In the interests of continuing our approach to safety with digital devices at school, we have entered into an agreement with Family Zone (https://www.familyzone.com/nz). Family Zone gives the school the ability to further filter our Cloud, VPN and Hot Spotting traffic. As you may know, some cellular service companies are now offering free hotspotting data. In school, this could mean that students could use unlimited personal data to ‘get around’ our school NFL protections. By using Family Zone, we can prevent devices on our wifi from receiving hotspot data or VPNs. This protects students from unwanted content at school. This does not stop students from using their own cellphone data on a personal cellphone to access unsafe sites. However, as a no cellphone school, we feel we offer adequate protection during school hours from this risk.

Once the school starts using Family Zone, we are hoping to organise a community meeting with the representative from the company. He can set families up with the ability to use the app at home if required, using the school account. (There will be a small cost associated to the app if families choose to use it). Other home benefits to Family Zone include the ability to check and regulate the sites visited by your child and the ability to remove internet access when required.