Student Privacy Policy

Why do we collect and use student information?

1. We collect and use student information under the legal basis that this is necessary to carry out tasks in the public interest and where it is necessary for compliance with our legal obligations.
2. We use the student data:
   1. to support student learning
   2. to monitor and report on student progress
   3. to provide appropriate pastoral care
   4. to assess the quality of our services
   5. to comply with the law regarding data sharing
   6. to provide web-enabled services to students that support their learning
3. We need to tell all appropriate members of staff if your child is allergic to something or might need extra help with some tasks.
4. We may need to share information about your child's health and well-being with the NHS or a counsellor.
5. We may use CCTV to make sure the school site is safe. CCTV is not used in private areas such as changing rooms.
6. We may need to report some of your child's information to the government. For example, we may need to tell the relevant local authority that your child attends the School or let them know if we have any concerns about your child's welfare.
7. We may need information about any court orders or criminal petitions which relate to your child. This is so that we can safeguard your child's welfare and wellbeing and the other students at School.
8. If your child is from another country we have to make sure that they have the right to study in the UK. We might have to provide their information to UK Visas and Immigration.
9. Depending on where your child will go when they leave us we may need to provide their information to other schools. For example, we may share information about your child's exam results and provide references. We may need to pass on information, which they need to look after your child.
10. When your child takes public examinations we will need to share information about them with examination boards. For example, if your child requires extra time in exams.
11. We may need to share information with the police or our legal advisers if something goes wrong or to help with an inquiry. For example, if one of your child's classmates is injured at school or if there is a burglary.
12. Occasionally we may use consultants, experts and other advisors to assist the School in fulfilling its obligations and to help run the School properly. We might need to share your child's information with them if this is relevant to their work.
13. If your child has misbehaved in a serious way, and the police have become involved, we may need to use information about the action taken by the police.
14. We may share some information with our insurance company to make sure that we have the insurance cover that we need.
15. We may share your child's academic and (where fair) their behaviour records with you or their education guardian so you can support their schooling.
16. We will only share your child's information with other people and organisations when we have a good reason to do so. In exceptional circumstances, we may need to share it more widely than we would normally.
17. We will monitor your child's use of email, the internet and mobile electronic devices e.g. iPads. This is to check that your child is not misbehaving when using this technology or putting themselves at risk of harm. If you would like more information about this, you can read the acceptable use of IT policy on the School website or contact the School directly.
18. We may use photographs or videos of your child for our website or prospectus to show prospective students what we do here and to advertise the School. We may continue to use these photographs and videos after your child has left the School.
19. Sometimes we use photographs and videos for teaching purposes, for example, to record a drama lesson.
20. If you have any concerns about us using photographs or videos of your child please contact us via the School website or by telephone.
21. We publish our public exam results, sports fixtures and other news on the School website and put articles and photographs in the local news to tell people about what we have been doing.
22. We sometimes use contractors to handle personal information on our behalf. The following are examples:
    1. we use third party "cloud computing" services (E.g. Milk for homework, Innovate for cashless catering) to store some information rather than the information being stored on hard drives located on the School site;
    2. IT consultants who might access information about your child when checking the security of our IT network or helping to configure it;

Categories of Data

1. The categories of student information that we collect, hold and share include:
   1. Personal information (such as name, unique student number and address)
   2. Characteristics (such as ethnicity, language, nationality, country of birth and free school meal eligibility)
   3. Attendance information (such as sessions attended, number of absences and absence reasons)
   4. Assessment information (such as engagement/attainment indicators and projected grades)
   5. Relevant medical information (such as epilepsy, diabetes or hearing impairments)
   6. Special Educational needs information (such as conditions and reasonable adjustments)
   7. Exclusion / behavioural information (such as positive/negative behaviour incidents)
   8. Post-16 learning information (such as UCAS application data)
   9. Homework data (such as homework set and collected via MILK)
   10. Biometric data (specifically fingerprint scans) for use with our cashless catering system. Use of this system is optional, and cash payments can also be made.

Collecting student information

1. Whilst the majority of student information you provide to us is mandatory, some of it is provided to us on a voluntary basis. In order to comply with the Data Protection Act 2018, we will inform you whether you are required to provide certain student information to us or if you have a choice in this.

Storing student data

1. We hold student data until the student's 25th birthday, for the purposes of supplying future references (e.g. for school-transfer, work-related, apprenticeship or UCAS) should they be requested.

Who do we share student information with?

1. We routinely share student information with:
   1. our local authority
   2. the Department for Education (DfE)
   3. the NHS, when requested
   4. schools that pupils attend after leaving us
   5. the School’s homework recording platform, MILK
   6. ESS SIMS, our Management Information System
   7. web services such as myMaths.co.uk
   8. Aged 14+ qualifications: For pupils enrolling for post 14 qualifications, the Learning Records Service will give us a pupil’s unique learner number (ULN) and may also give us details about the pupil’s learning or qualifications

Why we share student information

1. We do not share information about our students with anyone without consent unless the law and our policies allow us to do so.
2. We share students’ data with the Department for Education (DfE) on a statutory basis. This data sharing underpins school funding and educational attainment policy and monitoring.
3. We are required to share information about our students with the (DfE) under regulation 5 of The Education (Information About Individual Students) (England) Regulations 2013.

Data collection requirements

1. To find out more about the data collection requirements placed on us by the Department for Education (for example; via the school census) click here.

Youth support services

What is different about students aged 13+?

1. Once our students reach the age of 13, we also pass student information to our local authority and / or provider of youth support services as they have responsibilities in relation to the education or training of 13-19 year olds under section 507B of the Education Act 1996.
2. This enables them to provide services as follows:
   1. youth support services
   2. careers advisers
3. A parent / guardian can request that only their child’s name, address and date of birth is passed to their local authority or provider of youth support services by informing us. This right is transferred to the student once he/she reaches the age 16.

Our students aged 16+

1. We will also share certain information about students aged 16+ with our local authority and / or provider of youth support services as they have responsibilities in relation to the education or training of 13-19 year olds under section 507B of the Education Act 1996.
2. This enables them to provide services as follows:
   1. post-16 education and training providers
   2. youth support services
   3. careers advisers
3. For more information about services for young people, please visit our local authority website.

The National Student Database (NPD)

1. The NPD is owned and managed by the Department for Education and contains information about students in schools in England. It provides invaluable evidence on educational performance to inform independent research, as well as studies commissioned by the Department. It is held in electronic format for statistical purposes. This information is securely collected from a range of sources including schools, local authorities and awarding bodies.
2. We are required by law, to provide information about our students to the DfE as part of statutory data collections such as the school census and early years’ census. Some of this information is then stored in the NPD. The law that allows this is the Education (Information About Individual Students) (England) Regulations 2013.
3. To find out more about the student information we share with the department, for the purpose of data collections, click here.
4. The department may share information about our students from the NPD with third parties who promote the education or well-being of children in England by:
   1. conducting research or analysis
   2. producing statistics
   3. providing information, advice or guidance
5. The Department has robust processes in place to ensure the confidentiality of our data is maintained and there are stringent controls in place regarding access and use of the data. Decisions on whether DfE releases data to third parties are subject to a strict approval process and based on a detailed assessment of:
   1. who is requesting the data
   2. the purpose for which it is required
   3. the level and sensitivity of data requested: and
   4. the arrangements in place to store and handle the data
6. To be granted access to student information, organisations must comply with strict terms and conditions covering the confidentiality and handling of the data, security arrangements and retention and use of the data.
7. For more information about the department’s data sharing process, click here.
8. To contact the DfE, click here

Requesting access to your personal data

1. Under data protection legislation, parents and students have the right to request access to information about them that we hold. To make a request for your personal information, or be given access to your child’s educational record, contact the school via the 'Contact us' page on the School website, using ‘General Enquiry - Reception’ option on the form at the bottom of the Contact us page.
2. You also have the right to:
   1. object to processing of personal data that is likely to cause, or is causing, damage or distress
   2. prevent processing for the purpose of direct marketing
   3. object to decisions being taken by automated means
   4. in certain circumstances, have inaccurate personal data rectified, blocked, erased or destroyed; and
   5. claim compensation for damages caused by a breach of the Data Protection regulations
3. If you have a concern about the way we are collecting or using your personal data, you should raise your concern with the Data Protection Officer in the first instance or directly to the Information Commissioner’s Office.

Contact

1. If you would like to discuss anything in this privacy notice, please contact the Deputy Headteacher (Digital Strategy), via the ‘General Enquiry’ link on the School's website.

Ownership and Date of the next review

1. Policy owned by: Curriculum and Personnel committee
2. Last Reviewed and Approved on: 2 February 2022
3. Next Review due: February 2024