Privacy Notice (How We Use Pupil Information)

This Privacy Notice explains how and why we store personal information about pupils and parents/carers. It provides a guide to parents/carers about our legal obligations and their own rights. Like any organisation which handles personal data, our school is defined as a ‘Data Controller’ and, as such, we comply with the Data Protection Act and UK General Data Protection Regulation. The school is joint controller with Evolution Academy Trust who are also defined as a Data Controller. Both Data Controllers share the same ICO Registration and Data Protection Officer.

The Categories of Pupil Information That We Process Include:

Please see the list in the table at the bottom of this page. It is not exhaustive, to access the current list of categories of information we process please see http://schoolpro.uk

The personal data collected is essential for the school to fulfil their official functions and meet legal requirements.

We collect and use pupil information, for the following purposes:

• To support pupil learning
• To keep informed to keep children safe
• To monitor and report on pupil progress
• Safeguarding pupils' welfare and providing appropriate pastoral (and where necessary medical) care
• Enabling pupils to take part in assessments, to publish the results of examinations and to record pupil achievements
• Legal and regulatory purposes (for example child protection, diversity monitoring and health and safety) and to comply with legal obligations and duties of care
• Making use of photographic images of pupils in school publications, on the school website and on social media channels
• To comply with the law regarding data sharing
• To meet the statutory duties placed upon us for DfE data collections
• To provide the appropriate pastoral care

We use the parents’ data:

• To assess the quality of our services
• To comply with the law regarding data sharing
• To ensure financial stability
• For communication and feedback

Under the UK General Data Protection Regulation (UK GDPR), the lawful bases we rely on for processing pupil information are:

The lawful bases for processing personal data are set out in Article 6 of the UK General Data Protection Regulation. The school processed such data because we have:

(6a) Consent: parents have given clear consent for us to process their (and their child’s) personal data for the purposes indicated above.

(6c) A Legal obligation: the processing is necessary for us to comply with the law (e.g. we are required by law to submit certain teacher assessment information and to safeguard pupils’ welfare by sharing information with other agencies).

(6d) A duty to safeguard pupils: the processing is necessary in order to protect the vital interests of the data subject (children); (e.g. if we are required to share medical history information with emergency services in the event of an accident or to other agencies when a child may be in danger).

(6e) Public task: the processing is necessary for us to perform a task in the public interest or for our official functions, and the task or function has a clear basis in law (e.g. processing attendance information or academic attainment and progress records).

Special Categories of data are set out in Article 9 of the UK General Data Protection Regulation. The school processes such data because we have:

(9.2a) explicit consent. In circumstances where we seek consent, we make sure that the consent is unambiguous and for one or more specified purposes, is given by an affirmative action and is recorded as the condition for processing. Examples of our processing include use of pupil photographs for external purposes, pupil dietary requirements, and health information we receive from our pupils who require a reasonable adjustment to access our services.

(9.2b) processing is necessary for the purposes of carrying out the obligations and exercising specific rights of the controller or of the data subject in the field of social security and social protection law in so far as it is authorised by Union or Member State law or a collective agreement pursuant to Member State law providing for appropriate safeguards for the fundamental rights and the interests of the data subject.

(9.2c) where processing is necessary to protect the vital interests of the data subject or of another natural person. An example of our processing would be using health information about a pupil in a medical emergency. 

(9.2f) for the establishment, exercise or defence of legal claims. Examples of our processing include processing relating to any employment tribunal or other litigation.

(9.2g) reasons of substantial public interest. As a school, we are a publicly funded body and provide a safeguarding role to young and vulnerable people.  Our processing of personal data in this context is for the purposes of substantial public interest and is necessary for the carrying out of our role. Examples of our processing include the information we seek or receive as part of investigating an allegation.

(9.2j) for archiving purposes in the public interest. The relevant purpose we rely on is Schedule 1 Part 1 paragraph 4 – archiving. An example of our processing is the transfers we make to the County Archives as set out in our Records Management Policy.

We process criminal offence data under Article 10 of the UK GDPR.

Our Data Protection Policy highlights the conditions for processing in Schedule 1 of the Data Protection Act 2018 that we process Special Category and Criminal Offence data under.

How We Collect Pupil Information

We collect pupil information via registration forms at the start of the school year or Common Transfer File (CTF) or secure file transfer from the previous setting.

Pupil data is essential for the schools’ operational use. Whilst the majority of pupil information you provide to us is mandatory, some of it requested on a voluntary basis. In order to comply with the data protection legislation, we will inform you at the point of collection whether you are required to provide certain pupil information to us or if you have a choice in this.

How We Store Pupil Data

We hold pupil data securely for the set amount of time shown in our data retention schedule.

All confidential information is kept secure either on encrypted, password protected devices or paper copies kept on the school site. Once the deadline for retaining information has passed, data kept electronically is deleted and paper copies are destroyed in conjunction with the retention schedule.

Who We Share Pupil Information With

We routinely share pupil information with:

• Schools that the pupil attends after leaving us
• Our local authority
• The Department for Education (DfE)
• Standards and Testing Agency (STA)
• Children’s Social Care (when safeguarding pupils’ welfare)
• External professionals who visit school (such as Educational Psychologists)
• Law enforcement officials such as the Police
• The NHS
• Suppliers and service providers with whom we have a contract
• Voluntary organisations linked to the school
• Evolution Academy Trust

Why We Regularly Share Pupil Information

We do not share information about our pupils with anyone without consent unless the law and our policies allow us to do so.

Department for Education

The Department for Education (DfE) collects personal data from educational settings and local authorities via various statutory data collections. We are required to share information about our pupils with the Department for Education (DfE) either directly or via our local authority for the purpose of those data collections, under:

Regulation 5 of The Education (Information About Individual Pupils) (England) Regulations 2013.

All data is transferred securely and held by DfE under a combination of software and hardware controls, which meet the current government security policy framework.

For more information, please see ‘How Government uses your data’ section.

Local Authorities

We may be required to share information about our pupils with the local authority to ensure that they can conduct their statutory duties under

• the Schools Admission Code, including conducting Fair Access Panels.

Standards and Testing Agency

We are required to share data with the Standards and Testing Agency under the Key Stage 1 and Key Stage 2 assessment and reporting arrangements (ARA). This is a statutory requirement and sharing is done under legal obligation and public task lawful bases.

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. To make a request for your personal information, or be given access to your child’s educational record, contact Ms Kate Estlea, Headteacher, office@eatonprimary.org.uk.

Depending on the lawful basis used for processing data (as identified above), you may also have the right to:

• have your personal data rectified if it is inaccurate or incomplete;
• request the deletion or removal of personal data where there is no compelling reason for its continued processing;
• restrict our processing of your personal data (i.e. permitting its storage but no further processing);
• object to direct marketing (including profiling) and processing for the purposes of scientific/historical research and statistics; or
• not be subject to decisions based purely on automated processing where it produces a legal or similarly significant effect on you.

If you have a concern or complaint about the way we are collecting or using your personal data, you should raise your concern with us in the first instance or directly to the Information Commissioner’s Office at https://ico.org.uk/concerns/

For further information on how to request access to personal information held centrally by DfE, please see the ‘How Government uses your data’ section of this notice.

Withdrawal of Consent and the Right to Lodge a Complaint

Where we are processing your personal data with your consent, you have the right to withdraw that consent. If you change your mind, or you are unhappy with our use of your personal data, please let us know by contacting Ms Estlea, headteacher, office@eatonprimary.org.uk

Last Updated

We may need to update this privacy notice periodically so we recommend that you revisit this information from time to time. This version was last updated in April 2023.

Contact

If you would like to discuss anything in this privacy notice, please contact: Ms Kate Estlea, Headteacher.