Cliffe Hill Community Primary School

Policies

Privacy Notice for Parents/Carers

Under UK data protection requirements, individuals have a right to be informed about how the school uses any personal data. The school complies with this requirement by providing ‘privacy notices’ (sometimes called ‘fair processing notices’) to inform individuals about how their personal data will be processed.

This privacy notice explains how the school collects, stores and uses personal data about students and their families.

Who processes your information?

Cliffe Hill Community primary School is the data controller of the personal information provide. This means the school determines the purposes for which, and the manner in which, any personal data relating to pupils and their families is to be processed.

In some cases, personal data processing will be outsourced to a third-party; however, this will only be done with your consent, unless the law or our policies allow the school to share your data. Where the school outsources data to a third-party processor, the same data protection standards that the school upholds are imposed on the processor.

GDPR Sentry is the school’s Data Protection Officer and is contactable via 0113 8042035. While the school remains responsible for data protection, the role of the DPO is to oversee and monitor the school’s data protection procedures, and to ensure they are compliant with the UK data protection requirements.

Why does the school collect personal data on students?

Cliffe Hill Community Primary School has the legal right to collect and use personal data relating to pupils and their families, and it may also receive information regarding them from their previous school, Local Authority (LA) and/or the Department for Education (DfE). The school will collect and use personal data in order to meet legal requirements and legitimate interests set out not only in the UK data protection requirements but also:

Education Act 1996
Regulation 5 of The Education (Information About Individual Pupils) (England) Regulations 2013

In accordance with the above, the personal data of pupils and their families is collected and used for the following reasons:

to support pupil learning
to monitor and report on pupil progress
to provide appropriate pastoral care
to assess the quality of our service
to comply with the law regarding data sharing
to safeguard pupils

Whilst the provision of the majority of personal data is mandatory, some of it is provided to the school on a voluntary basis. In order to comply with the UK data protection requirements, the school will inform you whether you are required to provide certain information or if you have a choice.

What data is collected?

The categories of pupil information that the school collects, holds and shares include but are not restricted to the following:

personal information (such as names of both pupils and their parents or carers and their addresses)
characteristics (such as ethnicity, language, nationality, country of birth and free school meal eligibility)
attendance information (such as number of absences and absence reasons)
assessment information (such as national curriculum assessment results)
relevant medical information
information relating to special educational needs and disability (SEND)
behavioural information (such as number of temporary exclusions)
CCTV footage
Photographs and videos

When collecting data, the school will inform you if your consent is needed. Where consent is required, the school will provide you with specific and explicit information with regards to the reasons the data is being collected, how the data will be used and how consent can be withdrawn.

The lawful basis on which the school will use personal data

The school will use a lawful basis to collect and use personal data. Most commonly, the school will use it where it needs to:

comply with a legal obligation
perform an official task in the public interest

Less commonly, the school may also process personal data in situations where:

you have given consent to use it in a certain way
the school needs to protect the individual’s vital interests (or someone else’s interests)

Some of the reasons listed above for collecting and using personal information overlap, and there may be several grounds which justify the school’s use of your data.

Storing personal data

Personal data relating to pupils at Cliffe Hill and their families is stored in line with the school’s Data Protection Policy which can be found on the school website.

Personal information that is no longer needed, or has become inaccurate or out of date, is disposed of securely. For example, the school will shred or incinerate paper-based records and override electronic files. The school may also use an outside company to safely dispose of electronic records.

Why the school may share pupil information?

The school is required to share pupils’ data with the DfE on a statutory basis.

The National Pupil Database (NPD) is managed by the DfE and contains information about pupils in schools in England. The school is required by law to provide information about our pupils to the DfE as part of statutory data collections, such as the school census; some of this information is then stored in the NPD. The DfE may share information about our pupils from the NPD with third parties who promote the education or wellbeing of children in England by:

conducting research or analysis.
producing statistics.
providing information, advice or guidance.

The DfE has robust processes in place to ensure the confidentiality of any data shared from the NPD is maintained.

The school also routinely shares pupils’ information with:

pupils’ destinations upon leaving the school
the LA
the school nurse and National Health Service (NHS)

The school also uses various systems, such as assessment and reporting software, communication systems and curriculum software that may process pupil and family information. As the data controller the school will ensure that processors meet and uphold the required data protection standards. An up-to-date list of these third parties can be found on the school website.

Parent and pupil rights regarding personal data

Individuals have a right to make a ‘subject access request’ to gain access to personal information that the school holds about them. Parents/carers can make a request with respect to their child’s data. Parents also have the right to make a subject access request with respect to any personal data the school holds about them.

If you make a subject access request, and if the school does hold information about you or your child, the school will:

give you a description of it
tell you why the school is holding and processing it, and how long it will be kept for
explain where the school got it from, if not from you
tell you who it has been, or will be, shared with
let you know whether any automated decision-making is being applied to the data, and any consequences of this
give you a copy of the information in an intelligible form

Individuals also have the right for their personal information to be transmitted electronically to another organisation in certain circumstances.

If you would like to make a subject access request please contact our DPO via the school office.

Parents/carers also have a legal right to access to their child’s educational record. To request access, please contact the school office.

Other rights regarding personal data

Under data protection law, individuals have certain rights regarding how their personal data is used and kept safe. You have the right to:

object to the use of personal data if it would cause, or is causing, damage or distress
object to the use of your personal data for decisions being taken by automated means (by a computer or machine, rather than by a person)
in certain circumstances, have inaccurate personal data corrected, deleted or destroyed, or restrict processing
claim compensation for damages caused by a breach of the data protection regulations

To exercise any of these rights, please contact the DPO via the school office.

Complaints

We take any complaints about the collection and use of personal information very seriously. If you think that the collection or use of personal information is unfair, misleading or inappropriate, or have any other concern about data processing, please raise this with the school in the first instance.

Alternatively, you can make a complaint to the Information Commissioner’s Office:

Report a concern online at https://ico.org.uk/concerns/
Call 0303 123 1113
Or write to: Information Commissioner’s Office, Wycliffe House, Water Lane, Wilmslow, Cheshire, SK9 5A

Where can you find out more information?

If you would like to find out more information about how we use and store your personal data, please visit our website to view our Data Protection Policy.

To find out more about the pupil information the school shares with the DfE, for the purpose of data collections, go to https://www.gov.uk/education/data-collection-and-censuses-for-schools.