General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR)
As a school we collect personal data about our pupils and their families. This explains how we use this data.
What is Personal Data?
Personal data is information that identifies you or your child as an individual, either directly or indirectly. This includes your contact details, next of kin, and financial information. We may also hold information such as your religion or ethnic group. CCTV, photos and video recordings of you are also personal data.
In this notice Byron Court Primary School, Spencer Road, Wembley, Middlesex, HA0 3SF is the data controller as defined by Data Protection legislation.
Our Data Protection Officer is:
Rajesh Seedher
020 8937 2018
school.dpo@brent.gov.uk
Data Protection Officer, Brent Council, Civic Centre, Engineers Way HA9 0FJ
How and Why Does the School Collect Personal Data?
We obtain information about you from admission forms and from your child’s previous school. We may also get information from professionals such as doctors and from local authorities.
Information is also received by the School directly from you. For example, you might email us with information about your marital status or provide us with documents such as Court Orders.
We collect this information to safeguard and promote the welfare of your child, promote the objects and interests of the School, facilitate the efficient operation of the School, and ensure that all relevant legal obligations of the School are complied with.
Here are some examples:
- We may have information about any family circumstances which might affect your child's welfare or happiness;
- We ask if any of your child's immediate family members have special educational needs because in some cases these can be hereditary. The School can then use this information to assist your child;
- We may need information about any Court Orders or criminal petitions which relate to you; and
- We may keep details of your address when your child leaves the School so we can keep in touch with your child and send relevant information about the school and find out how your child is progressing.
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 information, relevant medical information, special educational needs information, exclusions / behavioural information.
Why we collect and use this 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
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.
Storing pupil data
We hold pupil data and pupil records for 25 years after the date of birth.
Who we share pupil information with
We routinely share pupil information with:
schools that the pupil’s attend after leaving us, our local authority, the Department for Education (DfE), school nurse, NHS, school photographers.
Why we 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.
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.
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/datacollection-and-censuses-for-schools.
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 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
Data Protection Complaints Procedure
If you have a complaint as to how your:
- Personal data has been processed
- How your request for access to data has been handled
- How your complaint has been handled
Please contact the Data Protection Officer at school.dpo@brent.gov.uk
