Telford schools adopt student monitoring software

Schools in Shropshire are rolling out specialist software to enforce acceptable use policies for students accessing the internet from school computers.

The Borough of Telford and Wrekin is rolling out the software to 12 secondary schools, 58 primary schools and four special schools, following a pilot exercise in selected primary and secondary schools.

Richard Lawson, ICT for learning manager at the borough said, “The software will allow us to monitor and address our students’ IT behaviour and make our schools safer, more productive and less exposed to cyber risks, and will enable adherence to compliance regulations.”

The software, Policy Central Enterprise, supplied by Forensic Software, records any violations of acceptable use, by storing a time and date stamped screen capture in an SQL database. It also allows schools to control which applications are used on each PC, and who can access machines.