VIEWS & OPINION


Is your school prepared for a cyberattack? Comment by KEVIN ROBINSON, Services Consultant at RM Education


Most of us have, at some point, opened an email that looked relatively benign, but turned out to be a phishing scam or something suspicious. But if someone in your school opened an attachment that turned out to be ransomware or malware – and you don’t have your data backed up – your critical school information could be at risk.


The prevalence of malware (malicious software) and ransomware (which encrypts your network and charges you thousands in a ransom to decrypt it) is a growing cause for concern, and it’s more of a case of ‘when’ than ‘if’ your school is targeted.


You’re only as good as your network or disaster recovery plan, and in an age where data is so critical, schools must ensure they’re armed against these kind of attacks and that their back-up systems are as robust as possible and fully tested.


Schools rely heavily on the strength of their anti-virus software and the capabilities of their Network Managers – but that won’t always mitigate the risk because so many security threats are developed every day, and it’s incredibly difficult to be aware of every new virus as it’s launched. Ultimately, a good governance policy underpinned by a strong Information Security policy should be the starting point. This should outline what staff should do if they receive an email from an unrecognised sender, an odd attachment from someone they know whose account may have been compromised, or they suspect malware on their network.


But ‘good housekeeping’ will also make your school a more difficult


target for cyberattacks: make sure you have a back-up of all your critical files (both offline and offsite), check your virus protection is up to date, set up auto updates for your operating systems and applications to keep them up to date, use a restricted account for your daily activities, and remove any unused programs.


Don’t click on any suspicious links or attachments or install programmes you haven’t specifically chosen to add, only obtain programs and updates from trusted sources, avoid using USB sticks and if you think your files are being locked by a virus turn off, unplug your device and report it to your IT team.


A strong password is often your first line of defence, but you’d be surprised at how easy it is to crack them; schools should enforce effective password policies, and change them regularly – they should be at least eight letters long and contain one uppercase letter and one digit. Email phishing scams are on the rise in schools, and good practice here is vital too. Use an email provider that scans messages for malware and spam, don’t click on suspicious links or open suspicious attachments in emails, don’t forward these emails to others, be wary of emails from unrecognised senders, and ignore emails that ask you to enter your username or password for any reason.


This is another area where moving your systems to the cloud gives you greater security and peace of mind. A school’s Management Information System (MIS) holds critical data that you can’t run without, but hosting it in the cloud ensures your data can be locked down and stored safely.


Bringing parents, teachers and students into the new world of primary maths Comment by MARTIN BAILEY, ‘digital enrichment leader’ at Lanchester Endowed Parochial


(EP) Primary School, Co. Durham, and CEO of Animate 2 Educate


Historically, a lot of lesson time for the teaching of maths focused on drill and skill: learning to recite the times-tables or practising addition and subtraction. The new maths curriculum is very much focused on developing a deeper understanding of the subject, and in my view, this learning is ideally consolidated at home. The other part of our maths evolution was to focus more on reaching out and communicating with parents both face to face and via social media.


We organise regular parent meetings, to keep them up-to-date with the learning objectives and advise them of our mathematical teaching strategies. This way they are able to recognise the importance of children experiencing the practical side of maths.


Social media


We have built up a strong presence on our Twitter profile @LanchesterEP; we have nearly 800 followers; not bad for a primary school. By sharing with parents, in both words and pictures, the great work going on in the school, we hope


to encourage them to back up the work we do in the classroom, at home.


For example, we recently set a piece of homework for our Year 2 students that tasked the to photograph themselves under a clock, and then tell what time it was. We asked the children to get their parents involved by going out to find clocks to photograph.


One caption that was posted on social media with the picture of a clock at the local swimming pool said: “Clock spotted whilst I was swimming at Consett Leisure Centre tonight! Nearly 6 o'clock says Tom.”


Another student posted a picture of a cake she’d made at home with her parents, with the clock face on the top showing four o’clock.


Online learning


We have also been using Matific, an online primary maths program that can be used in the classroom and at home as homework As we all know, there are millions of apps and websites dedicated to numeracy and maths, and a lot of these learning resources are ‘all singing all


16 www.education-today.co.uk


dancing’. But what really caught my eye with Matific was that you can see the mathematical thinking behind the product in terms of its development. It really captures the process by which kids learn mathematics.


In terms of developing a deeper understanding of maths in primary schools, technology is a great enabler. For example, when teaching weight, even with the greatest will in the world, a school is not going to have 30 sets of scales. So firstly, we’d encourage parents to get their children weighing at home; including them in real life activities such as weighing the ingredients of a recipe. When this is not possible, software like Matific is another way to give them access to these experiences digitally; it’s the best thing to compliment hands on learning.


In terms of adapting our teaching of maths to the new curriculum, we have found that working with both parents and teachers is essential. If we are to develop the higher ability mathematicians that the country is currently lacking, we have to bring parents, teachers and children into this new world of learning.


June 2017


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