I thought that now our class blog is up and running and the children are using it at home with you, it was important to iron out some blogging guidelines to follow.

What is our class blog?

Our class blog is a way for us to share our ideas and our learning with other people. Sharing our learning means that it is very important that we understand how to use the blog and the internet in a secure way.

This ties in with National Curriculum objectives and ICT Key Skills that the children are expected to learn and apply.

The following guidelines have been established to ensure the safety of our pupils when blogging. The guidelines are also reminders of how to use the blog to improve writing and keyboarding skills.

• Student work will only be identified by first names. All comments should have first names only.

• Any photos of students on the blog will be anonymous without any names connected to them.

• Parents who leave comments are asked not to use last names either. (Please post comments as “Calice’s Mum” or “Dylan’s Nan”, etc.)

• All comments submitted have to be approved by Mr. Maloney before they are included on the blog. Inappropriate comments will not be approved and anyone who does write innapropriately will be reprimanded by their teacher, Mr Maloney, Mr Shepherd or Mr Glynn.

• Proof-read your comments carefully. Pupils should have a family member check for spelling mistakes before submitting a comment. This is especially important with infant children, who can practise their phonetic awareness (spelling strategies) through adult support when writing.

• As a general rule, only Mr. Maloney and other staff members have access to post things on the blog. Unless alternative arrangements have been agreed by classes, such as 6A with Miss Ainsworth. Once the blogs are being used more across the school, children will be encouraged to write blog entries, they will go through edits and revisions before their individual class teacher posts them.

• Do not leave comments as a means of communicating with friends in the style of a ‘chatroom’. Please post positively and always remember that the blog is an extension of our school, that the rest of the world is able to see.

Thank you for reading the blogging guidelines for Hawes Side Primary School.

These guidelines were adapted from existing guidelines created by Mr Salsich and his class http://jmsalsich.edublogs.org/