24 May
Dear Parent/Carer
General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR)
As you may be aware, there are new Data Protection regulations coming into effect on 25th May 2018 and we at Holy Trinity Catholic School have been working towards ensuring compliance with their requirements since May 2017 last year.
Our motto is Love to Learn and Learn to Love, we aim to provide a positive, aspirational learning environment to support all our students in improving their life chances. In order to achieve this we need to work in partnership with parents, students, governors, the Local Authority and carefully selected outside agencies.
For the purposes of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) we are the Data Controller and the personal data we hold is used to support teaching and learning, monitor and report on your child’s progress, provide appropriate pastoral care and assess how well your child is doing. Due to new GDPR regulations with effect from 25th May 2018, schools must now provide parents with an opportunity to opt in or out of certain data sharing. We will not give information about you to anyone outside the school without your consent unless the law and our statutory requirements permit it.
However, we are required by law to pass some of your information to the Local Authority (LA) and the Department for Education (DfE). If you would like more information about how the LA and/or DfE store and use this information please visit our school website ww.holytrc.bham.sch.uk.
What information is being collected and why?
We collect emergency contact information including names, addresses, mobile numbers and email addresses from you. We communicate school information via letter, school website, email, SMS text messaging and social media (Twitter). We collect ethnicity information, special education needs, meal preferences and travel arrangements for use in the Annual School Census and Local Authority data captures. We collect medical information and food allergy information in order to provide appropriate care within school. As part of our catering system, we enrol student finger data using a biometric sensor, which reads between 50 and 130 points on the finger and processes the result through a computer algorithm to output a reference number unique to your child and allows for cashless catering in the canteen. The biometric scans are used only in relation to school services and it is not possible to rebuild a forensic style ‘fingerprint’ from the data we collect nor is the data registered shared with any other agency or organisation.
We periodically collect Target and Assessment data in order to assess progress and identify additional areas of development that may be needed.
How is data collected?
We ask for Data Sheets and Consent Forms to be completed by parents. We can also receive electronic data transfers from previous primary schools via the DfE’s Secure Access site providing previous attendance history and KS2/Target data, etc. Staff complete digital marksheets to provide progress and assessment data, which is then reported to parents through school reports. Sometimes we also take picture of students in school and request permission to use these in school related activities.
How will the information be used?
We take your privacy seriously and data is only used in conjunction with providing the best possible care and education for your child. It is used to assess learning, to set up user accounts to assist with personalised learning, to facilitate home-school communication and emergency information so we can contact parents.
Who will it be shared with?
Any third party that we share you or your child’s data with has been rigorously checked by following our due diligence process. Currently we share information with some of the following organisations:
Contact Group (Call Parents), Bromcom (MIS and SMS service), DfE Secure Data site, Birmingham City Council LA, Oxford University Press (MyMaths), Mathswatch, PiXL, Pearson Education Ltd (ActiveLearn), RAISE Online, SISRA, Micro Librarian Systems, Microsoft (Office 365 and Email), Google (Google Classroom), Link2ICT (Internet Monitoring), Linguascope (Modern Foreign Languages), Renaissance Learning (Accelerated Reader), Reading Wise (Ideas Wise). We also work with various safeguarding organisations and social support agencies but we do not share your data indiscriminately with them and your consent will always be sought if it is necessary. Some of the organisations we work closely with are Barnardos, Spurgeons, Believe Project, Malachi, Community Paediatric Service, School Nursing Service, Pause, Living Well Consortium, CASS (Children’s Advice and Support Service), Education Welfare Team and Women’s Aid, Communication and Autism Team, Educational psychologist, Pupil & School support (access arrangement testing), Hearing and Visual impairment Team, Physical Difficulties Support Service. A full and up to date list can be found at any time on our school website www.holytrc.bham.sch.uk
We also request that all school staff are able to view your child’s medication requirements (e.g. allergy advice, asthma medication) and will seek your consent for this at the start of every school year. We believe this to be in the best interests of everyone, especially for the safety and welfare of your child at school. All information will remain confidential and will be securely stored and password protected. However, if you wish for this not to happen you do have the right to withdraw your consent.
We want to provide the best possible outcomes and bright futures for our students, therefore we also offer an information and advice service for all our students. Our school currently works with Careers2U for our external careers provision and your child will be asked by Careers2U for their explicit consent and permission for their information to be shared with them. If consent is withdrawn, Careers 2U will not be able to offer this service to your child.
We operate an ‘opt-in’ policy for many of these services (some are compulsory) but refusal to share information with any of them may have a negative effect on you and your child’s educational experience. We would like thank all our parents and carers you for your continued support and commitment in working with our school. We are happy to answer any further questions you may have. There will be more documents available soon including our updated Data Protection Policy and Privacy Notices. These will be available for viewing on the school website www.holytrc.bham.sch.uk and we encourage you to regularly check for updated documentation.
Please contact the Main School Office if you require hard copies of these documents or for any more information.
Yours sincerely,
Mr Crehan Mr McCaul
Headteacher GDPR Project Lead
