Data Protection Act

Heighington C E Primary School

Hopelands
Heighington
Tel 01325 300326

September 2008

Dear Parents

Data Protection Act 1998 – Notice to Pupils and Parents/Carers

Heighington C E Primary School processes personal data about its pupils and is a “data controller” in respect of this for the purposes of the Data Protection Act 1998. It processes this data to:

·         support its pupils’ teaching and learning;

·         monitor and report on their progress;

·         provide appropriate pastoral care, and

·         assess how well the school as a whole is doing.

This data includes contact details, national curriculum assessment results, attendance information, pupil characteristics such as ethnicity, special educational needs and any relevant medical information.

This data may only be used or passed on for specific purposes allowed by law.  From time to time the school is required to pass on some of this data to local authorities, the Department for Children, Schools and Families (DCSF), and to agencies that are prescribed by law, such as the Qualifications and Curriculum Authority (QCA), Ofsted, the Learning and Skills Council (LSC), the Department of Health (DH), Primary Care Trusts (PCT) and ContactPoint. All these are data controllers in respect of the data they receive, and are subject to the same legal constraints in how they deal with the data.

The Governing Body of a maintained school in England is also required by law to supply basic information to ContactPoint.  This includes the name and address of the child, contact details for their parents (or carer with parental responsibility) and the contact details of the school.

The Fair Processing Notice has been prepared at a time of change with the restructuring of the Department for Education and Skills and the Department of Trade and Industry into three new Departments: the Department for Children, Schools and Families (DCSF), the Department for Innovation, Universities and Skills (DIUS) and the Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulator Reform (DBERR).  It may be that steps will be taken to enable the DCSF to match individual pupil information with higher and further education attainment data held by the DIUS.

Data subject have certain rights under the Data Protection Act, including a general right to be given access to personal data held about them by any data controller.  A parent would normally be expected to make an access request on a child’s behalf if they are aged under 12 years.  If you wish to access the personal data of your child, then please contact the relevant organization in writing.  Details of these organizations can be found on the school’s website at http://www.heighington.ik.org  or at: http://www.darlington.gov.uk/Education/Schools/School+Management+Services/personaldata.htm or for those pupils/parents where this in not practical, a printed copy can be obtained by contacting the school.

Your attention is drawn to the more detailed version of this Fair Processing Notice, which gives supplementary information about the process of pupil data by the organizations mentioned above, and gives greater details of how the pupil data is processed and the rights of the parents and pupils.  Copies of this supplementary version can be obtained from the school on request or viewed at the school’s website http://www.heighington.ik.org or at: http://www.darlington.gov.uk/Education/Schools/School+Management+Services/personaldata.htm.

Yours sincerely

M N Parker
Headteacher

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