GDPR - General Data Protection Regulation

The Hurst School collects and uses personal information (referred to in the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) as personal data) about staff, pupils, parents and other individuals who come into contact with the school. This information is gathered in order to enable the provision of education and other associated functions. In addition, the school may be required by law to collect, use and share certain information.

Privacy notice to students and parents

(How we use personal information)

The categories of personal 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) and exclusions
  • Assessment information
  • Modes of travel
  • Relevant medical, special educational needs and behavioural information
  • Post 16 learning information
  • Information relating to episodes of being a child in need (such as referral information, assessment information, Section 47 information, Initial Child Protection information and child Protection Plan information)
  • Episodes of being looked after (such as important dates, information on placements)
  • Outcomes for looked after children (such as whether health and dental assessments are up to date, strengths and difficulties questionnaire scores and offending)
  • Adoptions (such as dates of key court orders and decisions)
  • Care leavers (such as their activity and what type of accommodation they have.
  • Special education needs information

Why do we collect and use personal information?

We collect and use personal information:

  • to support pupil learning
  • to monitor and report on pupil progress
  • to provide appropriate pastoral care
  • to assess the quality of our services and how well our school is doing
  • Statistical forecasting and planning
  • to comply with the law regarding data sharing
  • evaluate and improve our policies on children’s social care

The Lawful basis on which we use this information

We collect and process information about children in our care and children to whom we provide services under the following lawful basis:

  • Compliance with a legal obligation
  • Performance of a task carried out in the public interest or in the exercise of official authority vested in the controller.
  • The data subject has given consent to the processing of his or her personal data for one or more specific purposes.

The General Data Protection Regulation allows us to collect and use pupil information with consent of the data subject, where we are complying with a legal requirement, where processing is necessary to protect the vital interests of a data subject or another person and where processing is necessary for the performance of a task carried out in the public interest or in the exercise of official authority vested in the controller. When the personal information is Special Category Information we may rely on processing being in the substantial public interest in addition to consent of the data subject and the vital interests of the data subject or another.

 

Our requirement for this data and our legal basis for processing this data includes the Education Act 1996, 2002 and 2011, The Children’s Act 1989 and 2004, Education and Skills Act 2008, Schools Standards and Framework Act 1998 and the Equalities Act 2010.

The lawful basis for collecting and using pupil information for general purposes are:

  • Compliance with a legal obligation
  • Performance of a task carried out in the public interest or in the exercise of official authority vested in the controller.
  • The data subject has given consent to the processing of his or her personal data for one or more specific purposes.

Collecting personal information

Whilst the majority of personal 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 legislation, we will inform you whether you are required to provide certain personal information to us or if you have a choice in this. Where we are using your personal information only on the basis of your permission you may ask us to stop processing this personal information at any time.

Storing personal data

We hold student data in accordance with our Retention Schedule.

Who do we share pupil information with?

We routinely share pupil information with:

  • Schools and colleges that the students attend after leaving us
  • our local authority
  • the Department for Education (DfE)
  • External agencies such as the police and Children’s Services

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

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

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.

We are required to share information about our pupils with our local authority (LA) and the Department for Education (DfE) under section 3 of The Education (Information About Individual Pupils) (England) Regulations 2013.

Why we share student information – children in need and children looked after

Department for Education (DfE) - We share children in need and children looked after data with the Department on a statutory basis, under Section 83 of 1989 Children’s Act, Section 7 of the Young People’s Act 2008 and also under section 3 of The Education (Information About Individual Pupils) (England) Regulations 2013.

This data sharing helps to develop national policies, manage local authority performance, administer and allocate funding and identify and encourage good practice.

We do not share information about our children in need or children looked after with anyone without consent unless the law and our policies allow us to do so.

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) go to

https://www.gov.uk/education/data-collection-and-censuses-for-schools.

Children looked after: https://www.gov.uk/guidance/children-looked-after-return

Children in need: https://www.gov.uk/guidance/children-in-need-census

Youth Support Services

What is different about 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 / 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.

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 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 Pupils) (England) Regulations 2013.

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

To find out more about the NPD, go to https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/national-pupil-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 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 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.

You also have the right, subject to some limitations 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, 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/

Contact:

If you would like to discuss anything in this privacy notice, please contact: