Internet Acceptable Usage Policy (AUP)

School: SCOIL THOMAIS

General Approach

The aim of this Acceptable Use Policy is to ensure that pupils will benefit from learning opportunities offered by the school’s digital resources in a safe and effective manner. The responsible use of internet and digital technologies, both online and offline and access is considered an integral part of teaching and learning. Therefore, if the school AUP is not adhered to, agreed sanctions will be imposed.

It is envisaged that school and parent representatives will revise the AUP at least annually. When using the internet in Scoil Thomáis, pupils, parents and staff are expected:

To treat others with respect at all times.
Not undertake any actions that may bring the school into disrepute.
Respect the right to privacy of all other members of the school community.
Respect copyright and acknowledge creators when using online content and resources.

Scoil Thomáis employs a number of strategies in order to maximise learning opportunities and reduce risks associated with the Internet. These strategies are as follows:

Filtering software and/or equivalent systems will be used in order to minimise the risk of exposure to inappropriate material.
Uploading and downloading of non-approved software will not be permitted.
The use of personal external digital storage media in school, requires school permission.
Virus protection software will be used and updated on a regular basis.
Internet use within school will always be supervised by a teacher.

This Acceptable Use Policy applies to pupils who have access to and are users of the internet in Scoil Thomáis. It also applies to members of staff, volunteers, parents, carers and others who access the internet in Scoil Thomáis.

Misuse of the internet may result in disciplinary action, including written warnings, withdrawal of access, detention and, in extreme cases, suspension or expulsion. The school also reserves the right to report any illegal activities to the appropriate authorities.

Scoil Thomáis will deal with incidents that take place outside the school that impact on the wellbeing of pupils or staff under this policy and associated codes of behaviour and anti-bullying policies. In such cases Scoil Thomáis will, where known, inform parents/carers of incidents of inappropriate online behaviour that take place out of school and impose the appropriate sanctions. When necessary, parents/carers will be directed to webwise.ie and the wealth of information and support available there.

Scoil Thomáis implements the following strategies on promoting safer use of the internet:

Pupils will be provided with education in the area of internet safety as part of our implementation of the SPHE and other curriculum areas.
Internet safety advice and support opportunities are provided to pupils in Scoil Thomáis through our Digital Learning Framework, SPHE and Anti-Bullying initiatives.
Teachers will be provided with continuing professional development opportunities in the area of internet safety.
Scoil Thomáis participates in Safer Internet Day activities in early February to promote safer and more effective use of the internet.

This policy and its implementation will be reviewed annually by the following stakeholders: Board of Management, teaching staff, and support staff.

The school will monitor the impact of the policy using:

Logs of reported incidents.
Monitoring logs of internet activity (including sites visited).
Internal monitoring data for network activity.

Should serious online safety incidents take place, the principal or deputy principal should be informed. The implementation of this Internet Acceptable Use policy will be monitored by the principal, deputy principal and Digital Technology Postholders.

Content Filtering

Scoil Thomáis has chosen to implement the following level on content filtering on the Schools Broadband Network: Level 4: This level allows access to millions of websites including games and YouTube but blocks access to websites belonging to the personal websites category and websites such as Facebook belonging to the Social Networking category.
Pupils taking steps to by-pass the content filter by using proxy sites or other means may be subject to disciplinary action, including written warnings, withdrawal of access privileges, detention and, in extreme cases, suspension or expulsion.
When using Seesaw or Google Classroom, the agreed digital platforms for remote learning at home, pupils will be outside of the Scoil Thomáis network. Thus, it will be incumbent upon their parents and guardians to ensure adequate internet safety precautions are taken. In particular, we ask that parents exercise caution in allowing pupils to use social media accounts with minimum age requirements. We would advise parents not to allow their children to have personal accounts on TikTok, Snapchat etc. until they are the appropriate age.

Internet Use

Pupils will not intentionally visit internet sites that contain obscene, illegal, hateful or otherwise objectionable materials.
Pupils will be encouraged to report accidental accessing of inappropriate materials in accordance with school procedures.
Pupils will report accidental accessing of inappropriate materials in school but outside the classroom to their class teacher or an available staff member.
Pupils will not copy and paste information into assignments. They will be taught how to acknowledge the source wherever possible. When assigning work through Google Workspace, originality reports will be enabled.
Pupils and staff will be aware that any usage, including distributing or receiving information, school-related or personal, may be monitored for unusual activity, security and/or network management reasons.
Pupils will use the Internet for educational purposes only.
Pupils will not engage in online activities such as uploading or downloading large files that result in heavy network traffic which impairs the service for other internet users.
Pupils will not download or view any material that is illegal, obscene, and defamatory or that is intended to annoy or intimidate another person.
Downloading by pupils of materials or images not relevant to their studies is in direct breach of Scoil Thomáis’ acceptable use policy.
Pupils will never disclose or publicise personal information or passwords.
Pupils will be aware that any usage of the internet and school’s digital platform, including distributing or receiving information, school-related or personal, will be monitored.
Use of file sharing and torrent sites is not allowed.

Email and Messaging

The use of personal email accounts is not allowed at Scoil Thomáis.
Pupils will use approved school email accounts for accessing Google Classroom. School email addresses will follow the following format: [year of enrolment][colour][number]@scoilthomais.ie
Pupils will be assigned a school email address for use from 2nd Class onwards.
Pupils will not be able to use the email address assigned for email communication. This will be specifically disabled on the Admin Panel of Google Workspace.
Pupils should not use school email accounts to register for online services such as social networking services, apps, and games.
Pupils will not send any material that is illegal, obscene, and defamatory or that is intended to annoy or intimidate another person.
Pupils must only use their school email for school related activities and for registering on school based activities only. The use of personal email addresses is not allowed for school based work.

The internet provides a range of social media tools that allow us to interact and keep in touch. While recognising the benefits of these media for new opportunities for communication, this policy sets out the principles that members of the Scoil Thomáis school community are expected to follow when using social media.

The principles set out in this policy are designed to help ensure that social media is used responsibly so that the confidentiality of pupils and other staff and the reputation of the school is protected. This policy applies to personal websites such as social networking sites (for example Instagram and TikTok), blogs, microblogs such as Twitter, chatrooms, forums, podcasts, open access online encyclopaedias such as Wikipedia, social bookmarking sites such as del.icio.us and content sharing sites such as flickr and YouTube.

The following statements apply to the use of messaging, blogging and video streaming services in Scoil Thomáis:

Use of instant messaging services and apps including Snapchat, WhatsApp, Viber, etc. is not allowed in Scoil Thomáis.
Use of blogs such as WordPress, Tumblr etc. is not allowed in Scoil Thomáis.
Use of video streaming sites such as YouTube and Vimeo etc. is with express permission from teaching staff.
All members of the school community must not use social media, messaging services and the internet in any way to harass, impersonate, insult, abuse or defame others.
Staff and pupils must not discuss personal information about pupils, staff and other members of the Scoil Thomáis community on social media.
Staff and pupils must not use school email addresses for setting up personal social media accounts or to communicate through such media.
Staff and pupils must not engage in activities involving social media which might bring Scoil Thomáis into disrepute.
Staff and Pupils must not represent their own personal views as those of being Scoil Thomáis on any social medium.
Pupils will be provided with guidance on etiquette regarding social media.

Personal Devices and Assistive Technology

Pupils using their own technology in school should follow the rules set out in this agreement, in the same way as if they were using school equipment. The following statements apply to the use of internet-enabled devices such as tablets, Chromebooks, phones, gaming devices, and smartwatches:

Teachers are provided with a laptop and an iPad for classroom use. These devices are not to be taken off the premises unless the iPad is needed to take photos or videos of a school event.
The school is not liable for any damage incurred by school devices when off the school premises.
Pupils are only allowed to use personal internet-enabled devices (such as assistive technology) during lessons with expressed permission from teaching staff.
Personal internet-enabled devices are for the pupil’s sole use and are not for sharing in the classroom.
The features of smartwatches, other than telling the time, are not permitted to be used on the school grounds.
Where pupils have smartwatches, parents are responsible for ensuring that ‘school mode’ is enabled while the child is on the school grounds.
Where a child uses a smartwatch to take photographs, recordings, phone calls, send or receive text messages on the school grounds the device will be confiscated immediately and appropriate sanctions will be imposed.
The school is not liable for lost or damaged smartwatches.
Children are encouraged not to bring personal electronic devices (including phones) to school during school hours unless there is a specific reason.
If a child, for whatever reason, brings a phone into school, it must be switched off and kept in their bag at all times.
The school is not responsible for the loss of or damage to any personal electronic device on school premises.

Digital Learning Platforms (including video conferencing)

In relation to Digital Learning Platforms, it is envisaged that pupils from Junior Infants to 2nd Class would use SeeSaw and pupils from 3rd to 6th Class will use Google Classroom. Staff will use Google Workspace and Aladdin.

Pupils must only use their school email address for accessing school digital learning platforms.
Only school devices should be used for the purposes of capturing and storing media on the school’s Google Drive.
All school-related media and data should be stored on the Scoil Thomáis Google Drive.
The use of digital platforms should be used in line with considerations set out in the school’s data protection policy.
Each staff user of the platform will be provided with their own unique login credentials.
Passwords for digital platforms and accounts should not be shared and should not be saved on devices.
Personal email addresses should not be used when creating accounts for pupils on school digital platforms.

Direct Communication using the Internet

Teachers in the school may use any of a range of tools for classroom communication using the internet. Examples may include Padlet, Kahoot, and Class Dojo. Pupils are required to conduct their interactions and messages in the online space in the same way as they would be expected to in class.

Ground rules for synchronous lessons online:

All meetings will be password protected.
All people involved in the meeting will conduct themselves in the same manner as would be expected in a regular class.
The teacher, as the host of the meeting, has the right to eject any person from a synchronous engagement should they behave inappropriately.
A parent is expected to be in the same room when a pupil is engaging in a meeting.
Staff members will not meet any child alone using an online meeting. If there is a need for a meeting between a child and a staff member, a parent must be present.

Images and Video

Care should be taken when taking photographic or video images that pupils are appropriately dressed and are not participating in activities that might bring the individuals or the school into disrepute.
At Scoil Thomáis pupils must not take, use, share, manipulate or publish or distribute images of others without their permission.
Taking photos or videos on school grounds or when participating in school activities is only allowed with expressed permission from staff.
Written permission from parents or carers will be obtained before photographs of pupils are published on the school website.
Pupils must not share or manipulate images, videos or other content online with the intention to harm another member of the school community.
Sharing explicit images of pupils and/or minors is absolutely prohibited. Sharing explicit images of other pupils automatically incurs suspension as a sanction.

Inappropriate Activities

The following are considered inappropriate and are prohibited:

Promotion or conduct of illegal acts (child protection, computer misuse, fraud).
Racist material and Pornography.
Promotion of any kind of discrimination or religious hatred.
Harmful content or threatening behaviour.
Any other information which may be offensive to colleagues or breaches the integrity of the school ethos.
Using school systems to run a private business.
Using mechanisms that bypass filtering.
Uploading or downloading copyrighted materials without licensing.
Revealing confidential information (passwords, financial data).
Creating or propagating computer viruses.
High volume network traffic (torrenting) that hinders others.
Online gaming, gambling, or shopping.

School Website

Pupils will be given the opportunity to publish projects or artwork on the internet in accordance with clear approval processes.
Pupils will continue to own the copyright on any work published.
Personal student information including home address and contact details will not be published.
The school will avoid publishing names of pupils in video or photograph captions.
The school will pixelate or obscure images of pupils who do not have permission to be featured.
Image files will be appropriately named and will not use pupils’ names in ALT tags.

Cyberbullying

In accordance with the Anti-Bullying Procedures for Schools, Scoil Thomáis considers that a once-off offensive or hurtful public message, image or statement on a social network site or other public forum where that message can be viewed and/or repeated by other people will be regarded as bullying behaviour.

The prevention of cyberbullying is an integral part of the anti-bullying policy of our school.

Legislation

The school will provide information on the following legislation:

Data Protection Acts 1988 to 2018 and GDPR.
Child Trafficking and Pornography Act 1998.
Children First Act 2015.
Harassment, Harmful Communications and Related Offences Act 2020 (Coco’s Law).
Criminal Damage Act 1991.

Sanctions

Misuse of the Internet and digital technologies should be referred to in the school’s Code of Behaviour and Anti-Bullying Policy. The school also reserves the right to report any illegal activities to the appropriate authorities, including An Garda Síochána.

Monitoring and Review

The implementation of the policy shall be monitored by the Principal, staff and the Board of Management.
The policy will be reviewed and evaluated after 1 year.
Timeframe for Review: Term 1 2026/27.

Ratification

This policy was reviewed and ratified by the Board of Management of Scoil Thomáis at a meeting held on September 23rd 2025.