As the end of the academic year draws closer, now seems like a good time to remind Glow users of some important information regarding their accounts, information management and data protection.

All staff

• Leaving MS Teams and Google Classrooms you don’t want to be a member of –  Leave the team, don’t Delete it.  Click here for instructions on Teams and here for Google Classroom.  If you delete a team, you are not just deleting it from your account, you are deleting it for everyone.  Deleted Google Classrooms cannot be restored.  Deleted Microsoft Teams can be restored by RM Unify for a very limited period after the deletion.  They need the exact Team name along with other details such as deleted time/date and Glow usernames of the Team owners.  If you are the last owner to leave the Team/Google Classroom please do consider deleting it as orphaned Teams will automatically select a new owner which could be a learner.

• Learners can be removed from the Team or Classroom if you wish to use them again for the new academic year; however, you may prefer to create a new Team or Classroom.  For details on how to copy existing Teams click here and here for Google Classrooms.  Please not that there are differences between Teams and google Classroom in what is copied to the new space.

• Archive MS Teams and Google Classrooms that are no longer needed.  Only delete when you are sure you will never use it again.  Remember you can reuse posts and assignments you have created in your new Teams/Classrooms.   Click here for instructions for Teams and here for Google Classroom.

• If you intend to use your existing Teams or Google Classrooms again in the new year you may wish to mute all learners over the summer to ensure there are no unmonitored posts or comments added to the team during the summer holidays.  Click here for guidance on muting in Teams and here for Google Classroom.

• Cleanse data from any other systems where learner data has been stored as per the retention policy or guidance provided when a new product is signed off for use.  Personal data should either be deleted or anonymised as appropriate for the system in question.

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Glow Accounts

Staff Accounts

Staff moving to another school, role or local authority

If you are the sole owner or administrator of any of the below, you should transfer ownership to another Glow staff user(s) before you leave your post.  It is always best practice to have more than 1 owner/administrator.

• • • • MS Teams and Google Classrooms
      • Glow Blogs
      • Google Sites
      • SharePoint sites
      • Stream video channels
      • MS or Google Forms and Surveys

Moving to another School in Moray

Your Glow account will move to your new school however it will be inactive from the end date in your old school until the start date in your new school.  If you will need access over the summer, you should request a grace period via missupport@moray.gov.uk.

Moving to another Local Authority 

Staff Glow accounts cannot be transferred to another LA.  You will get a new Glow account in your new LA.  Your existing Glow account will be inactive from the end date in your old school.  If you will need access over the summer, you should request a grace period via missupport@moray.gov.uk.  Also, refer to Glow Connect website and scroll to section “Content that is associated with your account and will be deleted” to ensure you back up everything you require to keep before your account is deleted.

Moving to a new role in Moray

Teaching and Non-Teaching SEEMiS generated Glow accounts cannot be transferred to a non-school based establishment in Glow.  If you are taking up a role in Moray outside of a school e.g. in a supporting Education Team based in HQ, Beechbrae, etc. a new Glow account will be required.  School based Glow accounts are generated via your record in SEEMiS and when a leaving date is added your Glow account will be closed.  As per the advice above back-up anything you do not wish to lose and transfer ownership of Teams, Blogs, Google Sites etc.  New Glow accounts for non-school based staff should be requested from MIS Support.

NQT Glow accounts

Information specific to NQTs has been emailed directly to all NQTs.

Learner Accounts

Senior Secondary leavers

Glow accounts will be deleted after a leaving/closure date is added to their record in SEEMiS.  Any work they wish to retain should be downloaded and any systems using their Glow email account should be updated, for example College applications.

P7 learners going to S1

Learners Glow accounts will become inactive from their end date in SEEMiS in primary school (last day of school) until their start date in SEEMiS in their secondary school.  If they will need access to Glow over the summer you should request a grace period for them via missupport@moray.gov.uk.

Any learner moving to another school within or out with the Local Authority

Learners Glow accounts will be transferred with them.  However, learners Glow accounts will become inactive from their end date in SEEMiS in their current school until their start date in SEEMiS in their new school.  If they will need access to Glow over the summer you should request a grace period for them via missupport@moray.gov.uk.

National Password Reset

The national Glow password for all Learner accounts will take place from 9th August and 28th August for staff Glow accounts.  It can take a couple of days from the starting date for all users to be prompted to change their password.  You can find tip on how to create a secure password – here.

Accessing Glow Accounts outside the UK

If staff or learners are planning on accessing Glow outside of the UK over the summer break, please contact the Digital Learning Team to request more details on to ensure your access is not revoked as part of the RM Unify security checks.

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Information Management

Data Protection – Glow

Glow provides educators and learners access to the most up to date industry standard digital tools and cloud storage which can be accessed on any internet enabled device.  It also provides them access to an email account to facilitate their learning.  Glow is the perfect place to store non-sensitive learning and teaching materials; however not all documents, information or email communications are appropriate to be stored, shared or sent through Glow.  Educators can find more information on the types of information which can be stored safely in Glow – here.

The end of the year is good time to remind learners about the appropriate use of Glow and what they should be storing, both in terms of sensitive information and copyright.

Sensitive or confidential information should only be stored in the secure school shared drive which is part of the Moray Council network.  Educators may use their Glow email to communicate with learners, but for more sensitive content should only be emailed via the moray-edunet.gov.uk address as it has higher levels of encryption.

To ensure that both Educators and Learners use Glow in a positive, safe and responsible way the Glow community rules can be reviewed – here.

Data Protection – General

Regular data cleansing in any system is vital to ensure that the fundamental tenets of data protection are adhered to.  The start or end of a term or year is a natural point at which to conduct these reviews.  Further information on the Moray Council Data Protection processes can be found – here.

Staff are also encouraged to complete the Moray: Data Protection (inc. GDPR) e-learning course on CLIVE, the council’s online learning management system.  More details on CLIVE and details on how to access the system can be found – here.

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We have put together an end of year checklist to help guide you through the tasks detailed above –  click here.

If you have any questions on the above please contact learntech@moray.gov.uk or attend the CPD session we have scheduled on 5th June at 4pm (places can be booked on CPD Manager).

The Digital Learning Team and MIS Support have received a number of queries recently regarding access to Glow accounts for staff who have changed roles within the authority.

When you leave your school based role a closure date will be added to your work record in SEEMiS, this will automatically disable your Glow account.  You should ensure you download anything you do not wish to lose before leaving your current role.  A new Glow account should be requested from missupport@moray.gov.uk  by your line manager.  Details of your PVG check may be required to create the new account.

If you have not downloaded all the content you wish to keep by the time the school you are leaving has updated you SEEMiS work record a 60 day grace period can be applied to your account, after which it will be automatically permanently deleted.  You should also provide your new Glow details to the owners of any Teams, Google Classroom or Groups you will still require access to so you can add you as a new member.

Staff moving to a role in a different school within Moray will retain their original account; however staff accounts can not be transferred to other Local Authorities.

Information for parents and carer on Glow Connect has been updated recently to clarify the guidance around accessing their child’s Glow account.

You can find the updated information – here.  

The guidance makes it very clear that parents and carers should support users in their use of Glow but should not be logging into to the child’s Glow account independently.

As a reminder below is the guidance which was previously issued  –

It is important for all Glow users, both learners and staff, to remember that their account details should be kept private.  School staff should remind learners and parents/carers that Glow is for the use of learners and teachers/support staff with the appropriate security checks only.  We ask that parents/carers do not access Glow directly by logging in with their child’s details, but would encourage them to engage with their children to find out about and support the learning they are doing within Glow.

To meet the requirements of the Glow agreement that allows our users to access Glow,  login details should only be provided to the user themselves.  This can be done either in person, over the phone or other agreed alternative methods of communication with the appropriate checks to verify the users identity.   This is in order to maintain the security of the system and safety of all users.  Providing log in details to non-Glow users, including parents/carers could put the Glow environment and users at risk.

In the event of a security breach Glow passwords for the whole school have to be reset and if action was not taken quickly, every pupil in the school could have their Glow account disabled.  If a reset is required learners should be assigned unique passwords to ensure that there is no possibility of learners accessing each others accounts.

You can find Password Guidance on the Glow Connect.  Staff should be aware that if they are supporting pupils to choose a new password that it should be unique to each pupil and should not be shared or duplicated, this includes creating a single password for a whole class/year group.

The use of password grids like the one below could be helpful in assisting younger learners to choose a password and can be send home as a reminder for home access.  Written codes or reminders can also be helpful.