Privacy Notices and the Data Protection Act 1998

Schools hold and process a variety of information about their pupils which is necessary to support their learning. From time to time, schools are required by law to pass on some of this information to other educational and healthcare organisations. This is in order to run the education and healthcare services.

Under the Data Protection Act 1998, the information held about pupils must only be used for specific purposes. Under the Act, the school is required to write to parents/pupils to tell them about the types of data held, why it is held and to whom it may be passed. This is referred to as a ‘Privacy Notice’ and one has been included for you with this letter.

Where a pupil is younger than 12 years old, the Privacy Notice is provided to the parent (or the person with parental responsibility). The parent is encouraged to share it with the pupil if the pupil is able to understand it.

Where a pupil is aged 12 or more, the Privacy Notice is provided to both the pupil and the parent.

When a pupil reaches the age of 16, the Privacy Notice is reissued. For pupils of 13 years and over, the school is legally required to pass on certain information to the provider of youth support services in the area. This is the local authority support service for young people aged 13 to 19 in England. However, parents, or the pupils themselves once they are aged 16 or over, can ask that no information beyond the name and address for pupil and parent and the pupil’s date of birth be passed to the support service. By reissuing the notice to pupils at the age of 16, it draws pupils’ attention to the fact that the right to opt out from passing such information on, transfers from the parent to the pupil.

If you have any queries regarding the Privacy Notice and/or the Data Protection Act 1998, please do not hesitate to contact Nick Kiddle (Head Teacher) at the school.