Pupil Privacy Notice (How we use pupil information)

Why do we collect and use pupil information?
St Benedict’s Primary School holds the legal right to collect and use personal data relating to pupils and their families, and we may also receive information regarding them from their previous school, LA and/or the DfE. We collect and use personal data in order to meet legal requirements and legitimate interests set out in the GDPR and UK law, including those in relation to the following:

• Article 6 and Article 9 of the GDPR
• Education Act 1996
• Regulation 5 of The Education (Information About Individual Pupils) (England) Regulations 2013

In accordance with the above, the personal data of pupils and their families is collected and used for the following reasons:

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
• to safeguard pupils

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)
• SEND pupil information
• Pupil assessment and attainment data
• Medical information
• Behaviour information
• Safeguarding information

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
Personal data relating to pupils at St Benedict’s Primary School and their families is stored in line with the school’s GDPR Data Protection Policy. In accordance with the GDPR, the school does not store personal data indefinitely; data is only stored for as long as is necessary to complete the task for which it was originally collected. The table below shows for how long we keep different types of information about your child.

Type of information	Retention Period, or the criteria used to determine the retention period
Parent correspondence and financial details	Six years after pupil has left school
Parent correspondence details (nonstarter)	Five years after completion of paperwork
Pupil acceptance details	Six years after pupil has left the school
Pupil records	Transferred securely to the next school/any records six years after pupil has left the school
G4S Cash collections – BWV camera	Footage captured overwritten every few seconds. Activated only in event of an attack to G4S employee
Google Classrooms	Transferred securely to the next school/any records six years after pupil has left the school

Who do 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 or other NHS agencies
• SEND External Support e.g PSS, BSS, Educational Psychologist
• SENAR
• BSCP – Birmingham Safeguarding Children’s Partnership

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/data-collection-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 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