IT Support Policy

Guiding Principles

ICT play such an important part of modern life that lack of exposure to these technologies is considered a distinct disadvantage in the 21st Century. ICT can enhance every aspect of education if fully integrated into the curriculum. Bridge House has made large investments in ICT over the last 12 years to ensure that all students have access to technology whenever and wherever learning is taking place. All students are encouraged to use ICT for educational as well as recreational purposes. The recreational uses of ICT should not interfere with the students other activities, preventing them from enjoying the sporting and other social activities offered by a school such as Bridge House. Each individual’s use of the system should not detract from other users’ ability to use the system in a constructive manner. This is particularly true in three particular areas:

a. Communal use of computers in the shared area

b. Internet bandwidth use

c. Distribution of malicious software (Malware, viruses, spyware etc)

The School’s Acceptable Use Policy (See Intranet for details) applies in the boarding houses just as much as in any other part of the school. Over the years, Bridge House students have developed a very functional self regulatory system regarding Internet Access. All students understand which areas of the Internet are appropriate from them to visit and manage to keep themselves clear of the other areas. This means that very few technical controls are required to ensure safety on the Internet. This is backed up by the fact that all access is logged and that any uncertainties regarding the appropriateness of sites can be discussed with parents.

Laptop Computers

As the number of privately owned laptop computers linking in to the school's network increases, the IT Department has had to manage the amount of time spent by our technical staff in support these machines. We ask that all users keep these guidelines in mind when considering connecting to the network.

When considering buying a new computer, especially a laptop, please make sure you have a version of Windows that is compatible with the rest of the school's network system if you want to use it here. Vista Home and Home Premium are not supported by Novell as clients and so will not be supported by the IT department on our network. (http://www.novell.com/documentation/vistaclient/readme/ncwvreadme.html#amg1pgt)

We do support Vista Business and this is the version that we recommend you use if you are not able to have Windows XP Professional installed on you machine. If your machine is supplied with Windows Vista Home, please upgrade it to Vista Business before bringing it to have the Novell Client and Antivirus software installed that is required to run on the school's school network. Remember that there are certain features of the Vista operating system that are not supported on the school's network. We can not guarantee that you will have full functionality on any version of Vista.

Vista business upgrade is availalbe to Bridge House students at greatly reduced cost as part of Microsoft's School Licence Agreement. Please see the IT Director for details regarding this offer.

Although Mac OS X is not supported, we have been able to configure an Internet connection and provide access to GroupWise mailboxes. Please bring the machine to the IT department before using it on the network. We are not able to provide access to your home drive or to provide access to printers. We would therefore, advise against the use of Mac os x on the school's network.

See the guidelines regarding ICT use in the boarding house in PDF format below:

Related Files:

We have taken great care to ensure that these files are virus-free.