WebScreen - Flexible, safe web filter designed specifically for schools
NEW - SchoolProtect is coming!
What is WebScreen?
WebScreen is a flexible, safe web filter designed specifically for schools, whether a small primary or a large MAT. Based on the industry-standard Netsweeper engine, which is constantly scanning the internet to categorise and identify harm in new and old websites, WebScreen streamlines a complex task: keeping children safe online.
Regular users will probably never notice WebScreen unless they encounter a blockpage, but admins have 24/7 access to a portal for the initial setup and day-to-day changes in response to schools' changing needs.
Free to all LGfL Broadband Subscribers
Why is WebScreen 'appropriate filtering' as per KCSIE? Read our UK SIC submission
More about WebScreen
We strongly recommend anyone who wishes to become a WebScreen admin to do anything beyond day-to-day safeguarding tasks attends a free training course to understand the complexities of the system. For this technical course and the 20-minute overview for safeguarding leads of what they need to know about filtering, go to training.lgfl.net. To become a WebScreen administrator, you simply need to ask your headteacher to action this with a single click from the ‘Nominated Contact Management’ page on the ‘Account Management’ dropdown menu of the support site.
Filtering and Safeguarding
Find out why filtering is so important, what safeguarding teams need to know about WebScreen (including simple checks they can do themselves faster than emailing a technician!) in the video below:
Keeping Children Safe in Education says that schools must have appropriate filtering - but how do you know? The Safer Internet Centre asks schoolsafe internet providers to submit certification forms to explain how they meet a range of criteria.
Our submission is here and is well worth a read - and keeping to hand for when Ofsted calls! It's not all in technical speak, so do make sure DSLs and other SLT read it.
We recommend you watch all the videos on our support page, which not only give an overview of the system but also outline all the key functionality within the system.
NEW: Changes to Google Translate mean it is no longer 'high risk'
WebScreen for your School
WebScreen is a highly flexible system; it isn’t about a site being simply blocked or allowed. You can filter according to:
User group (including Active Directory lookup) – different policies for different year groups, for example
Time – perhaps gaming or social media may be allowed during lunch or in after school clubs
IP address of device – the staff room or other areas which students cannot access may need different policies
The new user interface makes it incredibly easy to look up a URL/webpage to find out if or why it is accessible or not, to change this if needed or suggest a re-categorisation.
At a click you can turn on a category (e.g. gaming) for a certain group of users:
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The ‘bundles’ feature groups together related URLs to allow you to turn on or off multiple pages at once (e.g. to allow or block a selection of curriculum sites).
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Customise block pages to advise users why they cannot access a site and what to do about it.
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Request / view a report is also a matter of a few clicks with the new wizard, whether this is for standard overviews or to investigate an incident.
Why Schools Love WebScreen
How WebScreen keeps us safe
At LGfL we work hard to help schools keep children safe, but you may want to hear this in the words of one of our schools, so we asked Abid Patel from Leading Learning Trust (Newham) to tell us how WebScreen keeps them safe.
Training
LGfL TechSquad Training
This detailed session will give school technical teams and third-party support organisations an understanding of how to set up and configure Webscreen for different school networks, how to get the best out of the system and how to make sure it is up to date and ready to meet the needs as set out by school management.
Safeguarding Shorts for DSLs / other SLT: Web filtering in 20 minutes
20 minute strategic safeguarding (non-technical) session for DSLs and other SLT to highlight how to make sure you are complying with the Keeping Children Safe in Education requirement that “governing bodies and proprietors…ensure their school or college has appropriate filters and monitoring systems in place”. Setup and config of filtering is a technical job, but the reason for blocking or not blocking is a safeguarding decision, so join us to find out more.