Roots Federation
EDUCATIONAL EXCELLENCE FOR EARLY YEARS
Statement of Intent
Roots Federation understands that social media is a growing part of life inside and outside of
school. We are committed to:
• Encouraging the responsible use of social media by all staff, parents and pupils in support
of the Federation’s beliefs and promises.
• Protecting our pupils from the dangers of social media.
• Preventing and avoiding damage to the reputation of the Federation through
irresponsible use of social media.
• Protecting our staff from cyberbullying and potentially career damaging behaviour.
• Arranging online safety meetings for parents.
Introduction
This policy is in place to minimise the risks to the Federation and its schools through use of social
media. This policy does not form part of any employee’s contract of employment and it may be
amended at any time. The Federation may also vary this policy as appropriate in any case.
This policy deals with the use of all forms of social media, including Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter,
Google, Wikipedia, Whisper, Instagram, Vine, Tumblr, Tik Tok and all other social networking
sites, internet postings and blogs. It applies to use of social media for business purposes as well as
personal use that may affect the school in any way.
This policy covers all employees, governors, consultants, volunteers, and agency workers who will
receive training as part of their induction.
Legal Framework
This policy has due regard to all relevant legislation and statutory guidance including, but not
limited to, the following:
• DfE (2023) ‘Data protection in schools’
• The UK General Data Protection Regulation (UK GDPR)
• Data Protection Act 2018
• Computer Misuse Act 1990, amended by the Police and Justice Act 2006
• Freedom of Information Act 2000
• Safeguarding Vulnerable Groups Act 2006
• Equality Act 2010
• DfE (2023) ‘Keeping children safe in education 2023’
This policy operates in conjunction with the following school policies:
• Online Safety Policy
• Data Protection Policy
• Complaints Policy
• Anti-bullying Policy
• Allegations of Abuse Against Staff Policy
• Staff Code of Conduct
• Cyber-security Policy
• Child Protection and Safeguarding Policy
• Disciplinary Policy and Procedure
• Behaviour Policy
Roles and Responsibilities
The Governors will be responsible for:
• Reviewing this policy every three years.
• Ensuring their own knowledge of social media and online safety issues is up-to-date.
• Ensuring that this policy, as written, does not discriminate on any grounds, including
against any of the protected characteristics, as outlined in the Equality Act 2010.
The Executive Headteacher will be responsible for:
• Ensuring this policy is implemented by the school.
• Ensuring all staff undergo safeguarding and child protection training, including online
safety, at induction.
• Ensuring the DSL’s remit covers online safety.
The Head of School will be responsible for:
• The overall implementation of this policy and ensuring that all staff and parents are
aware of their responsibilities in relation to social media use.
• Promoting safer working practices and standards with regards to the use of social media.
• Establishing clear expectations of behaviour for social media use.
• In conjunction with the Executive Headteacher, handling complaints regarding this
policy and its provisions in line with the school’s Complaints Policy.
• Implementing appropriate sanctions and disciplinary methods where there is a breach of
this policy.
• Taking steps to minimise the amount of misplaced or malicious allegations in relation to
social media use.
• Working alongside the DPO and ICT technicians to ensure appropriate security
measures are implemented and compliance with UK GDPR and other data protection
legislation.
• The school’s approach to online safety.
• Dealing with concerns about social media use that are safeguarding concerns.
Staff members will be responsible for:
• Adhering to the principles outlined in this policy and the Acceptable Use Agreement for
Staff.
• Ensuring pupils adhere to the principles outlined in this policy and that it is implemented
fairly and consistently in the classroom.
• Reporting any social media misuse by staff, pupils or parents to the Head of School
immediately.
• Attending any training on social media use offered by the school.
Parents will be responsible for:
• Adhering to the principles outlined in this policy
• Taking appropriate responsibility for their use of social media and the influence on their
children at home.
• Promoting safe social media behaviour for both themselves and their children.
• Attending meetings held by the school regarding social media use wherever possible.
ICT technicians will be responsible for:
• Providing technical support in the development and implementation of the school’s social
media accounts.
• Implementing appropriate security measures as directed by the Executive Headteacher
• Ensuring that the school’s filtering and monitoring systems are updated as appropriate.
School Social Media Accounts
Social media accounts for the school will only be created following approval from the Executive
Headteacher. A school-based social media account will be entirely separate from any personal
social media accounts held by staff members and will be linked to an official school email account
(or where this is not possible a named individual agreed by the Executive Headteacher).
When setting up a school social media account, consideration will be given to the following:
• The purpose of the account
• Whether the overall investment will achieve the aim of the account
• The level of interactive engagement with the site
• Whether staff, parents or members of the public will be able to contribute content to the
account
• How much time and effort staff members are willing to commit to the account
• How the success of the account will be evaluated
The Head of School will be responsible for authorising members of staff and any otherindividual
to have admin access to school social media accounts. Only people authorised by the Head of
School will be allowed to post on the school’s accounts.
Passwords for the school’s social media accounts are stored securely on the school’s ICT network.
The passwords are only shared with people authorised by the Head of School.
All posts made to school social media accounts will not breach copyright, data protection or
freedom of information legislation.
The school’s social media accounts will comply with the platform’s rules. The Head of School will
ensure anyone with authorisation to post on the school’s social media accounts are provided with
training on the platform and the rules around what can be posted.
School social media accounts will be moderated by the Executive headteacher.
Staff Conduct
Only staff with authorisation from the Head of School will post on school accounts and they will
adhere to this policy.
Staffwill only post contentthat meetsthe school’ssocialmedia objectives, including the following:
• Reminders about upcoming events
• Good news regarding the school’s performance, attainment or reputation
• Good news regarding the achievements of staff and pupils
• Information that parents should be aware of, e.g. school closure
Staff will ensure that their posts meet the following criteria:
• The post does not risk bringing the school into disrepute
• The post only expresses neutral opinions and does not include any personal views
• The post uses appropriate and school-friendly language
• The post is sensitive towards those who will read it, and uses particularly neutral and
sensitive language when discussing something that may be controversial to some
• The post does not contain any wording or content that could be construed as offensive
• The post does not take a side in any political debate or express political opinions
• The post does not contain any illegal or unlawful content
Staff use of Personal Social Media
Staff will not be prohibited from having personal social media accounts; however, it is important
that staff protect their professional reputation by ensuring they use personal social media
accounts in an appropriate manner.
Staff will be required to adhere to the guidelines within Appendix 1 when using personal social
media accounts.
Breaches of this policy by members of staff will be taken seriously, and in the event of illegal,
defamatory or discriminatory content, could lead to prosecution, disciplinary action or dismissal.
Members of staff will be aware that if their out-of-work activity brings the school into disrepute,
disciplinary action will be taken.
Attempts to bully, coerce or manipulate members of the school community via social media by
members of staff will be dealt with as a disciplinary matter.
Parents Social Media Use
Parents are able to comment on or respond to information shared via social media sites; however,
parents should do so in a way which does not damage the reputation of the school.
Parents will be asked not to share any photos or personal details of pupils when commenting on
school social media sites, nor post comments concerning other pupils or staff members.
Any parents that are seen to be breaching the guidance in this policy will be required to attend
a meeting with the Head of School and may have their ability to interact with the social media
websites removed.
Breaches of this policy will be taken seriously, and in the event of illegal, defamatory or
discriminatory content could lead to prosecution.
Data Protection Principles
The school will obtain consent from parents which will confirm whether or not consent is given
for posting images and videos of a pupil on social media platforms. Consent provided for the use
of images and videos only applies to school accounts – staff and parents are not permitted to post
any imagery or videos on personal accounts.
Parents are able to withdraw or amend their consent at any time. To do so, parents must inform
the school in writing. Where parents withdraw or amend their consent, it will not affect the
processing of any images or videos prior to when consent was withdrawn or amended. Processing
will cease in line with parents’ requirements following this. Wherever it is reasonably practicable
to do so, the school will take measures to remove any posts before consent was withdrawn or
amended, such as removing an image from a social media site.
Consent can be provided for certain principles only, for example only images of a pupil are
permitted to be posted, and not videos. This will be made explicitly clear on the consent from
provided. The school will only post images and videos of pupils for whom consent has been
received.
Only appropriate images and videos of pupils will be posted in which they are suitably dressed,
e.g. it would not be suitable to display an image of a pupil in swimwear.
When posting on social media, the school will use group or class images or videos with general
labels, e.g. ‘sports day’.
When posting images and videos of pupils. the school will not post pupils’ personal details on
social media platforms and pupils’ full names will never be used alongside any videos or images
in which they are present.
Before posting on social media, staff will:
• Refer to the consent record log to ensure consent has been received for that pupil and for
the exact processing activities required.
• Ensure that there is no additional identifying information relating to a pupil.
Any breaches of the data protection principles will be handled in accordance with the school’s
Data and Cyber-security breach Prevention and Management Plan.
Safeguarding
Any disclosures made by pupils to staff about online abuse, harassment or exploitation, whether
they are the victim or disclosing on behalf of another child, will be handled in line with the Child
Protection and Safeguarding Policy.
Concerns regarding a staff member’s online behaviour will be reported to the Head of School or
in the case of the Head of School, the executive Headteacher, who will decide on the best course
of action in line with the relevant policies, e.g. the Staff Code of Conduct, Allegations of Abuse
Against Staff Policy, and Disciplinary Policy and Procedures. If the concern is about the
Executive Headteacher, it will be reported to the chair of Governors.
Where there is a concern that illegal activity has taken place, the Head of School will contact the
police. The school will avoid unnecessarily criminalising pupils, e.g. calling the police, where
criminal behaviour is thought to be inadvertent and as a result of ignorance or normal
developmental curiosity,
e.g. a pupil has taken and distributed indecent imagery of themselves. The DSL will decide in
which cases this response is appropriate and will manage such cases in line with the Child
Protection and Safeguarding Policy.
Blocked Contact
HFL ICT will install firewalls on the school’s network to prevent access to certain website and
retain the right to monitor staff and pupil access to websites when using the school’s network
and on school-owned devices.
Attempts made to circumvent the network’s firewalls will result in a ban from using school
computing equipment, other than with close supervision.
Inappropriate content accessed on the school’s computers will be reported to an ICT technician
so that the site can be blocked. Requests may be made to access erroneously blocked content by
submitting a blocked content access form to an ICT technician, which will be approved by the
headteacher.
Cyberbullying
Any reports of cyberbullying on social media platforms by pupils will be handled in accordance
with the Anti-bullying Policy.
Cyberbullying against pupils or staff is not tolerated under any circumstances. Incidents of
cyberbullying are dealt with quickly and effectively wherever they occur in line with the Antibullying Policy. Allegations of cyberbullying from staff members will be handled in accordance
with the Allegations of Abuse Against Staff Policy.
Training
The school recognises that early intervention can protect pupils who may be at risk of
cyberbullying or negative social media behaviour. As such, staff will receive training in
identifying potentially at-risk pupils. Staff will receive training on social media as part of their
new starter induction.
Pupils will be educated about online safety and appropriate social media use regularly through a
variety of mediums.
Training will be refreshed in light of any significant incidents or changes.
Appendix 1: Staff guidance for using social media
These guidance notes set out the principles which staff are expected to follow when using social
media both on behalf of the Federation/school and about the Federation/school. All staff must:
• act in the best interests of pupils when creating, participating in or contributing to
social media sites
• avoid making any social media communications that could damage the
Federation/school’s interests or reputation, even indirectly
• not make false or misleading statements
• demonstrate the same high standards of behaviour as expected within the
Federation/school
• not express opinions on the Federation/school’s behalf, unless expressly authorised to
do so
• have due regard of Data Protection and GDPR regulations as well as other laws
relating to libel, defamation, harassment, discrimination and copyright
• when posting images of pupils,refrain from using that child’s name so that individuals
are not easily identifiable
• when posting images of children’s work, only use the child’s first name so that
individuals are not easily identifiable
• not publish images and videos of pupils without consent from a parent/carer
• not post comments about sensitive Federation/school-related topics, such as the
Federation/schools performance, internal disputes involving pupils, parents or
employees or do anything to jeopardise the Federation/school’s confidential
information particularly with regards to pupils and other employees
• make it clear in social media postings, or in the employee’s personal profile, that the
employee is speaking on the employee’s own behalf
• be respectful to others when making any statement on social media
• be aware that the employee is personally responsible for all communications which
will be published on the internet for anyone to see
• ensure that they use privacy and access settings whilst being aware that they cannot
control the use of their postings by others
• ensure that their profile and any content they post are consistent with the
professional image the employee presents to colleagues, pupils and parents
• discuss any concerns about the appropriateness of any statement or posting with their
manager prior to posting
• contact the Executive Headteacher or Head of School if they become aware of social
media content that disparages or reflects poorly on the school.