Terms and Conditions
The Standards Site forums are for discussion about policies and issues affecting standards in education. That includes anything covered on the Standards Site itself, but not limited to it: if there are other aspects of improving educational standards you want to talk about, that's fine too. The idea is that the forums should enable users of the site to talk to each other and share good practice, rather than be just another question-and-answer channel to the DfES.
You certainly don't have to be a teacher or a governor to post here. Anyone with an interest in the subject of education and raising standards in schools is welcome to contribute here. Parents can provide a particularly welcome fresh perspective to all these issues.
This is a forum for intelligent, civil and polite conversations. We're not asking that people should never disagree - that would be just plain dull! But let's keep the debate constructive and of appropriately high standard.
Therefore we ask that you respect the people you're communicating with. Assume that they are every bit as intelligent and informed as you are, and treat them as you would wish to be treated in return. Assume goodwill; which means to say that if you think that someone might be 'having a go' just give them the benefit of the doubt and accept that it's most likely an simple misunderstanding. Absolutely no insults, put-downs, "flames" or "trolls" will be tolerated here.
If someone is unable to keep to these guidelines, then this simply might not be the place for them. We'll try and talk breaches of the terms and conditions through (by email or by the forum's internal message system) but at the end of the day we also completely reserve the right to ban users and delete posts that are not in the spirit of these discussion forums.
We also completely reserve the right to edit any posts on the site to remove inappropriate content at any time and without prior notice for legal reasons such as libel, defamation, actual threats, copyright abuse, or the posting of someone's personal information (e.g. an address or telephone number) without their permission. However, we promise never to censor a discussion because we don't happen to agree with it, or to edit a post in any way that changes the views expressed in it. The reasons for any editing of a post (e.g. as outlined above) will be publically explained in a follow-up post in the forum.
If you see a post on the forum which contravenes these terms of use, you can let the moderator know by clicking on the Notify Moderators button that is available on every post.
Cookies
The forum uses cookies to keep track of who you are and therefore show a personalised view of the forums, displaying which boards have posts you haven't read for example. While you can read the content of the forums as a guest without using cookies, logging in does require the use of a cookie.
We do not use or record any data collected from the use of cookies in the forums. They will never be used to track you or spy on you. The cookie lasts only until you logout, at which time it is deleted.
Remember to logout after you have finished with the forums, or anyone sharing your computer will be able to take over your forum session and pretend to be you.
Registering
Anyone can read the public forums, but you need to register in order to post. The only information we ask for when you register is a username and a valid email address.
The username can be anything. It is the name by which you will be known in the forum. Your proper name would be preferable, but we're not going to insist on anything - use what you're comfortable with. In view of the intended level of use of the forums, names such as 'HotStuff' might not be the way to do, however. And anything offensive or an attempt to impersonate someone else with the intention to embarrass or libel them will of course be banned.
The email address is used for us to send you a temporary password so you can access the system. We do not pass on this email address to anyone else or use it for marketing purposes, only for forum functions. It is not visible to other users of the forum (although there is an option for you to enter a 'public' email address once you're logged into the system, should you wish.)
You can change your temporary password as soon as you log in by clicking on 'Forum Settings' and going to your Display settings. Please take a moment to enter some basic personal information - such as your name, job, even a brief bio - but only to the level you are comfortable with. This information will be visible to other users of the forum system.
The DfES will not make any use of any information you put in your personal profile.
