Privacy Notice

Our school needs to use data on students in order to be able to safeguard students and deliver the best education possible. Only essential data is held and there are clear processes in place that govern how we collect use, store and share the data.

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, are the ‘data controller’ for the purposes of data protection law.

Our Data Protection Officer (DPO) is Amy Brittan (see ‘Contact us’ below).

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 – for example other schools, the local council and the government.

This information includes but is not limited to:

Your contact details
Assessments of your work
Your attendance records
Your characteristics, e.g. your ethnic background or any special educational needs
Any medical conditions you have
Details of any behaviour issues or suspensions
Photographs
Details of where you go when you leave us at 16
CCTV images
Biometric Data (from your thumbprint) where consent has been given

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
Check how you’re doing in all subjects and work out whether you or your teachers need any extra help
Track how well the school as a whole is performing
Look after your wellbeing

Our legal basis for using this data

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 your interests (or someone else’s interest)

Where we have got permission to use your 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 using 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.

Our record retention schedule/records management policy is based on the Information and Records Management Society’s toolkit for schools and sets out how long we keep information about pupils.

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 the following bodies.

Who we share with	Why we share
Our local authority	To meet our legal duties to share certain information with it, such as concerns about students’ safety and suspensions.
The Department for Education	We have to do this by law. This data sharing underpins school funding, educational policy and funding.
Your family and representatives	To ensure that they know how you are doing and to protect your welfare.
Our own in-house Careers Advisor	To be able to offer you advice on your choices when you leave school.
Police forces, courts, tribunals and security services	As we are required to by law.
Educators and examining bodies	To ensure that you are entered for exams and your results are recorded.
Health and social welfare organisations	Such as the School Nurse and the Education Welfare Officer to help look after your health and wellbeing.
Our payment service providers	So that you can pay for meals, trips resources and activities.
Providers of electronic learning resources	To allow you to use their resources in class and at home.

National Student 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.

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.

Sharing by the Department for Education (DfE)

The law allows the Department to share students’ 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

More information about the Department’s NPD data sharing process can be found here.

Organisations fighting or identifying crime may use their legal powers to contact the DfE to request access to individual level information relevant to detecting that crime. Whilst numbers fluctuate slightly over time, the DfE typically supplies data on around 600 students per year to the Home Office and roughly 1 per year to the Police.

For information about which organisations the Department has provided student 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.

Youth support services

Once you reach the age of 13, we are legally required to pass on certain information about you to Somerset County Council Youth Support Services, as it has legal responsibilities regarding the education or training of 13-19 year-olds.

This information enables it to provide youth support services, post-16 education and training services, and careers advisers.

Your parents/carers, or you once you’re 16, can contact our Data Protection Officer to ask us to only pass your name, address and date of birth to Somerset County Council Youth Support Services.

Transferring data internationally

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

Your rights

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
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.

How to find out what personal information the 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 here.

You can contact the DfE here.

Your other rights over your data

You have other rights over how your personal data is used and kept safe, 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 used 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 here
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:

Amy Brittan DPO Schools - dposchools@somerset.gov.uk

Updated: June 2024

Crispin School