Privacy Notice for Pupils and Parents / Carers (How we use pupil and family information – Early years)

Under Data Protection law, individuals have a right to be told how we use any of their personal data that we hold. 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 children in our school and their families. We, the Forest Alliance of Nursery Schools, are the ‘Data Controller’ for the purposes of Data Protection law. Our Data Protection Officer is Alison Emmett (see ‘Contact us’ below).

The categories of information that we collect, hold and share include:

• Personal information (such as name, unique pupil number, contact details and address)
• Characteristics (such as ethnicity, language and free school meal eligibility)
• Safeguarding information (such as court orders and professional involvement)
• Attendance information (such as sessions attended, number of absences and absence reasons)
• Assessment and attainment information
• Medical and administration (such as doctor's information, child health, dental health, allergies, medication and dietary requirements)
• Special Education Needs information (including the needs and ranking)
• Exclusions/behavioural information (such as exclusions and any relevant alternative provision put in place)
• Personal information about a pupil’s parents and/or other friends or relatives (such as name, contact details, bank details, relationship to child, emergency contacts)
• Photographs
• CCTV images captured in school

Why we collect and use this information

We use the pupil data:

• to support pupil learning
• to monitor and report on pupil progress
• to provide appropriate pastoral care
• to assess the quality of our services
• to keep children safe (food allergies, or emergency contact details)
• to meet the statutory duties placed upon us for DfE data collections
• to comply with the law regarding data sharing
• to share data for statutory inspections and audit purposes
• to claim Funded Early Learning funding for eligible 2-, 3- and 4-year-olds and if applicable the Early Years Pupil Premium for eligible 3- & 4-year-olds
• to check your child’s entitlement for Free School Meals
• to process payments for schools services
• to administer school catering
• to administer admissions waiting lists
• to administer school trips and activities
• to tell parents and carers about events happening in and organised by school
• to run our parent-school organisation, Friends of FANS
• to maintain safeguarding practice and ensure security compliance

Under the UK General Data Protection Regulation (UK GDPR), the lawful bases we rely on for processing pupil and parental/carer information are:

• The Education Act (various years)
• The Education (Pupil Registration) (England) Regulations
• The School Standards and Framework Act 1998
• The School Admissions Regulations 2012
• Children and Families Act 2014
• The Special Educational Needs and Disability Regulations 2014
• Article 6, and Article 9 (GDPR) – from 25 May 2018 (includes special category data)

The DfE processes census data under the various Education Acts – find more information on the government website.

Collecting pupil and family information

The majority of pupil information that families give us is mandatory - you have to tell us. However, you provide some information by choice. In order to comply with the General Data Protection Regulation, we tell you:

• what you have to share with us, and
• what you can choose to share or not share.

Storing pupil and family data

We hold pupil data for varying lengths of time, depending on what the information is. How long we keep which data is set out in our school Data Retention Schedule. You can read this in the 'Data and communication' section of the Our policies page.

Who we share pupil and family information with

We routinely share pupil and family information with:

• schools that the pupils attend after leaving us
• our local authority (Waltham Forest Council). As your childcare provider, it is our responsibility to forward your child’s registration details to the Local Authority (LA): London Borough of Waltham Forest.
• the Department for Education (DfE)
• another setting the child attends/has attended: the number of FEEE hours previously claimed for a child to avoid double funding claims for the same child.
• Organisations we work with if we are making an assessment of any Special Educational Needs and/or Disabilities (SEND) a child may have: the NHS (the appropriate Health Visitor, an Educational Psychologist who visits us regularly, and doctors, other Educational Psychologists, Speech and Language Therapists, Occupational Therapists, Physiotherapists and any other health professionals based at Wood Street Health Centre), and specialist teachers based at Whitefield School, Brookfield House School, and Joseph Clark School.
• The Local Authority, who monitor the number of statutory EYFS 2 year progress checks and 2 year Integrated Reviews completed across the city and by area. This informs the development of Early Years Quality Improvement programmes, including moderation activity and future targeted and universal support to providers.
• The Local Authority and the Greater London Authority, so they can assess and plan early years childcare places and services offered throughout the city to meet the needs of children and their families. Families with children taking up Funded Early Learning will be registered by the Local Authority with their local Children and Family Centre if they have not previously registered.

Why we share pupil and family information

We do not share information about our pupils or their families with anyone without their consent, unless the law and our policies allow us to do so.

We share pupils’ data with the Department for Education (DfE) on a statutory basis. This data sharing underpins our school funding and educational attainment policy and monitoring.

We are required to share information about our pupils with our local authority (LA) and the Department for Education (DfE) under section 3 of The Education (Information About Individual Pupils) (England) Regulations 2013.

We also share information with organisations processing information to administer children’s services. These may include:

• Office for Standards in Education, Children's Services and Skills (Ofsted) Ofsted assesses the quality of children’s services for each local authority. It regulates the services being provided in the care of children and young people. Ofsted doesn’t process any information about individual children, but it does use information about the achievement of groups of children to help make decisions about the quality of education in Early Years Settings.

Data collection requirements:

An example of the data collection the Department for Education requires us to do is the school census. To find out more, go to the 'data collection and censuses for schools' page of the government website.

The National Pupil Database (NPD)

The NPD is owned and managed by the Department for Education (DfE) and contains information about pupils in schools in England. It provides invaluable evidence on educational performance to inform independent research, as well as studies commissioned by the Department. 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.

We are required by law, to provide information about our pupils to the DfE as part of statutory data collections such as the school census and early years’ census. Some of this information is then stored in the NPD. The law that allows this is the Education (Information About Individual Pupils) (England) Regulations 2013.

To find out more about how the NPD uses data, read their Privacy Notice.

The department may share information about our pupils from the NPD with third parties who promote the education or well-being of children in England by:

• conducting research or analysis
• producing statistics
• providing information, advice or guidance

The DfE has robust processes in place to ensure the confidentiality of our data is maintained and there are stringent controls in place regarding access and use of the data. Decisions on whether DfE releases data to third parties are subject to a strict approval process and based on a detailed assessment of:

• who is requesting the data
• the purpose for which it is required
• the level and sensitivity of data requested: and
• the arrangements in place to store and handle the data

Organisations must comply with strict terms and conditions before the DfE grants them access to pupil information. These cover:

• confidentiality and handling of the data
• security arrangements, and
• retention and use of the data.

Find out more about how the DfE shares information on the 'How Department for Education shares personal data' page.

Read the list of organisations the DfE has agreed to share pupil information with and why.

The Contact the DfE page explains how to get in touch. There are different contacts for different issues.

Requesting access to your personal data

Under data protection legislation, parents and pupils have the right to request access to information about them that we hold. To make a request for your personal information, or be given access to your child’s educational record, contact the School Business Manager via Hasina.Rashid@churchhill.waltham.sch.uk.

You also have the right to:

• object to processing of personal data that is likely to cause, or is causing, damage or distress
• prevent processing for the purpose of direct marketing
• object to decisions being taken by automated means
• in certain circumstances, have inaccurate personal data rectified, blocked, erased or destroyed; and
• claim compensation for damages caused by a breach of the Data Protection regulations

If you would like to make a request relating to any of the rights above please contact the school email address as above.

If you have a concern about the way we are collecting or using your personal data, please talk to us about it soon and first. You can contact the Information Commissioner's Office  at any time.

Contact us

If you would like to talk about anything in this privacy notice, please contact our Data Protection Officer, Alison Emmett. Email admin@fans.waltham.sch.uk with the subject 'FAO Data Protection Officer'.