Policy Statement

Policy of the Wigan Schoolsonline web site

Purpose

The purpose of the website is:
- to act as the default home page in classrooms within Wigan LA
- to provide curriculum resources to pupils and staff within Wigan LA.
- to provide links to educational Websites
- to provide access to information to assistthe management of schools within the Wigan LA
- to provide a directory of Wigan schools' own web sites.
- to enable staff to engage in online discussions with colleagues

Content

The site will contain:

Resources which are intended for use in the classroom
Resources which are intended to assist teachers' lesson planning.
Guidance materials and documentation relating to teaching and learning.
Information, guidance materials and documentation relating to the management of schools within Wigan LA
Discussion Forums

Pages will use a standard layout and colour scheme
See the Data Protection section of the legal section of the website
Photographs and other forms of digital images which clearly identify individuals will not be allowed unless written permission is granted from the person(s) concerned or, if minors, from their parent or legal guardian.

Links

Wigan Schools Home Pages
- A direct link will be provided to the website of all schools within Wigan LA whose site is hosted on the Schoolsonline server.
- A direct link will be provided to the website of any school within Wigan LA whose site is not hosted on the Schoolsonline server provided that it has an approved ".wigan.sch.uk" domain name.
- Links will not be provided for school sites which do not use an approved ".wigan.sch.uk" domain name
Local sites
- All pages within the site will have a direct link to the Wigan Children and Young Peoples' Services Home Page
- A page will be provided with direct links to other educational sites within Wigan LA
Other sites
- Links will only be provided to sites with apparent educational value.
- Links to external sites will always open in a new browser window.

Resources

Resources will only be made available once they have been authorised by the appropriate person. This will normally be the subject adviser.
Links to downloadable resources will contain a text description that includes the file type and size.
Resources which are intended to be used as templates will normally be in Microsoft Word format. Other files will normally be in PDF format requiring Adobe Acrobat reader.
Downloadable resources produced by members of Children and Young People's Services as part of their normal duties remain the copyright of the LA and should have the Wigan Council Logo on every page (normally in a footer).
(It is intended that resources from other sources should show the source of the materials on every page (normally in a footer)).
Resources will be kept up to date within a 6 month timescale and Subject Advisers will be informed of any updates or changes required.
Unless otherwise stated, all resources published on the Schoolsonline site will remain the copyright of Wigan LA.

Discussion Forums

Subject based discussion forums will be moderated by the subject adviser or their nominee.
Other discussion forums will be moderated by the webmaster or other nominee.
Live posting to discussion forums will be possible and the moderator will not review all content before it is posted. Wigan Council accepts no responsibility for any thing or statement posted to a discussion forum and any views expressed therein will not be the views of Wigan Council.
It is the policy of Wigan LA that it will not tolerate publication on the Website of content that is obscene, defamatory or in any sense unlawful, including (but not limited to) content which is pornographic or intended to incite racial hatred. Users posting content to the Website should be aware of this policy as Wigan LA will take such steps as it considers necessary to enforce it.

Technical

The site has been constructed with ease of navigation in mind and where possible graphics are optimised to ensure quick download speeds. The site is optimised for a screen resolution of 800x600 and has been tested in Netscape 4. IE5 and Opera (all on PC).