Explains the rules for schools on collecting data from various sources, such as feeder schools, and when they need parental consent
When students transition from one school to the other, (for example, moving from their primary school in Year 6 to their secondary school in Year 7), the school where the student previously attended is under a legal obligation to provide information about the student to their new school, in order to ensure that the transition is smooth, and that information that would be important for the receiving school to know is passed along.
For example, if a primary school was aware of important information about a student’s special needs, allergies, and strengths / weaknesses in different subjects, they would be expected to pass this on to the student’s new school.There are multiple ways in which this information can be passed on. Historically, this information might have been physically recorded in a students’ permanent file, which the law says must be passed from school to school when a child moves. In more recent years, this information has typically been gathered informally in the form of “transition meetings” where the staff of the two schools meet to discuss the students moving schools. In the case of the “transition tool” feature developed by Applicaa, this information is passed from one school to the next electronically.
We believe that because statutory guidance requires schools to pass this kind of information on from a students’ old school to the new one, and because it directly relates to the school’s primary task of providing the best education for each student, this type of data transfer qualifies as a “Public Task”, and as such does not require parental consent under GDPR legislation. (Similar types of data transfer which would also fall under this category would include a school sharing a students’ last school report with their new school, or information about a students’ attendance, both of which are regularly performed by schools without need for parental consent.
Other types of ‘public task’ data sharing affecting schools will include when schools provide their local NHS with the details of Year 9 students who are receiving HPV vaccines – which again does not require parental consent because the school is, in this case, needing to pass on the data in order to meet a statutory requirement.)We understand that schools must take care with how they process student data, and as such you will most likely not want to take our word for this.
We would encourage you to consult with your school’s designated Data Protection Officer, and take their advice with regards to the use of this tool. Should they have specific questions they would like to ask us, please do pass on the details of our Data Protection Officer, Geoff Corbie, who can be contacted at: geoff@applicaa.com