Privacy Notice for Students / Parents / Carers
Although we have tried to make the attached Privacy Notice as straight forward as possible, some may find it difficult to understand. Please contact the school Data Protection Lead, details at the end of this section, for further help if needed.
The privacy notice explains how we use information about you and what we do with it. We call this information about you ‘personal data’ or personal information’.
Collecting and storing student information
We process personal data relating to students, parents, staff, Governors of our organisation.
We will not give information about our students to anyone without consent unless the law allows us to do so.
Storing student data
As a Secondary School, we will keep information relating to a students education record until the 25th birthday of that pupil.
We will only keep your information for as long as we need it or for as long as the law requires us to. Most of the information we have about you will be in our student file. We usually keep these until your 25th birthday unless you move to a new school, in which case we send your file to your new school. We have a policy which explains how long we keep information, it is called the Records Retention Policy and if you would like to discuss this in greater detail please contact the school’s Data Protection Lead.
Any personal data that we are required to keep about students is securely stored, with limited access for staff. It will not be accessed except in response to a query about our actions in the education of a particular student. No decisions will be made about you based on this data and you will not suffer any detriment or harm by having it stored in/on our secure systems.
We keep an overall summary of attainment and performance of students in our school, in order to monitor trends in teaching and learning. This data is anonymised and does not allow us to identify individual learners, once they have left our learning community.
We use the student data to:
- support students and teachers in learning
- monitor and report on progress
- provide appropriate care and security
- assess the quality of our services
- comply with the law around statutory data sharing
- promote the school via social media, with appropriate consent
The categories of student information that we collect, hold and share include:
- Personal information (such as – name, address, age, unique pupil number and photographs)
- Special Category data (such as – ethnicity, nationality, country of birth, biometric and medical information)
- Attendance and assessment information (such as – sessions attended, number of absences & absence reasons, national curriculum assessment results, special education need and any exclusion information).
The lawful basis on which we use this information
All data we process is in accordance with the rules as laid down in statute, including the General Data Protection Regulations, the Education Act 1996, the Education and Skills Act 2008 and the Apprenticeship, Skills, Children and Learning Act 2009 and Children Act 2014.
We use personal data about students and parents to ensure that we fulfil our legal obligation to offer educational opportunities to our pupils, and are able to look after the needs and requirements of everyone in our learning community. .
Where we rely on consent to process personal data about individuals in our school, we ensure that we obtain that consent freely and in a positive manner. Anyone whose personal data is processed on the basis of consent can withdraw that consent easily and quickly. See “Requesting access to personal data & individual rights” listed later in this notice”.
Please note that the main reasons for our processing of personal information is due to
- We need to, to comply with the law
- We need to, to carry out a task in the public interest
- We need to, protect someone’s interests
- To communicate with you/parents/carers
Who will see your personal data
We will only share your information with people who have a legal or operational reason to see it. For students, this could include anyone directly involved in planning, providing or supporting educational opportunities. For parents, this could include anyone who needs to be involved in conversations about your child’s progress at our school.
Photographs and biometric data
Photographs
Our school operates a policy relating to the use of photographs and a copy of this can be requested via the school’s Data Protection Lead, details at the end of this form.
Biometric data
Where cashless canteens are in place, biometric information is collected and used only with consent. This is sought when a student joins the school but can be withdrawn at any point, for further details please contact the school’s Data Protection Lead, details at the end of this form.
Data collection requirements
To find out more about the data collection requirements placed on us by the Department for Education (for example; via the school census) please see the following web link: - https://www.gov.uk/education/data-collection-and-censuses-for-schools.
The National Pupil Database (NPD)
The NPD is owned and managed by the Department for Education (DfE) 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 to pass information about our students to the DfE under Regulation 5 and Schedule 1 of The Education (Information About Individual Pupils) (England) Regulations 2013 as part of statutory data collections such as the school census. Some of this information is then stored in the NPD.
This information will, in turn, then be made available for use by the Local Authority who, under strict information sharing protocols and policies, may also be required to share this information with other public sector partners such as other Local Authorities or local Children Centre.
To find out more about the National Pupil Database please see the following web link: -
http://www.gov.uk/government/publications/national-pupil-database-user-guide-and-supporting-information
The DfE may share information about our pupils from the National Pupil Database 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 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 it is required
- the level and sensitivity of data requested: and
- 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 student information, (and for which project), please visit the following website: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/national-pupil-database-requests-received
If you have questions, contact the DfE through their website: https://www.gov.uk/contact-dfe
Youth support services
In a secondary school, once a pupil is aged 13 or over we are required by Section 507B of the Education Act 1996 (as amended by Part 1 of The Education and Inspections Act 2006) to pass on student information to providers of youth support services in the area.
For Caterham High School, this is the London Borough of Redbridge’s support service for young people aged 13 to 19, who have responsibilities in relation to their education or training. This enables them to provide support services and careers advice.
We may also share personal information of students aged 16 or over with post-16 education and training providers to in order to secure appropriate support on entry to post 16 provision.
Information that may be shared with other schools and colleges
Some of the information we collect from you during Year 10 and 11 and as part of the Intended Destination, September Guarantee and Annual Activity processes may also be shared with post-16 providers who deliver in this local area. These providers could offer students a progression route and support their transition into post-16 education, training or employment with training.
To support their transition to post-16 education and to support planning for future learners we, or the Local Authority may also need to share further information about them directly with post-16 providers after they have enrolled. This includes:
- Whether the student is NEET and may need support finding an education/training/employment opportunity
- Their activity after leaving a FE College after Year 12 or 13
- Their attendance record at school
- Whether they have been excluded from school
- If they have any special educational needs
- Whether they are looked after/or a care leaver
- Whether they are a carer
- Whether English is an additional language for the student
- Whether they are a traveller
- Whether they receive free school meals, and
- Whether they are currently supervised by the Youth Offending Team.
Whilst it may limit the range or level of services offered, 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.
Anyone wishing to only share limited statutory information should contact our Data Protection Lead.
Changing schools
As per The Education (Pupil Information) (England) Regulations 2005, we are required to pass pupil information on to schools that the pupil goes on to attend after leaving us. We do this via the Department for Education’s ‘School to School’ (S2S) secure data transfer website. This also acts as a temporary information depositary where a pupil has left us and the destination is not known to us.
The NHS
Information will only be passed to the NHS where we have a legal / statutory obligation to do so or where it is fully anonymous and cannot identify individuals, to the extent of no longer being personal data. Where the NHS otherwise require personal data for the provision of a service or research, parental and / or student consent will always be sought on a case by case basis.
CCTV
Our school uses Closed Circuit Television cameras for the purposes of monitoring our premises and to support any student behavioural policies. There are visible signs showing that CCTV is in operation and images from this system are securely stored where only a limited number of authorised persons may have access to them. We may be required to disclose CCTV images to authorised third parties such as the police to assist with crime prevention or at the behest of a court order.
Requesting access to personal data & individual rights
The General Data Protection Regulations and associated Data Protection Act 2018 allow parents and students the right to access the information that we hold about them. Additionally, the Education Act 1996 allows parent’s the right to access most of their child’s educational records. To make a request for information; please see the Subject Access Request section on this website.
You also have the right to:
- object to processing of personal data that is likely to cause, or is causing, damage or distress
- prevent processing for the purpose of direct marketing
- object to decisions being taken by automated means
- in certain circumstances, have inaccurate personal data rectified, blocked, erased or destroyed; and
- 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.
Contact
If you would like to discuss anything in this privacy notice or make a request for information, please contact:
School Business Manager on 0208 551 4321
dataprotection@ecaterham.net
Please note our Statutory Data Protection Officer details are below:
Fiona Alderman, London Borough of Redbridge, Lynton House, 255-259 High Road, Ilford, IG1 1NY
dataprotection.schools@redbridge.gov.uk
Alternatively, should we not be able to provide a satisfactory answer to your request in the first instance, you may wish to contact the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) directly using the following details:
Information Commissioner’s Office, Wycliffe House, Water Lane, Wilmslow, Cheshire, SK9 5AF, Phone 0303 123 1113
