Student User of Digital Technologies Agreement for Sacred Heart Cathedral School

SACRED HEART CATHEDRAL SCHOOL STUDENT USER AGREEMENT OVERVIEW:

Digital technologies are tools that can help us learn at school in all sorts of ways. Some of these ways include looking at interesting things online, talking to people, creating music and media, gathering new ideas, and learning how to use tools.

When we use digital technologies and online spaces it’s important that we learn ways to keep ourselves safe, and that we make positive choices in ways we behave when we are online.  At Sacred Heart Cathedral School we call this being a ‘digital citizen’ and good digital citizens help to make our school a safe and positive place for everyone.

This agreement shares what Sacred Heart Cathedral School does to help make learning online safe, and what we need to do. We know it is not always easy to understand everything about online spaces.  It can be complicated at times, and some things can go wrong. This is why it’s important that we commit to making it as safe as possible to use digital tools and online spaces for learning.

SACRED HEART CATHEDRAL SCHOOL ROLE:

Sacred Heart Cathedral School supports you by helping you learn in the best ways we can, and keeping you safe at school whether you are online or offline.

We will do this by:

• making everybody aware of their responsibilities
• planning times in the terms to learn about positive online behaviours and ways to keep safe
• overseeing students’ use of school’s digital devices and online spaces during school time
• offering access to the internet and online platforms
• using filtering software to protect everybody
• keeping safe the personal information the school collects about you
• protecting your rights to a safe and positive online environment
• providing opportunities to use digital technologies in the learning at school
• having a plan to help you when something serious or illegal happens that involves digital technology or online spaces. This might include getting in touch with the Police or Netsafe.

YOUR RESPONSIBILITIES:

As a student of Sacred Heart Cathedral School and also part of our community, we ask you to help make our school a place that is safe, friendly, and fair. This means taking our school values and acting on these whether you’re online, or offline, and help to make our school a positive place to learn, connect and play. This is being a ‘digital citizen’.

As a digital citizen, you will:

• Keep it kind. Think about others online and talk or share in respectful ways.
• Keep it to yourself. Keep passwords and information about yourself and other people private and offline as it can be easily shared, viewed, screenshot, or changed by others to mean different things. Nothing is private online.
• Keep it careful.   Because things you do or say online can be seen by others, be careful to share the things you can feel proud of, or would be happy sharing with someone face to face.
• Keep it positive. Always respect others online and communicate in a positive, respectful way.
• Post with caution. Anything you post or do online can influence what people think of you. Put your best foot forward online.
• Don’t believe everything you see. Always think carefully about the information you see online – not everything is true. If you are unsure of something, talk to a teacher.
• Avoid online bullying. Creating or forwarding content that is harmful or hurtful towards someone else is not okay at any time. Sending multiple messages to somebody who doesn’t want them is also considered online bullying and is never okay.
• Be security smart. Keep personal information secure by using strong passwords and not sharing them with other students. Always log out of a site, or device.  Get permission before downloading software to the school network or connecting new devices.
• Respect others’ rights. Always ask first if you need to use someone else’s device, online sites, and their image, ideas, creations or work that’s stored online.
• Recognise others’ work. When we use or take others’ work or ideas from the internet, we need to make sure we copy or use these in ways that are okay because there are rules about this. Your teacher will help you to use things you find online in the right ways.
• Use personal devices sensibly. Keep your device(s) on silent during school hours and only use it outside of school time, unless you have been given permission to do otherwise.
• Seek help. Sometimes you or someone you know will feel unsafe or come across bad or hurtful content online. If this happens, talk to a trusted adult about what can be done.
• Treat the school’s devices with respect. Always remember that we do not deliberately damage or break the school’s devices.

ONLINE INCIDENTS:

Despite the good things technology offers and people’s best intentions, sometimes things will go wrong. Sometimes these things are on purpose, and sometimes they are accidents. Sacred Heart Cathedral School will do its best to support you if something goes wrong online.

Online bullying. Online bullying is not accepted at our school. If you or somebody else is being bullied or criticised online, report it. Keep the content so we can investigate it. Stop any further contact with the person who is bullying. You can report to your teacher or Mrs. Murfitt for help. It’s important to think about sharing what’s happened with a trusted adult like a parent, a member of your whānau, or someone else who looks after you. 

At school we recognise the opportunities and benefits of being online, but we are not able to control students' online access and use outside of school hours.  We will, however, do our best to support and educate our students in the safe, informed and responsible use of devices and online spaces.

Report a problem. We need your help to keep our school safe. If you see something on the school systems that you don’t think should be there, we need you to report it as soon as you can to your teacher or Mrs. Murfitt. This is really helpful and important, so that the school can find out what the problem is and fix it as soon as possible, and help those who might need it.

Online safety support. Netsafe is our New Zealand online safety organisation that is able to help when things go wrong online, when we have problems with content or negative things that others are doing online. They provide free, private advice for you and your family, seven days a week, for all online safety challenges. They can be contacted on 0508 638723 or online at