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Privacy Notice

What Mount Pleasant Primary School, Local Authority and Welsh Government does with the Educational Information they hold on Children and Young People

Subject

To meet the requirements of the Data Protection Act 1998, schools are required to issue a Privacy Notice to children and young people and/or parents and guardians summarising the information held on record about children and young people, why it is held, and the third parties to whom it may be passed.

This Privacy Notice provides information about the collection and processing of children's or young people's personal and performance information by the Welsh Government, Newport City Council (LA) and Mount Pleasant Primary School.

The collection of personal information

The school collects information about children and their parents or legal guardians when children enrol at the school. The school also collects information at other key times during the school year and may receive information from other schools when children transfer.

The School processes the information it collects to administer the education it provides to children and young people. For example:

the provision of educational services to individuals;
monitoring and reporting on pupils' educational progress;
monitoring and reporting on pupil's conduct;
the provision of welfare, pastoral care and health services;
the giving of support and guidance to children and young people, their parents and legal guardians;
the organisation of educational events and trips;
the planning and management of the school.

Welsh Government and Local Authority (LA)

The Welsh Government receives information on school pupils normally as part of the Pupil Level Annual Schools Census (PLASC). The Welsh Government may receive information on children who attend LA funded early years provision in non-maintained settings. The Welsh Government uses this personal information for research (carried out in a way that ensures individual children and young people cannot be identified) and for statistical purposes, to inform, influence and improve education policy and to monitor the performance of the education service as a whole. Examples of the sort of statistics produced can be viewed at www.wales.gov.uk/statistics

The LA also uses the personal information collected to do research. It uses the results of this research to make decisions on policy and the funding of schools, to calculate the performance of schools and help them to set targets. The research is carried out in a way that ensures individual children and young people cannot be identified.

In addition the Welsh Government and LAs receive information regarding National Curriculum assessment and public examination results and attendance data at individual pupil level.

Personal information held

The sort of personal information that will be held includes:

personal details such as name, address, date of birth, identifiers and contact details for parents and guardians;
information on any special educational needs;
information on performance in internal and national assessments and examinations;
information on conduct and any disciplinary action taken;
information on the ethnic origin and national identity of children and young people (this is used only to prepare summary statistical analyses);
details about children's and young people's immigration status (this is used only to prepare summary statistical analyses);
medical information needed to keep children and young people safe while in the care of the school;
information on attendance and any disciplinary action taken;
information about the involvement of social services with individual children and young people where this is needed for the care of the child.

Organisations which may share personal information

Information held by the school, Early Years providers, LA and the Welsh Government on children and young people, their parents or legal guardians may also be shared with other organisations when the law allows, for example:

other education and training bodies, including schools, when children and young people are applying for courses or training, transferring schools or seeking guidance on opportunities;
bodies doing research for the Welsh Government, LA and schools/Early Years providers, as long as steps are taken to keep the information secure;
central and local government for the planning and provision of educational services;
social services and other health and welfare organisations where there is a need to share information to protect and support individual children and young people;
various regulatory bodies, such as ombudsmen and inspection authorities, where the law requires that information be passed on so that they can do their work;
the Office of National Statistics (ONS) in order to improve the quality of migration and population statistics

Children and young people 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." The presumption is that, by the age of 12, children and young people have sufficient maturity to understand their rights and to make an access request themselves if they wish. A parent would normally be expected to make a request on a child's behalf if the child is younger.

If you wish to access your personal data, or that of your child, then please contact the relevant organisation in writing. For those children and young people or parents where this is not practical, a hard copy can be obtained from the school.

Young people aged 14 or over

The information you supply will be used by the Chief Executive of the Skills Funding Agency, to issue you with a Unique Learner Number (ULN), and to create your Personal Learning Record. Further details of how your information is processed and shared can be found at the Learning Records Service website:

http://www.learningrecordsservice.org.uk

Other information

The Welsh Government, LA and school/Early Years provider place a high value on the importance of information security and have a number of procedures in place to minimise the possibility of a compromise in data security.

The Welsh Government, LA and school//Early Years provider will endeavour to ensure that information is kept accurate at all times. Personal information will not be sent outside the United Kingdom.

Your rights under the Data Protection Act 1998

The Data Protection Act 1998 gives individuals certain rights in respect of personal information held on them by any organisation. These rights include:

the right to ask for and receive copies of the personal information held on yourself, although some information can sometimes be legitimately withheld;
the right, in some circumstances, to prevent the processing of personal information if doing so will cause damage or distress;
the right to ask for wrong information to be put right;
the right to seek compensation if an organisation does not comply with the Data Protection Act 1998 and you personally suffer damage;
in some circumstances, the parent or legal guardian of a child or young person may have a right to receive a copy of personal data held about a child/young person in their legal care. Such cases will be considered on an individual basis where the individual concerned is deemed to have insufficient understanding of their rights under the Act.

You also have the right to ask the Information Commissioner, who enforces and oversees the Data Protection Act 1998, to assess whether or not the processing of personal information is likely to comply with the provisions of the Act.

Seeking further information

For further information about the personal information collected and its use, if you have concerns about the accuracy of personal information, or wish to exercise your rights under the Data Protection Act 1998, you should contact:

the school on 01633 894820;
your LA on (01633) 656656;
the Welsh Government's data protection officer at the Welsh Government, Cathays Park, Cardiff, CF10 3NQ;
the Information Commissioner's office help line on 01625 545 745 or 0303 123 1113;
information is also available from www.ico.gov.uk.