How we use pupil information

Why do we collect and use pupil information?

Under data protection law, individuals have a right to be informed about how the school uses any personal data that we hold about them. We comply with this right by providing ‘privacy notices’ (sometimes called ‘fair processing notices’) to individuals where we are processing their personal data.

This privacy notice explains how we collect, store and use personal data about pupils.

We, Featherstone Nursery School, 29 Highcroft Road, Erdington, Birmingham B23 6AU, are the ‘data controller’ for the purposes of data protection law

Our data protection officer is

Michelle Coeulle of Gunter Primary School, Gunter Road, Birmingham, B24 0RU,

Contact: 0121 464 2367

The personal data we hold

Personal data that we may collect, use, store and share (when appropriate) about pupils includes, but is not restricted to:

Personal information (such as name, unique pupil number, date of birth and address)
Characteristics (such as ethnicity, language, nationality, country of birth, early years pupil premium entitlement and free school meal eligibility)
Attendance information (such as sessions attended, number of absences and absence reasons)
Medical information (such as allergies, regular medication needed)
Special educational needs information (such as details of any support received, including care packages, plans and support providers)
Assessment information (such as things they can do or need help with, where they are working on the Early Years Foundation Stage curriculum)
Safeguarding information
Behavioural information
Accident information
Photographs
CCTV images captured in school
We may also hold data about pupils that we have received from other organisations, including other schools, nurseries, local authorities and the Department for Education.

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.

We use the pupil data:

to support pupil learning
to monitor and report on pupil progress
to provide appropriate pastoral care
to protect pupil welfare
to assess the quality of our services
to administer admissions waiting lists
to carry out research
to comply with the law regarding data sharing
Our legal basis for using this data

We only collect and use pupils’ personal data when the law allows us to. Most commonly, we process it where:

We need to comply with a legal obligation
We need it to perform an official task in the public interest
Less commonly, we may also process pupils’ personal data in situations where:

We have obtained consent to use it in a certain way
We need to protect the individual’s vital interests (or someone else’s interests)
Where we have obtained consent to use pupils’ personal data, this consent can be withdrawn at any time. We will make this clear when we ask for consent, and explain how consent can be withdrawn.

Some of the reasons listed above for collecting and using pupils’ personal data overlap, and there may be several grounds which justify our use of this data.

Collecting this information

While the majority of information we collect about pupils is mandatory, there is some information that can be provided voluntarily.

Whenever we seek to collect information from you or your child, we make it clear whether providing it is mandatory or optional. If it is mandatory, we will explain the possible consequences of not complying.

How we store this data

We keep personal information about pupils while they are attending our school. Most of the pupil data we hold will transfer with your child to their primary school when they leave us. We may also keep it beyond their attendance at our school if this is necessary in order to comply with our legal obligations. We follow the guidance in the Information and Records Management Toolkit for Schools which sets out how long we keep information about pupils.

Who do we share pupil information with?

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

Where it is legally required or necessary (and it complies with data protection law) we may share personal information about pupils with:

Schools or nurseries that the pupil’s attend after leaving us – to enable a smooth transition for your child
Our local authority – to meet our legal obligations to share certain information with it, such as safeguarding concerns
the Department for Education (DfE) – to meet our legal obligations to share certain information with it, such as early years census data
Ofsted – to allow them to perform their official task in the public interest
Suppliers and service providers – to enable them to provide the service we have contracted them for
Health authorities – to allow them to perform their official task in the public interest
Police forces, courts, tribunals – to allow them to perform their official task in the public interest
Why we share pupil information

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.

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 pupil information we share with the department, for the purpose of data collections, go to Data Collection And Censuses For Schools.

To find out more about the NPD, go to 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:

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: National Pupil Database Requests Received

To contact DfE: Contact-dfe

Requesting access to your 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 where the child is not considered mature enough to understand their rights over their own data (usually under the age of 12)

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 we do hold information about you or your child, we will:

Give you a description of it
Tell you why we are holding and processing it, and how long we will keep it for
Explain where we got it from, if not from you or your child
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 request please contact our Data Protection Officer.

Parents/carers also have a legal right to access to their child’s educational record. To request access, please contact our Office Manager.

Other rights

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

Object to the use of personal data if it would cause, or is causing, damage or distress
Prevent it being used to send direct marketing
Object to 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 our Data Protection Officer.

Complaints

We take any complaints about our collection and use of personal information very seriously.

If you think that our collection or use of personal information is unfair, misleading or inappropriate, or have any other concern about our data processing, please raise this with us in the first instance.

To make a complaint, please contact our data protection officer.

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

Report a concern online at Ico Concerns
Call 0303 123 1113
Or write to: Information Commissioner’s Office, Wycliffe House, Water Lane, Wilmslow, Cheshire, SK9 5AF
Contact us

If you have any questions, concerns or would like more information about anything mentioned in this privacy notice, please contact our Data Protection Officer:

Michelle Coeulle of Gunter Primary School, Gunter Road, Birmingham, B24 0RU,

Contact: 0121 464 2367