ICT Update

Onboarding of Student BYO Devices

Thank you to our students and families for your patience as we onboard your BYO devices. 

Through this process we are implementing our new internet filtering service, Family Zone. Due to the volume of students, we are focussing on Year 7 and will work progressively through the other years. All students in Years 8 to 12 have full internet access at school and will be managed by our existing filtering service.

All students now have access to their school login details and can access their email, Microsoft Teams and other learning resources.

Due to the change to BYO devices this year and the inclusion of all students, the process has taken longer than expected and we apologise for any inconvenience your child may have experienced.

About our new internet filtering (Family Zone)

On Campus

As a school that prides itself on preparing our students for life in the real world, we recognise that as the technological landscape rapidly evolves, we too must evolve the way we support and guide our students in their online development and use of technology.

Our Family Zone technology will allow the school to better maintain our duty of care during school hours by ensuring the students are safe online no matter what network they are connected to.

This supports our legal responsibility to keep students safe and will allow us to ensure that students are entirely focused on their learning whilst at school.

At home

Family Zone can also provide you with tools to help you understand and engage with your child’s use of the internet at home. It will provide you with cyber expert guidance on how to engage your child in conversations about their online activities, and other tools designed to support you in guiding your child's online development.

Each family will receive multiple licences allowing you to install on other devices such as mobile phones if you wish, but the extent to which you use the tools will be entirely up to you and your child.

Is it going to be compulsory that parents activate it at home?

No - Activation outside of school hours will be entirely optional and at each family's discretion however, as a school, we would strongly encourage you to support us in this cyber-safety initiative.

With today's children spending as much as 50% of their waking hours online in a world with no boundaries or restrictions, we firmly believe it to be essential we apply the same guidance and support in their digital development that we offer them in the real world.

It is our strong hope that as a school community, our partnership with Family Zone will empower both us as a school and you as our parents with the tools and information we need to achieve this.

In the near future we will be inviting parents to an information and training session about this service.

Parent Portal Update

The Parent Portal strategy has been adopted to streamline the way that we communicate with parents and the way that you are able to access school systems to get the information that you need. 

Through the new portal, parents will be provided with a single sign-on for important school services. 

The Portal will give us the ability to move away from excessive email traffic and will provide a mobile phone app that will conveniently deliver your alerts and notifications.

When will we get logins for the new Parent Portal?

While we had planned to launch the Portal in Week 1, our IT Team has been fully occupied with onboarding students on their new BYO devices. As the priority is preparing our students for learning, the Portal launch has been pushed back slightly. All parents will be sent an invitation to access the portal once final testing has been completed.

In the meantime, absences should be reported to Reception and important communication will be emailed to you as usual.