The school ensures student information security by storing data on a third party portal with staff login credentials. Regular nightly backups of servers are made both onsite and offsite. Health and safety policies like fire training and risk assessments are followed. There is room for improvement such as only allowing staff access from school IP addresses, more frequent and redundant backups, and updated computers and equipment.

1. Unit 4 M2
Lewis Appleton 1 Miss Johnston
Legal
Effectiveness
Data Protection Act 1998
The Howard school holds information on all of the students in the school so therefore
they ensure that the information is only accessed when it is required. To make sure of
this all of the information is kept on a third party site called e-portal, this allows staff
to access certain information such as attendance records and student timetables so that
they can notify the student. There are also contact details kept which may be used to
phone the student’s parents and this is the only time it will be accessed. As well as the
information being kept in one place the staff have logins that they have to use to
access the database, this does not mean that they are all the same. The staff logins also
have information for the staff such as teaching timetables and every staff account
holds information on that staff member and can only be accessed by them.
Improvements
Data Protection Act 1998
To follow the Act better the school could keep the information on a domain owned by
them, this would be difficult to do but it would ensure protection as in the past large
companies have tampered with information. The NOTW was found to be hacking
phones and was one of the largest newspapers. Another thing the school can do is
keep a backup of the information which could only be accessed if e-portal was to go
down, this would help keep access available.
Areas of goodpractice
Data Protection Act 1998
There are good things about using third party sites to store information, there are first
of all no costs for domain names and this would save the school money, this also
saves the trouble of encoding password access scripts and login databases into the site
which may not be cheap. On a third party site there is a chance of it being hacked but
the chance is lower than if the information was on a site owned by the school.
Another good thing is that the information is clearly presented in the same template
layout for each student page, this means the information is easy to find as it is in the
same place as other student pages.
Ethical
Effectiveness
Use of email
At the school the use of email is restricted, the staff are able to have their own
personal emails and use them but they cannot be used for school business. This means
that the staff cannot send something such as an email to the parents of a student about
the student. If they are found to be doing this they can be punished. This also means
that staff cannot use the school email addresses for personal use such as sending a

2. Unit 4 M2
Lewis Appleton 2 Miss Johnston
message to a friend. The school email system is monitored and therefore they will be
seen.
Internet
The internet at the school is effective; to access it even from a personal computer a
login has to be entered. As well as this security of only allowing students and teachers
to gain access there is also limitations on student accounts as to what websites they
can access. This means they cannot access sites such as Facebook or YouTube during
school hours.
Improvements
Use of email
To improve the use of email the school could use something such as Gmail; this
system allows the use of more than one email address so you can choose which email
address to send from. This would make it easier to send personal and school emails
without being logged on to two email systems at the same time. The school could also
have their own emails this way as Gmail allows domain name emails; if the school
owns the domain and can prove it then they can have the site name at the end of an
email. For example the site is www.thehowardschool.co.uk therefore the email will be
someone@thehowardschool.co.uk.
Internet
The internet system at the school can be improved, many Wi-Fi devices such as
smartphones and iPods can access the modem with the password but no login appears,
this prevents any access to the internet on them and therefore can make things
difficult. There should also be more access allowed, many sites are banned when they
don’t need to be such as YouTube, some students may abuse it but others do not. All
bans on student accounts are the same; it would be useful to allow access to more sites
for the more hardworking students.
Areas of goodpractice
Use of email
What is good about the email system is that the teachers can safely contact students
without breaking any laws, so this allows the teachers to send out homework
reminders and the students to send back word documents of the homework. The
reason why this works is because it is monitored. Another good thing is that the
school email system also has the domain name at the end; this means that if parents
are emailed they can quickly recognise what the email is about and who it’s from.
Internet
The internet does have good parts of it; the limited access means that students cannot
access anything that is either illegal or harmful to them. Sites that aren’t illegal or
harmful are usually banned for other reasons as well. Some sites such as flash games
are timewasters and are usually accessed instead of work being done, this also applies
to YouTube. Although it is a limitation, the fact that smartphones and iPods cannot
access the internet is a good thing; this can prevent students from cheating on exams
by using electrical devices.
Operational

3. Unit 4 M2
Lewis Appleton 3 Miss Johnston
Effectiveness
Security of information
Members of staff have secure access to the email database which they can use to send
school emails, this allows the recipient to know who the email is from and it also
allows there to be a backup copy of the email as the systems are monitored. There is
also a system used called e-portal, this allows staff to access information the classes
that they are teaching and the individual students they need to access information on.
The information is kept secure on the servers which are kept behind locked doors to
ensure that no one can tamper with them.
Backups
Regular backups are made each night on the servers in the school, this is done
securely, there are different servers for the staff and student access; teacher and
student shared area. The backups are made offsite so that no one knows and tampers
with them while they are being backed. The hard drives that contain the backed up
data are kept in a separate room to the servers.
Health and Safety
The school currently follows policies such as the Health and Safety at Work Act
1974. This means that the school workstations only have the equipment that they
require; computer monitor, keyboard, mouse, tower, printer, projector, etc. Each staff
member has to complete training exercises such as fire awareness and evacuation
training. There are also things such as risk assessments which may be useful for
subjects such as science. The fire doors are clearly labelled and there are set rally
points for year groups.
Costs
There are certain costs that are made by the school to make sure that they are up to
date with the evolving technology. Schools previously used things such as
whiteboards and blackboards which these days are not used as much; smart boards
and projectors are preferred. New computers and projectors have to be purchased to
make sure this is done.
Improvements
Security of information
There is room for improvements for security, there are much more ways of being able
to do things. Staff could forget their passwords or another person could find out what
it is. One of the things that the school can do is make it so that the e-portal system can
only be accessed from the schools IP address which would mean the person would
have to be connected to the school Wi-Fi. There are also other things that can be used
such as fingerprint sensors, face recognition, speech recognition which would also
prevent other non-staff members gaining access.
Backups
The backup procedure can be improved; the backups could be done more than once
and in more than one location. There are online storage facilities which would be
useful for storing the most important data, it may take time but it means if the backup
and server were tampered with the information can still be recovered. The information
should also be backed up onsite as this means the backup can be monitored whereas
when backed up offsite there are not many people that know what happens.
Health and Safety
The Health and Safety can be improved, first of all a list of all the equipment needed
can be at each workstation so that only that equipment is there. It would also be useful

4. Unit 4 M2
Lewis Appleton 4 Miss Johnston
to have regular training exercises as well as it would increase safety. Some of the
training is done during school days so it could be beneficial to carry out the training
during weekends and holidays instead.
Costs
There can be some improvements to costs; there are many things that can be changed
such as computer programs. There are many free programs available to carry out work
in the same way that professional expensive programs can do. For example Sweet
Home 3D is a free CAD program which is a better alternative to other programs.
There can also be more necessary costs such as improvements to school facilities;
compared to competitor schools it lacks things such as up to date computers and smart
boards.
Areas of good practice
Security of information
Currently the good thing about the security system is that the passwords are different.
This means that if for example the staff members school login details were lost, if
someone was to access the login they would not be able to also access the email
system or the e-portal system. Another good thing is that the servers are kept out of
the way and behind locked doors meaning no one can tamper with it and they are also
backed up every night.
Backups
The good thing about the backups is that the information can be recovered if the
server was to go down, therefore because nightly regular backups are made the school
can be confident that there would not be a huge setback. The good thing about no one
knowing when the servers are going to be backed up allows them to be backed up
safely without any worry.
Health and Safety
The good thing about regular training is that the performance in the actual real life
situations is increased and this means that the students and the staff members are
safer. The good thing about there being different types of training allows staff to focus
on specific situations rather than a generalised training type and this also increases the
performance in the real situation.
Costs
The good things about the costs is that the school currently focuses on the costs for
the subjects with a large variety of subjects to choose from, this is important as the
subjects are the reason for school. Another good thing is that the school uses
projectors, an easy way to teach and they do not need to use smart boards with them.
The computers also have the standard programs needed to complete work.