Information Technology

All pupils  are issued with their own Google account upon entry to the college. These accounts stay with the pupil throughout the 5 years at the college. It is the responsibility of the pupil to maintain their account and to keep it secure. Pupils sign an Acceptable User Policy at the beginning of the year and then a shortened version every half term. Pupil accounts are monitored using Smoothwall. Pupils are taught how to keep themselves safe online through their Tutorial programme and computer science lessons.

As parents, you can help to keep your child safe online by:

• Establishing ground rules for the use of tech in your household ( where, when and what )
• Taking an interest in what your child is doing online and encouraging good behaviour
• Keeping to age ratings ( they are there for a reason )
• Improving your knowledge as a parent ( so you are able to have a more informed conversation with your child )

Chromebooks

In the past parents and carers have been able to purchase chromebooks through the school but we are currently unable to compete with prices offered by other retailers. Parents that purchase a chromebook usually do so to allow their child to use it in school. To use a Chromebook in school it would need to be added to our domain, this allows us to filter content to meet safeguarding requirements and best practice. A Chrome licence needs to be applied to the Chromebook and there is a cost for this - this is the cost of the licence from our supplier, there is no charge added by CCC and payment is made via ParentMail. The filtering is then applied when in school and when at home. Therefore, some web content, including social media sites, will not be available to students when at home, just as it is not when in school and once in our school domain, only google accounts that are part of the school domain i.e. @cullomptoncollege.org will be able to gain access to the Chromebook. If you have any questions about the filtering within the google domain please contact our IT department. 

When your child leaves CCC you can request that the Chromebook is removed from our domain and it can then be used freely with all filtering removed.

Whilst we cannot advise you which Chromebook to purchase, you should aim to purchase one with the longest possible Auto Update Expiration date (AUE date), the date up to which Google guarantees to support auto updates for that Chromebook. A retailer may have a Chromebook on offer at a great price but the AUE date may only be next year, where another device is dearer but has an AUE date 4 years ahead. You can check AUE dates for most Chrome devices via the Google Chrome Enterprise Help Page -  Google Chrome Auto Update policy