Dear Parents and Carers,
At School of Christ the King we would like to keep up to date with you and your children. To do this we are using a product called Zoom for our video-calling. We will be using our school account for this, so you do not need to buy anything or create an account.
When we make our video call, we will always send you a text first before we send your child a video link via their Google Classroom. We will never email your child asking them to join a call without you knowing, and we will never ask to 'video meet' with you or your child outside our school hours which are currently 9am - 3.15pm.
To use the video link in our email just click on it. The browser window will open and the first time you use it, it will ask you to download the software. If you use a Zoom account for another reason, please make sure you log out of that account before your child uses it. This will make sure any settings that you have made in your account do not over-ride any that we have put in place to safeguard your child.
When we make the video call please make sure the computer is in a suitable place, not in a bedroom or bathroom for example and the background is clear, showing just the wall perhaps.
For your child's safety we may record our call with you. The recordings are kept on our school servers for 1 month and no-one is permitted to view them without good reason and with permission from the headteacher.
You may have read a lot about problems with video calling software. Zoom has improved its security settings recently. Our school account has settings that will limit problems with the following issues that you may have heard about:
- Zoom-bombing
- Risk of phishing
- Privacy concerns
- Recordings
- Private zoom meetings
- Inappropriate content
- Data Protection
- Poor privacy controls and security
To protect you and your child further, please:
Do not create or use an existing Zoom account for them, this will make sure that your child cannot change any of our settings.
Make sure the joining email is from our school email address, this will prevent any impact from phishing emails where people try to get you to click on a fraudulent email.
We will always make sure that there are two adults on the video call and we would like parents to be alongside when our call takes place.
There should be no inappropriate content on any of our video calls. Please contact the school if you are concerned about any of the content of the video call.
If you would like any further information, please get in touch by calling us in school.
We have texted parents in classes using this tool and we are asking parents to phone or email us to confirm that you understand and support how we are using this tool.
Yours sincerely,
Matt Condon
Headteacher
