary, at appropriate times during an investigation;  Form Tutors / Class Teachers, Heads of Year / Housemaster/Housemistress / Head of Preparatory School / Head of Nursery School (as appropriate) monitor the situation;  if no improvement is seen then the Senior Deputy Head implements further sanctions;  a student who persistently makes life unhappy for others may face suspension from School or being asked to leave the school in extreme cases.

Staff Professional Development

 Through appropriate continuing professional development (CPD) training and induction, all staff are made aware of the school’s anti-bullying policy, including new staff and support staff.  Teaching staff, ancillary staff, prefects and monitors contribute to a suitably deployed supervisory presence around the School.  All staff are asked to be vigilant and to be willing to take appropriate action if they suspect that a student is being bullied.

Preventative Strategies

 Effective school leadership that promotes an open and honest anti-bullying ethos.  Opportunities to reinforce the values of the School’s Mission Statement are taken through School and year assemblies, tutor time, and night prayer for boarders.  The PSHCE programme covers the topic of bullying.  Using Anti-Bullying week in November and World Safer Internet Day in February to raise awareness of the negative consequences of cyber-bullying.  Appropriate opportunities are taken within the curriculum to consider issues relating to bullying such as drama, stories, literature, historical events, current affairs etc.  Incidents of cyber-bullying are reflected upon and discussed when they occur so that lessons can be learned.  Information for students about what to do if they are experiencing cyber-bulling is displayed around the School, including telephone numbers for the School Listener and other organisations that can help.  Ensuring that staff duties are carried out effectively each day at the appropriate times and locations around the school campus and that staff are vigilant by monitoring the use of computers, mobile phones and the internet in School.

Boarders

This policy applies equally to the School’s boarding community. However, additional procedures are set out below with regard to National Minimum Standard 2 to ensure safe and acceptable use of the internet and other electronic and digital services in the boarding community.

 All boarders are made aware of the anti-bullying policy with specific reference to Cyber- Bullying and online safety and how to protect themselves from potential harm through whole school assemblies, boarding meetings and the curriculum.  All boarders have access to clear information and guidance about how to be safe in the digital environment, which is displayed in common areas of the boarding houses and the School computer rooms.  All boarders are clear about what they are and are not allowed to do and how they may report instances of cyber-bullying or inappropriate use of technologies, abuse and suspicious behaviour by other boarders, staff, volunteers or those outside School.  Staff are vigilant and aware of their responsibilities towards upholding the Mobile Phone and Electronic Safety Policy by discreetly monitoring the use of the internet during those times when students are permitted to use school computers and at other times where boarders are using mobile and online technologies.  The boarding staff take reasonable steps to control and monitor the use of the internet and other electronic means of communication without unnecessarily or disproportionally compromising the privacy of boarders or their ability to communicate with parents/guardians or outside agencies as established in National Minimum Standard 4 and set out in the Boarding Parents’ Information Handbook. Some boarders are sometimes required to hand in all mobile forms of communication and computers to staff prior to going to bed each evening. They are then collected the following morning.  Boarding staff reserve the right to have students’ computers and other electrical items checked to ensure that they are being used appropriately.

Monitoring and Support for the Victim and the Bully

Once a student has been disciplined for cyber-bullying they will be monitored on a daily and weekly basis by their tutor and Head of Year or Housemaster/Housemistress for an agreed period of time. Where appropriate subject staff will be notified of the cyber-bullying in order to monitor behaviour in class. In order to check that the cyber-bullying has stopped and that the student(s) being bullied feel safe again, the tutor or Head of Year or Housemaster/Housemistress may undertake a review at the end of the term or half term. This would normally take the form of a simple discussion with those involved and their parents. If the response indicates the cyber-bullying has not stopped or the student does not feel safe, then this would lead to further discussions or actions.

Review The Mobile Phone and Electronic Safety Policy is monitored by the Senior Deputy Head through liaison with the E-Safety Committees, who evaluate the effectiveness of the policy, as well as Pastoral Heads and the Heads of Department meeting, and in discussion with students, in addition to checking the records of incidents which are reported and through feedback from parents if appropriate.

The E-Safety Committee will ensure that staff receive regular training updates.

Links to Other Policies Boarding Policy

Safeguarding and Child Protection Policy

Anti-Bullying Policy

Pastoral Care Policy

Behaviour, Rewards and Sanctions Policy

Acceptable-use Policies (AUP) Nursery Mobile Phone and Camera Policy

Further Information This policy is made available for all students, in appropriate formats, throughout the school, on printed sheets and in Information Handbooks. Parents are informed of the policy through the Parents’ Information Handbooks and a copy can be found on the School website www.ratcliffe- college.co.uk

Review

This policy was last reviewed by the Senior Deputy Head and the E-Safety Co-ordinator, June 2016.