Filtering and Monitoring for Schools: The DfE Standard, Simplified

Filtering and monitoring often get talked about as one thing, but they do genuinely different jobs, and schools have a statutory duty to have both in place under Keeping Children Safe in Education.

Filtering is preventative, it stops students and staff reaching illegal, inappropriate or harmful content before it’s reached. Monitoring is reactive, it watches for concerning activity and flags it, whether that’s a teacher glancing round a classroom or software picking up on a search term.

This series walks through what the DfE standard actually expects, across four parts, starting with the basics: what “good” looks like, and why the annual review is really the heart of the standard, not a new system.

Ownership sits with a named member of SLT and a governor, working closely with your designated safeguarding lead and IT support day to day. Beyond that, the standard expects filtering tied to the IWF and CTIRU blocklists that can’t be switched off locally, different filtering profiles so teaching isn’t unreasonably blocked, and monitoring with at least weekly reports and immediate alerts for anything high-risk.

Most schools’ existing provision is closer to right than they expect, it’s the ongoing management around it that slips: has it been reviewed in the last twelve months, does it still reflect how students actually use devices now, especially with how quickly things like AI tools are showing up in classrooms. We’re not looking for reasons to sell a new system, we’d rather help you tighten what’s already there.