Privacy Notice

GDPR Privacy Notice

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 date.

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

We, Friern Barnet School, are the data controller for the purposes of the Data Protection Law. Our Data Protection Officer is Mrs A Woodhall and she can be contacted at dpo@friern.barnet.sch.uk

The personal data we collect and hold

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

• Personal information (such as contact details, contact preferences, date of birth, unique pupil number, identification documents and National Insurance number)
• Characteristics (such as ethnicity, language, nationality and eligibility for free school meals)
• Safeguarding information (such as court orders and professional involvement)
• Special educational needs information (such as SEN status and needs)
• Attendance information (such as sessions attended, number of absences and absence reasons)
• Relevant medical information (such as doctors information, medical conditions, medication and dietary requirements)
• Assessment information (such as results and predicted grades)
• Student and curricular records
• Exclusion / behavioural information
• Details of any support received, including care packages, plans and support providers
• Photographs and moving images
• CCTV images captured in school
• Biometric data for accessing the school canteen
• Educational trips and outings

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

Why we use this data

We collect and use student information, for the following purposes:

• to support student learning
• to monitor and report on student progress
• to provide appropriate pastoral care
• to protect student welfare
• to assess the quality of our services
• to meet the statutory duties placed upon us for DfE data collections
• identify student eligibility for free school meals and pupil premium funding

Our legal basis for using this data

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

• We need to comply with the law
• We need it to perform a task in the public interest (to provide our students with an education).

On some occasions we may ask for consent to process data when its use is optional. On those occasions consent can be withdrawn at any time. We will make this clear when we ask for consent, and explain how consent can be withdrawn.

Collecting student information

Whilst the majority of student 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 student information to us or if you have a choice in this.

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 hold student data until the student reaches the age of 25. Where there have been safeguarding concerns or special educational needs, the retention of student data will be reviewed at this point and decisions about ongoing retention will be made on an individual basis.

Who we share information with?

We routinely share information with:

• Schools that students attend after leaving us
• Local authorities
• Relevant local partnerships
• The Department for Education (DfE)
• The NHS, including CAMHS (for referrals, vaccinations etc.)
• Targeted youth support
• Police and Social Services
• Exam boards
• Education Welfare Officer (EWO)
• Our regulator Ofsted – during inspections

We also share personal data with third party organisations which provide services to us. This data is only shared where it is essential for the service to be provided. We currently provide student level data for the following purposes:

• to provide core school business services
• to run core IT systems, e.g. LGfL for school emails

Youth Support Services

Once our pupils reach the age of 13, we are legally required to pass on certain information to our local authority, London Borough of Barnet, and/or provider of youth support services as they have legal responsibilities in relation to the education or training of 13 to 19 years olds under section 507B of the Education Act 1996.

This enables them to provide services as follows:

• Youth support services
• Careers advisers
• Post-16 education
• Training services

A parent/carer 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 of 16.

Department for Education

The Department for Education (DfE) collects personal data from educational settings and local authorities via various statutory data collections. We are required to share information about our pupils with the Department for Education (DfE) either directly or via our local authority for the purpose of those data collections, under: section 3 of The Education (Information About Individual Pupils) (England) Regulations 2013.
All data is transferred securely and held by DfE under a combination of software and hardware controls, which meet the current government security policy framework.

For more information, please see ‘How Government uses your data’ section.

Learner Record Service

Once our pupils reach the age of 14, we will pass on certain information used by the Skills Funding Agency, an executive agency of the Department for Education (DfE), to issue a Unique Learner Number (ULN), and to create a Personal Learning Record. For more information about how your information is processed and shared refer to the Extended Privacy Notice available on Gov.UK.

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.

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. To request access, please contact our Data Protection Officer, Mrs A Woodhall, at dpo@friern.barnet.sch.uk

• You also have the right to:
• to ask us for access to information about you that we hold
• to have your personal data rectified, if it is inaccurate or incomplete
• to request the deletion or removal of personal data where there is no compelling reason for its continued processing
• to restrict our processing of your personal data (i.e. permitting its storage but no further processing)
• to object to direct marketing (including profiling) and processing for the purposes of scientific/historical research and statistics
• not to be subject to decisions based purely on automated processing where it produces a legal or similarly significant effect on you

If you have a concern or complaint 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/

For further information on how to request access to personal information held centrally by DfE, please see the ‘How Government uses your data’ section of this notice.

Last updated

We may need to update this privacy notice periodically so we recommend that you revisit this information from time to time. This version was last updated on March 2022.

This notice is based on the Department for Education’s model privacy notice, for pupils, amended to reflect the way we use data in the school.

Contact

If you would like to discuss anything in this privacy notice, please contact Friern Barnet School, Hemington Avenue, London, N11 3LS. Telephone: 020 8368 2777 or email is Mrs A Woodhall, Data Protection Officer at dpo@friern.barnet.sch.uk

How Government uses your data

The pupil data that we lawfully share with the DfE through data collections:

• underpins school funding, which is calculated based upon the numbers of children and their characteristics in each school.
• informs ‘short term’ education policy monitoring and school accountability and intervention (for example, school GCSE results or Pupil Progress measures).
• supports ‘longer term’ research and monitoring of educational policy (for example how certain subject choices go on to affect education or earnings beyond school)

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)

Much of the data about pupils in England goes on to be held in 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. To find out more about the NPD, go to https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/national-pupil-database-user-guide-and-supporting-information.

Sharing by the Department

The law allows the Department to share pupils’ personal data with certain third parties, including:

• schools and local authorities
• researchers
• organisations connected with promoting the education or wellbeing of children in England
• other government departments and agencies
• organisations fighting or identifying crime

For more information about the Department’s NPD data sharing process, please visit: https://www.gov.uk/data-protection-how-we-collect-and-share-research-data

Organisations fighting or identifying crime may use their legal powers to contact DfE to request access to individual level information relevant to detecting that crime.

For information about which organisations the Department has provided pupil information, (and for which project) or to access a monthly breakdown of data share volumes with Home Office and the Police please visit the following website: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/dfe-external-data-shares

How to find out what personal information DfE hold about you

Under the terms of the Data Protection Act 2018, you are entitled to ask the Department:

• if they are processing your personal data
• for a description of the data they hold about you
• the reasons they’re holding it and any recipient it may be disclosed to
• for a copy of your personal data and any details of its source

If you want to see the personal data held about you by the Department, you should make a ‘subject access request’. Further information on how to do this can be found within the Department’s personal information charter that is published at the address below:

https://www.gov.uk/government/organisations/department-for-education/about/personal-information-charter

To contact DfE: https://www.gov.uk/contact-dfe