School website - who is responsible for content ? Headteacher v Governors v webdesigner v LEA - plus other sundry questions

[indignatio]

Hope you parent governors / teachers / parents of children at school can help on this. I have spent all morning researching points on this matter and seem to be going around in circles.

The basic issue is the ds's school PTA wish to put links on the school's website to other sites such as Amazon, Buy At, Easy2name, School Link Books and maybe others in due course - in order to raise funds for the school

The governing body wish to approve (or otherwise)the inclusion of such links

The school is a C of E village primary.

I have quite a number of questions - do cut and paste if helpful.

1. Who has responsibility for the content/links of a school website ?

I have trawled through several websites for governors (and a governor's chat room !) and cannot find any reference to them having authority - my gut reaction is that this should be the head teacher's remit.

2.Are there any official guidelines for the content/links of school websites ?

I can find guidance for the use or otherwise of photos/videos of children - but nothing really substantive

Assuming that justification to whomso ever is necessary

3.Does Amazon sell anything which might embarass a governor (including those of a highly religious disposition)?

4.Given that the web administrator has access to details of what has been bought through Amazon (although not by whom) could a third party get hold of this information or is it data protected ?

I think that the governors may be concerned that the local paper could find out that the sale of porn is helping to fund books for the children.

5.Given Amazon's less than blemish free reputation on customer service - could this impact negatively on the school ?

6.Does Buy At include any retailers which may offend said sensitive govenors ?

Many many thanks if you have waded through this and have any words of advice

Amazon sell every book currently in print including many of a dubious nature.

Would also point out that Mumsnet dropped their association to Amazon after one of these books (pro-msacking) was debated on here.

Message withdrawn

Will do iCod
JNM and Ladymuck - would you be concerned about your child's school website having a link to Amazon ?

No, I wouldn't personally.

bump - please

I would have thought the owner of the copyright on the web content, had legal responsibility for the site contents.
Any lawyers out there know about this?
It will be a school publication, so the headteachers/govs need to sign it off I guess. I have worked as a website administrator in the past, but do not have experience of school websites. Interested if anyone has further information.

Message withdrawn

I don't have any information about any of this, but I am interested, so if you find out the replies to your questions, please let us know...

Thank you

Primary site have some interesting web sites and some in my LEA have links to Buy At - which is useful to know.

I would love to hear from a Governor as to whether they would except to have the power to veto such links going onto the site

I'm not sure copywrite is the right angle from which to approach this as websites seem to be made up of information from various different people ie teachers, head, pupils, govenors and the PTA

indignatio, no Amazon doesn't bother me in the slightest, but given there was quite a strom on here which resulted in the MN owners stopping the affiliation, so there are those who are offended by it. But not me.

I'm not a governor but I would expect governors to have an ultimate veto over what appears on the official school website as they are the governing body of the school. If they are responsible for the finances, the curriculum, education standards, staff recruitment etc, I can't see why the website would be outside of their remit?

That said the governors can and do frequently deleagte their authority to other people, so there is nothing stopping then from delegating authority for approving the website to the headteacher or anyone else for that matter.

I think the standard thing is to have links to amazon etc, but also a "terms" page which says the school is not responsible for any 3rd party site.

but even so I run several websites, some with amazon adffiliate links and no-one has ever purchased anything remotely dubious through one of my links. I would recommend the scheme too - it's way more lucrative than any other affiliate scheem I use and I can choose books to plug directly.

Thank you SP and LMuck - shameless bumping for the evening crowd

Please governors - parents - anyone with a view

I have just looked and DD'sd school website have shopping links with amazon, buy.at, easyfundraisng.org.uk and the book people

I have never heard anyone complaining about them? Funny though I had not noticed them before till I read this thread

Our school has a buy at link which I think they do quite well with - there's 132 websites listed on it including Amazon, Tesco, lots of insurance companies etc. The link was put up by the PTA, having asked both headteachers (our PTA is a joint one for the infant & junior school)The PTA have several pages on our website, which they are responsible for maintaining. The rest of the website is mostly done by me (ICT support manager) & the ICT co-ordinator, but the head obviously has some input. I don't check the PTA pages because the person who does them is also the governor who is responsible for ICT at our school - and I agree with Ladymuck that it's the governors who have ultimate responsibility.

Buy at has this disclaimer
"Purchasing From the Site and Conditions of Use
Any decision made in relation to purchasing goods and/or services as a result of information obtained from a retailer on a buy.at/ site is your sole responsibility.

You should check the retailer's terms and conditions to ensure that you are prepared to transact on those terms.

The inclusion of any retailer within buy.at/ does not mean that either buy.at/ or XXXXX Junior School and XXXXX Infant School endorses or recommends the goods or services offered by the retailer. Indeed, we give no warranty of any kind, express or implied. Payments are made directly to the retailers and any refunds or queries regarding orders are issues between you and the retailer. We accept no responsibility for non-fulfilment of contracts by the retailers."

Message withdrawn

Thank you Rustybear - very very helpful
icodliness - would you object to a link to Amazon ? rather than the local porn shop (somehow I had you living in a rural area with very few porn shops close by - just shows that you never can tell about anyone from such a talk site).
Thank you cece - so if the school does go ahead I guess you would recommend telling parents about the link !

Message withdrawn

Pron shops ?
thanks again