EMAIL USAGE POLICY FOR STAFF

1. Purpose and Scope

This Policy sets out the rules governing the use of official school email accounts by CEDEC International Schools staff. It exists to protect the School, its staff, students and parents, and to ensure email is used lawfully, securely and professionally.

•                    Applies to all employees of the School (teaching and non-teaching staff).

•                    Covers only school-issued webmail accounts (staff.username@cedecinternationalschools.org). Personal email accounts must not be used for school business.

•                    Should be read alongside the Student Acceptable Use Policy and the Staff Handbook.

2. Acceptable Use

•                    Primary use: School email is provided for teaching, seminars, administrative and other legitimate school-related purposes.

•                    Personal use: Limited, occasional personal use is permitted provided it promotes your role, does not interfere with duties, does not breach this Policy, or bring the School into disrepute.

•                    Prohibited: Staff must not use school email to send offensive, discriminatory, defamatory or harassing content; to conduct private business; to share political or religious campaigning material; to forward chain messages; or to access or distribute unlawful content.

3. Staff Communication with Students and Parents

•                    Staff must only contact students or parents using their official school email account, never from a personal email address.

•                    Communication with students must remain professional in tone and relate to school matters only.

•                    Any concerning, inappropriate or unsolicited contact received from a student or parent must be reported immediately to the Head of School.

4. Data Protection and Confidentiality

All use of email must comply with the Nigeria Data Protection Act (NDPA) 2023.

•                    Only share students' or staff's personal data (academic, medical, financial or safeguarding information) with authorised recipients on a need-to-know basis.

•                    Use BCC when emailing groups of parents or external recipients, to avoid disclosing personal email addresses.

•                    Take extra care with attachments containing personal data; confirm the recipient before sending.

•                    Any suspected data breach (email sent to the wrong recipient, unauthorised disclosure, etc.) must be reported to the Head of School immediately.

5. Security

•                    Do not share your email password with anyone, including colleagues and IT support.

•                    Use a strong, unique password and change it immediately if compromise is suspected.

•                    Do not open attachments or click links from unknown or suspicious senders; report suspected phishing to IT.

•                    Log out of shared or public computers after use.

6. Monitoring

The School reserves the right to monitor, access and review staff email accounts and content sent or received, for purposes including safeguarding, security, legal compliance and investigation of policy breaches. By using their school email account, staff consent to such monitoring.

7. Professional Conduct

•                    Emails must be written in a professional, courteous tone at all times.

•                    Use the approved School email signature for all outgoing correspondence.

•                    Remember that emails are formal records and may be disclosed under a Subject Access Request or in legal proceedings.

8. Retention and Account Closure

•                    Emails should be filed or deleted in line with good record-keeping practice and retained no longer than necessary for the purpose for which they were sent.

•                    Mailboxes are archived for a reasonable period (as determined by IT) to meet operational and legal needs.

•                    On termination of employment, the staff member's email account will be disabled and, after a short handover period, permanently closed.

9. Breach of Policy

Any breach of this Policy will be addressed in line with the disciplinary procedures set out in the Staff Handbook. Serious breaches, particularly those involving safeguarding or data protection, may be escalated accordingly and reported to relevant authorities where required by law.

10. Review and Acknowledgment

This Policy is reviewed annually by the Head of School, or sooner if required by changes in law or School practice. All staff are required to read and acknowledge this Policy on induction and at each annual review.

 

Next Review date: September 2028sa