Privacy Notice
Privacy Notice (How we use pupil information)
This notice is to explain how and why we collect personal information about students and what we do with that information. It also explains the decisions that students and parents can make about the information that we hold about them.
We collect information from students’ previous schools, parents and other sources of education data such as the Department of Education. The categories of pupil information that we collect, hold and share include:
- Personal information (such as name, unique pupil number, and address)
- Characteristics (such as ethnicity, language, nationality, country of birth, and free school meal eligibility)
- Attendance information (such as sessions attended, number of absences, and absence reasons)
- Assessment data (such as teacher assessments and test or exam results)
- Medical information (such as ongoing medical conditions or allergies)
- Special Educational Needs (SEN) information
- Behaviour management information (such as exclusions and details of positive and negative behaviour incidents)
Why we collect and use your information
We use the pupil data:
- To support pupil learning
- To monitor and report on pupil progress
- To provide appropriate pastoral care
- To assess the quality of our services
- To comply with the law regarding data sharing
Our legal grounds for using your information
This section contains information about the legal basis that we are relying on when handling your information.
Legal Obligation
Where the School needs to use your information in order to comply with a legal obligation, for example to report a concern about your wellbeing to Children’s Services. We may also have to disclose your information to third parties such as the courts, the local authority or the police where legally obliged to do so.
Public interest
The School considers that it is acting in the public interest when providing education.
Legitimate interests
This means that the processing is necessary for legitimate interests except where the processing is unfair to you. The School relies on legitimate interests for most of the ways in which it uses your information.
Specifically, the School has a legitimate interest in:
- Providing you with an education
- Safeguarding and promoting your welfare and the welfare of other children
- Promoting the objectives and interests of the School, including fundraising activities (for example, raising money to fund bursaries or new buildings)
- Facilitating the efficient operation of the School
- Ensuring that the School complies with all relevant legal obligations
Special Category Data
The School must also comply with an additional condition where it processes special categories of personal information. These special categories include: personal information revealing racial or ethnic origin, political opinions, religious or philosophical beliefs, genetic information, biometric information, health information, and information about sex life or orientation.
Substantial public interest
The processing is necessary for reasons of substantial public interest.
Vital interests:
To protect the vital interests of any person where that person cannot give consent, for example, if they are seriously hurt and are unconscious.
Legal claims:
The processing is necessary for the establishment, exercise or defence of legal claims. This allows us to share information with our legal advisors and insurers.
Medical purposes
This includes medical treatment and the management of healthcare services.
We may ask for your consent to use your information in certain ways. If we ask for your consent to use your personal information you can take back this consent at any time. Any use of your information before you withdraw your consent remains valid.
Collecting pupil information
Whilst the majority of pupil information you provide to us is mandatory, some of it is provided to us on a voluntary basis.
In order to comply with the General Data Protection Regulation, we will inform you whether you are required to provide certain pupil information to us or if you have a choice in this.
Statutory Data Collections
To find out more about the data collection requirements placed on us by the Department for Education (for example; via the school census) go to https://www.gov.uk/education/datacollection-and-censuses-for-schools.
Using Data for Other Purposes
Should we ever ask for data from you for purposes other than those that depend on the legal bases explained above, we will ask for your specific and active consent.
Retention
For how long do we keep your information?
We keep your information for as long as we need to in order to educate and look after you. We will keep some information after you have left the School.
In exceptional circumstances we may keep your information for a longer time than usual, but we would only do so if we had a good reason and only if we are allowed to do so under data protection law.
The table below shows retention periods for pupil records and examination results.
| Description | Retention Period | Legal\Statutory Provision |
|---|---|---|
|
Pupil Educational Record |
Date of Birth + 25 Years |
Limitation Act 1980 (Section 2) |
|
Examination Results |
6 Years |
Uncollected certificates are
returned to Awarding Bodies |
Information Record Management Toolkit For Schools published by the Information and Record Management Society provides a full table of data retention periods.
Data Sharing
Who we share pupil information with
We routinely share pupil information with:
- Schools that pupils attend after leaving us
- Our local authority
- The Department for Education (DfE)
- The local careers service
- Beacon Academy Trust
- Suppliers of systems used to run school services, such as ParentPay and GroupCall
- Suppliers of systems used to support teaching and learning, such as Kerboodle and Moodle
- Suppliers of systems used to analyse pupil information to help provide the best possible education, such as SISRA and ALPS
We are required by law to pass some information about you to the DfE and, in turn, this will be made available for use by the LA. The DfE may also share information we provide to them with third parties. This will only take place where legislation allows it to do so and it is in compliance with the Data Protection Act 1998.
Decisions about whether the DfE releases this personal data to third parties are subject to a robust approval process and are based upon a detailed assessment of who is requesting the data, the purpose for which it is required, the level of sensitivity of data requested and the arrangements in place to store and handle the data.
To be granted access to pupil level data, requestors must comply with strict terms and conditions covering the confidentiality and handling of data, security arrangements and retention and use of the data.
For more information on how this sharing process works, please visit: https://www.gov.uk/guidance/national…a-data-extract
For information on which third party organisations (and for which project) pupil level data has been provided to, please visit: https://www.gov.uk/government/public…uests-received.
Why we share pupil information
We share pupils’ data with the Department for Education (DfE) on a statutory basis. This data sharing underpins school funding and educational attainment policy and monitoring.
Beal High School and The Forest Academy
We are required to share information about our pupils with the (DfE) under regulation 5 of The Education (Information About Individual Pupils) (England) Regulations 2013.
BBIH
Youth support services
Pupils aged 13+
Once our pupils reach the age of 13, we also pass pupil 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.
This enables them to provide services as follows:
- Youth support services
- Careers advisers
A parent or 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 child / pupil once he/she reaches the age 16.
Pupils aged 16+
We will also share certain information about pupils 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.
This enables them to provide services as follows:
- Post-16 education and training providers
- Youth support services
- Careers advisers
For more information about services for young people, please visit our local authority website.
The National Pupil Database (NPD)
The NPD is owned and managed by the Department for Education and contains information about pupils 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.
We are required by law, to provide information about our pupils 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 Pupils) (England) Regulations 2013.
To find out more about the NPD, go to https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/nationalpupil-database-user-guide-and-supporting-information.
The department may share information about our pupils from the NPD with third parties who promote the education or well-being of children in England by:
- Conducting research or analysis
- Producing statistics
- Providing information, advice, or guidance
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:
- Who is requesting the data
- The purpose for which the data is required
- The level and sensitivity of the data requested
- The arrangements in place to store and handle the data
To be granted access to pupil 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. For more information about the department’s data sharing process, please visit: https://www.gov.uk/data-protection-how-we-collect-and-share-research-data
For information about which organisations the department has provided pupil information, (and for which project), please visit the following website: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/national-pupil-database-requests-received
To contact DfE: https://www.gov.uk/contact-dfe
Requesting access to your personal data
Under data protection legislation, parents and pupils have the right to request access to information about them that we hold. This is known as a Subject Access Request.
You also have the right to:
- Object to the processing of personal data that is likely to cause, or is causing, damage or distress
- Prevent the processing of personal data for direct marketing purposes
- Object to decisions being made by automated means
- Request that inaccurate personal data be rectified, blocked, erased, or destroyed in certain circumstances
- Claim compensation for damages caused by a breach of the Data Protection Regulations
If you have a concern about the way we are collecting or using your personal data, we request that you raise your concern with us in the first instance. Alternatively, you can contact the Information Commissioner’s Office at https://ico.org.uk/concerns/
Subject Access Requests
To make a request for your personal information, or be given access to your child’s educational record, contact data@beaconacademytrust.co.uk making it clear that you are making a Subject Access Request under the terms of GDPR.
You will receive the data within one calendar month of the request being received by the Trust.
Contact
DPO@beaconacademytrust.co.uk or write to:
The Data Protection Officer,
Beacon Multi-Academy Trust,
Beal High School,
Woodford Bridge Road,
Ilford,
IG4 5LP