Web Filtering & Security for Educational Charities
Guide / Case Study INDUSTRY:
Educational Charity
WEBSENSE INTEGRATION:
Microsoft ISA Server
United Church Schools Trust enforces flexible security policy with Websense Background United Church Schools Trust (UCST) was founded as an educational charity in 1883 with the principal objective of
creating schools, particularly for girls, which offer a good academic education based on Christian principles of service and tolerance. UCST currently owns and manages a number of independent schools across
the country, including Guildford High School and Hampshire Collegiate School. Of the senior schools, five are co-educational. UCST employs in the region of 3000 people of whom 1500 are teachers. UCST has
invested almost £80 million in new and improved buildings and modern educational technology during the last twelve years. This bold investment policy has given clear signals to parents, pupils and staff that
the Trust intends to create the best possible environment for all the pupils. Consequently pupil numbers have grown to over 7000 today.
UCST's subsidiary, the United Learning Trust (ULT) was created to
manage a number of academies in areas of high economic and social deprivation spread across the country, and shares UCST's objective of managing schools which offer students a high quality education. ULT
currently manages 13 academies, some of which are located in Lambeth, Manchester and Northampton. The Trust took on four new academies in September 2007.
The Challenge
United Church Schools Trust
and United Learning Trust now provide a total of around 8500 desktop computers across all its schools and academies. Nathan Mitchell, Systems Manager at UCST, explains that the Internet is now a vital
educational tool, but points out that the Trust has long been aware of the pitfalls:
"We understand that we have a duty of care in providing this service in our schools and academies," he says. "Although
the sites have slightly varying requirements, we essentially wanted to control access to instant messaging and block inappropriate Web sites including non educational, chat rooms and adult content, as well
as preventing harmful malcode such as spyware being inadvertently downloaded to school computers. We were looking to enforce a flexible security policy that schools and academies could adapt according to
their needs, and this is what Websense has enabled us to do."
Powerful reporting
Nathan Mitchell describes the need at a number of sites to control access to instant messaging and Webmail for
security reasons:
"Some of our sites have chosen to block access to Web-based e-mail, meaning that school e-mail, with its own controls, filters and security settings in place, has been established as the
only option for e-mail communication. So we also regard Websense as a management tool - it has enabled us to guide user behaviour in such a way that we can enforce safer and more easily regulated Internet
use."
One of the reasons UCST selected Websense was because of its powerful reporting tools which allow the network managers to easily identify security threats. Our company can help you with any of the following Websense Integrations
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