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Privacy Policy

Privacy notice for parents/carers

You have a legal right to be informed about how our school uses any personal information that we hold about you. To comply with this, we provide a ‘privacy notice’ to you where we are processing your personal data.

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

We, Khalsa Academies Trust and the School , are the ‘data controller’ for the purposes of data protection law.

Our data protection officer is Colin Howard (see ‘Contact us’ below).

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:

  • Contact details, contact preferences, date of birth, identification documents
  • Results of internal assessments and externally set tests
  • Pupil and curricular records
  • Characteristics, such as ethnic background, eligibility for free school meals, or special educational needs
  • Exclusion information
  • Details of any medical conditions, including physical and mental health
  • Attendance information
  • Safeguarding information
  • Details of any support received, including care packages, plan and support providers
  • Photographs
  • CCTV images captured in school
  • Recording of calls

We may also hold data about pupils that we have received from other organisations, including other schools, local authorities, the Police and the Department for Education.

Why we use this data

We use this data to:

  • Support pupil learning
  • Monitor and report on pupil progress
  • Provide appropriate pastoral care
  • Protect pupil welfare
  • Assess the quality of our services
  • Administer admissions waiting lists
  • Carry out research
  • 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Where we have obtained consent to use pupils’ personal data, this consent can be withdrawn at any time.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. We may also keep it beyond their attendance at our school if this is necessary in order to comply with our legal obligations. As a basis for data retention and disposal, we will be using the Information and Records Management Society’s toolkit for schools, (https://irms.site-ym.com/)

Data sharing

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:

  • Our local authority – to meet our legal duties to share certain information with it, such as safeguarding concerns and exclusions.
  • The Department for Education – to meet our legal obligations to share certain information with it, such as contextual information about the school’s community and assessment outcomes as well as information to comply with out safeguarding responsibilities.
  • The pupil’s family and representatives – to perform our official task of educating pupils effectively, such as sharing attainment and progress data, curriculum and teaching information,  information of enrichment activities and to comply with our safeguarding responsibilities.
  • Educators and examining bodies – to perform our legal obligations, such as providing data to enrol pupils for examination and to apply for specific examination arrangements.
  • Our regulator – Ofsted or the Regional Schools Commissioners – to perform our legal obligation regarding accountability, for example self-evaluation materials.
  • Suppliers and service providers e.g. SIMS (school data management system), Parentpay (financial support service), School texting service; PS Financials– to enable them to provide the service we have contracted them for.
  • Central and local government e.g. sharing of data in the event of national/local critical incidents, where data sharing would support response services – to perform our legal obligation.
  • Survey and research organisations, e.g. for assessment development or research into the impact of education policy and initiatives – to perform an official task in the public interest.
  • Health authorities e.g. notification to Public Health England of any contagious disease outbreak, pupil contextual data to our local health authority to enable public health screening, immunisation and checks for target communities – to perform our legal obligations or to perform an official task in the public interest.
  • Security organisations e.g. sharing of data in the event of national/local critical incidents, where data sharing would support response services – to perform our legal obligation.
  • Health and social welfare organisation e.g. sharing safeguarding concerns and contextual information in order to meet our legal obligations around child safeguarding.
  • Professional advisers and consultants e.g. specialist educational professional to support our official task of education pupils.
  • Police forces, courts, tribunals to meet our legal obligations around child safeguarding.

National Pupil Database

We are required to provide information about pupil to the Department for education as part of statutory data collections such as the school census.

Some of this information is then stored in the National Pupil Database (NPD), which is owned and managed by the Department for Education and provides evidence on school performance to inform research. This, in turn, supports research.

The database is held electronically so it can easily be turned into statistics. The information is securely collected from a range of sources including schools, local authorities and exam boards.

The Department for Education may share information from NPD with other organisations which promote children’s education or wellbeing in England. Such organisations must agree to strict terms and conditions about how they will use the data.

For more information, see the Department’s webpage on how it collects and shares research data.

You can also contact the Department for Education with any further questions about the NPD.

Transferring data internationally

Where we transfer personal data to a country or territory outside the European Economic Area, we will do so in accordance with data protection law.

Parents and pupils’ 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 where the child is not considered mature enough to understand their rights over their own data (usually under the age of 12), or where the child has provided consent.

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 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

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 be 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 also 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 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 via the school office.

Privacy Notice: Pupils

Privacy notice for pupils

You have a legal right to be informed about how our school uses any personal information that we hold about you. To comply with this, we provide a ‘privacy notice’ to you where we are processing your personal data.

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

We, Khalsa Academies Trust and the School , are the ‘data controller’ for the purposes of data protection law.

The personal data we hold

We hold some personal information about you to make sure we can help you learn and look after you at school.

For the same reasons, we get information about you from some other places too – like other schools, the local council and the government.

This information includes:

  • Your contact details
  • Your test results
  • Your attendance records
  • Your characteristics, like you ethnic background or any special educational needs
  • Any medical conditions you have
  • Details of any behaviour issues or exclusions
  • Photographs
  • CCTV images

Why we use this data

We use this data to help run the school, including to:

  • Get in touch with you and your parents when we need to
  • Monitor your progress
  • Track how well the school as a whole is performing
  • Look after your wellbeing

Our legal basis for using this data

We will only collect and use your information when the law allows us to. Most often, we will use your information where:

  • We need to comply with the law
  • We need to use it to carry out a task in the public interest (in order to provide you with an education)

Sometimes, we may also use your personal information where:

  • You, or your parents/carers have given us permission to use it in a certain way
  • We need to protect you interests (or someone else’s interest)

Where we have got permission to use you data, you or your parents/carers may withdraw this at any time. We will make this clear when we ask for permission, and explain how to go about withdrawing consent.

Some of the reasons listed above for collecting and suing your information overlap, and there may be several grounds which mean we can use your data.

Collecting this information

While in most cases you, or your parents/carers, must provide the personal information we need to collect, there are some occasions when you can choose whether or not to provide the data.

We will always tell you if it’s optional. If you must provide the data, we will explain what might happen if you don’t.

How we store this data

We will keep personal information about you while you are a pupil at our school. We may also keep it after you have left the school, where we are required to by law.

We use the information and records Management Society’s toolkit for schools which sets out how long we must keep information about pupils.

This is available online at http://irms.org.uk/pate/SchoolsToolkit.

Data sharing

We do not share personal information about you with anyone outside the school without permission from you or your parents/carers, unless the law and our policies allow us to do so.

Where it is legally required, or necessary for another reason allowed under data protection law, we may share personal information about you with:

  • Our local authority – to meet our legal duties to share certain information with it, such as who has joined or left our school.
  • The Department for Education (a government department) – to meet our legal duties to share certain information with it, such as test results and attendance.
  • Your family and representatives – to perform our official task of educating children, such as sharing information on your progress, information on afterschool activities and to keep you sage.
  • Educators and examining bodies – to meet our legal duties to share certain information such as providing data so we can order test papers.
  • Our regulator e.g. Ofsted, SIAMS and the Regional Schools Commissioners – to perform our legal obligations when they write a report on our school.
  • Suppliers and service providers – to perform our official task of educating children so that they can provide the services we have asked them for such as school meals or football clubs.
  • Central and local government – to meet our legal duties where data sharing helps tackle problems in the area.
  • Survey and research organisations – to perform an official task in the public interest such as finding out more about how children learn.
  • Health authorities – to perform an official task in the public interest such as checking your hearing or teeth.
  • Security organisations – to meet our legal duties where data sharing would help keep the local area safe.
  • Health and social welfare organisations – in order to meet our legal duties to keep you sage and healthy.
  • Professional advisers and consultants – such as a speech and language teacher to support our official task of educating pupils.
  • Police forces, courts, tribunals – to meet our legal duties to keep you safe.

National Pupil Database

We are required to provide information about you to the Department for education (a government department) as part of data collections such as the school census.

Some of this information is then stored in the National Pupil Database, which is managed by the Department for Education and provides evidence on how schools are performing. This, in turn, supports research.

The database is held electronically so it can easily be turned into statistics. The information it holds is collected securely form schools, local authorities, exam boards and others.

The Department for Education may share information from the database with other organisations which promote children’s education or wellbeing in England. These organisations must agree to strict terms and conditions about how they will use your data.

You can find more information about this on the Department for Education’s webpage on how it collects and shares research data.

You can also contact the Department for Education if you have any questions about the database.

Transferring data internationally

Where we share data with an organisation that is based outside the European Economic Area, we will protect you data by following data protection law.

Your rights

How to access personal information we hold about you

You can find out if we hold any personal information about you, and how we use it, by making a ‘subject access request’, as long as we judge that you can properly understand your rights and what they mean.

If we do hold information about you, we will:

  • Give you a description of it.
  • Tell you why we are holding and using it, and how long we will keep it for.
  • Explain where we got it from, if not from you or your parents/carers.
  • Tell you who it has been, or will be, shared with.
  • Let you know if we are using your data to make any automated decisions (decisions being taken by a computer or machine, rather than by a person)
  • Give you a copy of the information

You may also ask us to send your personal information to another organisation electronically in certain circumstances.

If you want to make a request please contact our data protection officer.

Your other rights over your data

You have other rights over how your personal data is used and kept sage, including the right to:

  • Say that you don’t want it to be used if this would cause, or is causing, harm or distress.
  • Stop it being to send you marketing materials.
  • Say that you don’t want it used to make automated decisions (decisions made by a computer or machine, rather than by a person).
  • Have it corrected, deleted or destroyed if it is wrong, or restrict our use of it.
  • Claim compensation if the data protection rules are broken and this harms you in some way.

Complaints

We take any complaints about how we collect and use your personal data very seriously, so please let us know if you think we’ve done something wrong.

You can make a complaint at any time by contacting our data protection officer.

You can also complain to the Information Commissioner’s Office in one of the following ways:

  • 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 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 via the school office.