Updated January 2023

 1. Introduction 

Under UK data protection law, individuals have a right to be informed about how our 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 at our school.

This privacy notice applies while we believe your child is not capable of understanding and exercising their own data protection rights.

We, St Johns CE Primary School, are the ‘data controller’ for the purposes of UK data protection law.

Our data protection officer is the SPS Data Protection Officer who can be contacted at the following address:

SPS DPO Services 

Email – sps-dpo-services@isystemsintegration.com

Correspondence address – SPS SPO Services, iSystems Integration, Devonshire House, 29-31 Elmfield Road, Bromley, Kent BR1 1LT

2. The personal data we hold

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

• Name
• Contact details, such as, contact preferences, date of birth, identification documents, personal identifier

• Parental, sibling and extended family details
• Children who are adopted from care, looked after children, under special guardianship
• Results of internal assessments and externally set tests
• Pupil and curricular records
• Exclusion information
• Attendance information
• Safeguarding information
• Details of any support received, including care packages, plans and support providers
• Carefully chosen and vetted educational apps

We may also collect, use, store and share (when appropriate) information about your child that falls into "special categories" of more sensitive personal data. This includes, but is not restricted to, information about:

• Any medical conditions we need to be aware of, including physical and mental health
• Photographs captured in school for example for our School Management Information System for identification purposes and in the school’s learning platform to document progress and communicate with parents
• Characteristics, such as ethnic background or special educational needs

We may also hold data about your child that we have received from other organisations, including, for example, other schools and social services.

3. Why we use this data

We use the data listed above to:

1. Support pupil learning
2. Monitor and report on pupil progress
3. Provide appropriate pastoral care
4. Protect pupil welfare
5. Assess the quality of our services
6. Administer admissions waiting lists
7. Carry out research
8. Comply with the law regarding data sharing

In order to meet statutory requirements around appropriate education provision and to fulfil safeguarding requirements, we share information about school history and the latest known pupil and parent address and contact details in the event of a Child Missing Education, or becoming Electively Home Educated. This information also supports the in-year admissions process

3.1 Use of your child’s personal data for marketing purposes

Where you have given us consent to do so, we may send your child marketing information by email or text promoting school events, campaigns, charitable causes or services that may be of interest to them.

You can withdraw consent or ‘opt out’ of receiving these emails and/or texts at any time by contacting us (see ‘Contact us’ below).

3.2 Use of your child’s personal data in automated decision making and profiling

We do not currently process any personal data through automated decision making or profiling. If this changes in the future, we will amend any relevant privacy notices in order to explain the processing to you, including your right to object to it.

4. Our lawful basis for using this data

Our lawful bases for processing your child’s personal data for the purposes listed in section 3 above are as follows:

• For the purposes of a,b,c,d,f and h section 3 above, in accordance with the ‘public task’ basis – we need to process data to fulfil our statutory function.
• For the purposes of a, b,d,e,f and h from section 3 above, in accordance with the ‘legal obligation’ basis – we need to process data to meet our responsibilities under law.
• For the purposes of c and g from section 3 above, in accordance with the ‘consent’ basis – we will obtain consent from you to use your child’s personal data.
• For the purposes of d, in accordance with the ‘vital interests’ basis – we will use this personal data in a life-or-death situation.
• For the purposes of c and e from section 3 above, in accordance with the ‘contract’ basis – we need to process personal data to fulfil a contract with your child or to help them enter into a contract with us.
• For the purposes of a, b, c.d. e, f and h from section 3 above, in accordance with the ‘legitimate interests’ basis – where there’s a minimal privacy impact and we have a compelling reason.

Where you have provided us with consent to use your child’s data, you may withdraw this consent at any time. We will make this clear when requesting your consent, and explain how you would go about withdrawing consent if you wish to do so.

4.1 Our basis for using special category data

For ‘special category’ data, we only collect and use it when we have both a lawful basis, as set out above, and one of the following conditions for processing as set out in UK data protection law:

• We have obtained your explicit consent to use your child’s personal data in a certain way
• We need to perform or exercise an obligation or right in relation to employment, social security or social protection law
• We need to protect an individual’s vital interests (i.e. protect your child’s life or someone else’s life), in situations where you’re physically or legally incapable of giving consent
• The data concerned has already been made manifestly public by you
• We need to process it for the establishment, exercise or defence of legal claims
• We need to process it for reasons of substantial public interest as defined in legislation
• We need to process it for health or social care purposes, and the processing is done by, or under the direction of, a health or social work professional or by any other person obliged to confidentiality under law
• We need to process it for public health reasons, and the processing is done by, or under the direction of, a health professional or by any other person obliged to confidentiality under law
• We need to process it for archiving purposes, scientific or historical research purposes, or for statistical purposes, and the processing is in the public interest

For criminal offence data, we will only collect and use it when we have both a lawful basis, as set out above, and a condition for processing as set out in UK data protection law. Conditions include:

• We have obtained your consent to use it in a specific way
• We need to protect an individual’s vital interests (i.e. protect your child’s life or someone else’s life), in situations where you’re physically or legally incapable of giving consent
• The data concerned has already been made manifestly public by you
• We need to process it for, or in connection with, legal proceedings, to obtain legal advice, or for the establishment, exercise or defence of legal rights
• We need to process it for reasons of substantial public interest as defined in legislation

5. Collecting this data

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

Whenever we seek to collect information from you, we make it clear whether you must provide this information (and if so, what the possible consequences are of not complying), or whether you have a choice.

Most of the data we hold about your child will come from you, but we may also hold data about your child from:

• Local authorities
• Government departments or agencies
• Police forces, courts, tribunals

6. How we store this data

We keep personal information about your child while they are attending our school. We may also keep it beyond their attendance at our school if this is necessary. Our record retention schedule sets out how long we keep information about pupils. This is available on request from the school office:

office@st-johns-maidstone.kent.sch.uk

We have put in place appropriate security measures to prevent your child’s personal information from being accidentally lost, used or accessed in an unauthorised way, altered or disclosed.

We will dispose of your child’s personal data securely when we no longer need it.

7. Who we share data with

We do not share information about your child 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 UK data protection law), we may share personal information about your child with:

• Our local authority, Kent County Council (e.g. to meet our legal obligations to share certain information with it, such as safeguarding concerns and information about exclusions, admissions)
• The Department for Education (e.g. attainment)
• The pupil’s family and representatives (e.g. attendance)
• Educators and examining bodies (e.g. SATS test papers)
• Our regulators Ofsted, DFE and the ESFA (e.g. pupil data)
• Suppliers and service providers (e.g. sports coaches, school catering contractors, school milk providers and photographer, Wonde)
• Central and local government (e.g. attainment)
• Health authorities, NHS (e.g. immunisations)
• Health and social welfare organisations (e.g. social services)
• Professional advisers, bodies and consultants (e.g. Educational psychologist)
• Police forces, courts, tribunals (e.g. in relation to safeguarding)
• Collaborating schools for moderating purposes
• Our auditors
• Survey and research organisations
• Security organisations
• Charities and voluntary organisations
• Carefully chosen software providers for educational assessment or contact purposes
• Destination schools for children leaving St John’s Primary School

National Pupil Database

We are required to provide information about pupils 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.

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 the NPD with third parties, such as other organisations which promote children’s education or wellbeing in England. These third parties must agree to strict terms and conditions about how they will use the data.

For more information, see the Department for Education’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.

7.1 Transferring data internationally

We may share personal information about your child with following examples of international third parties, where different data protection legislation applies:

• Other schools or educational establishments where children have transferred to
• Government departments or agencies
• App or cloud server providers

Where we transfer your child’s personal data to a third-party country or territory, we will do so in accordance with UK data protection law.

In cases where we have to set up safeguarding arrangements to complete this transfer, you can get a copy of these arrangements by contacting us.

8. Your rights

8.1 How to access personal information that we hold about your child

You have a right to make a ‘subject access request’ to gain access to personal information that we hold about your child.

If you make a subject access request, and if we do hold information about your child, we will (subject to any exemptions that apply):

• 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

You may also have the right for your child’s personal information to be transmitted electronically to another organisation in certain circumstances.

If you would like to make a request, please contact us (see ‘Contact us’ below).

8.2 Your right to access your child’s educational record

As a parent of a pupil attending an academy there is no automatic parental right of access to educational records in our setting. However, we would consider any parental request for such access and decide whether it is appropriate to grant the request on a case by case basis.

8.3 Your other rights regarding your child’s data

Under UK data protection law, you have certain rights regarding how your child’s personal data is used and kept safe. For example, you have the right to:

• Object to our use of your child’s personal data
• Prevent your child’s data being used to send direct marketing
• Object to and challenge the use of your child’s personal data for decisions being taken by automated means (by a computer or machine, rather than by a person)
• In certain circumstances, have inaccurate personal data corrected
• In certain circumstances, have the personal data we hold about your child deleted or destroyed, or restrict its processing
• Withdraw your consent, where you previously provided it for the collection, processing and transfer of your child’s personal data for a specific purpose
• In certain circumstances, be notified of a data breach
• Make a complaint to the Information Commissioner’s Office
• Claim compensation for damages caused by a breach of the data protection regulations

To exercise any of these rights, please contact our Headteacher, Mr D Smith, (see ‘Contact us’ below).

9. 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.

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

• Report a concern online at https://ico.org.uk/make-a-complaint/
• Call 0303 123 1113
• Or write to: Information Commissioner’s Office, Wycliffe House, Water Lane, Wilmslow, Cheshire, SK9 5AF

10. 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.

Our data protection officer is:

• sps-dpo-services@isystemsintegration.com
• Correspondence address – SPS DPO Services, iSystems Integration, Devonshire House, 29-31 Elmfield Road, Bromley, Kent BR1 1LT

However, our Headteacher Mr D Smith has day-to-day responsibility for data protection issues in our school.

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

• headteacher@st-johns-maidstone.kent.sch.uk