LGfL DigiSafe is becoming LGfL SafeguardED* - find out more here

What about monitoring? LGfL has listened to feedback from schools and will be adding an 'appropriate' technical monitoring solution to its subscription, either as a free addition or heavily discounted. LGfL’s new Safeguarding Service will also include enhanced advice and support for schools.

Know your user - why?

To comply with the standards, keeping pupils safe online and not overblocking, you need to know the user of a device. This helps with:

• GRANULAR REPORTING - if you know who is using a device, you can run reports on individual users in an incident and also identify trends for user groups (e.g. by Key Stage of yeargroup, depending on your set up). Otherwise, reports will be based on the address of a machine, making your job much harder.
• AGE-APPROPRIATE FILTERING - if you are tied in with user directories, you can have different filtering for different user groups, e.g. more restrictive for younger users. This ensures you are not overblocking.

Know your user - how?

• If you use Windows, make sure your tech team has synchronised the filtering with your Active Directory (what's that? The 'address book' for Windows links user names with real names and year groups or key stages (depending on setup). If they haven't, ask them to request the Active Directory sync tool from the Support Site.
• If you use Chromebooks, make sure the Google directory is linked in the same way. If not, ask your tech team to follow this guide*.

* Please note that Chromebook authentication is only available to schools on the new SchoolProtect platform (more than 50 percent of you so far). If your school is yet to move over to SchoolProtect and you are a Chromebook school, contact schoolprotect@lgfl.net and we will move you next!

HomeProtect - IMPORTANT - are you logging? Take action to turn on to allow reports...

We recently upgraded the HomeProtect system for filtering school devices in the home which we developed for you during the pandemic. One of the key developments relates to logging and reporting abilities to help you meet the KCSIE requirements and DfE filtering standards.

Please make sure you have activated logging so you can run regular or ad hoc reports. Simply follow these instructions (or pass to your technician) to ensure you can run a report when you need to.

Coming soon to SchoolProtect!

That's not all though. As well as the new features and background technology refresh, we will soon be announcing:

• The ability to run reports that get sent to a different user
• A new look and feel to reporting overall with recommended reports and graphs, too
• More easily accessible audit trail
• Embedded content filtering (allow a blocked site if it is embedded on a trusted site)
• New authentication possibilities for per-user filtering

More Filtering Advice from LGfL

• Want to know how SchoolProtect is compliant with the DfE standards? Take a look at appropriate.lgfl.net. This shows our submission to UKCIS.
• What is the difference between filtering and monitoring? Watch this video.
• How do we complete an annual review of our filtering and monitoring? Use our free Online Safety Audit tool.

Got any questions about filtering? Email us for support - safeguarding@lgfl.net 

Mark, Mubina and Alex

Your LGfL SafeguardED Team

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