FAQ

Does this affect anything we would do in the classroom where we ask the class for any personal information?

For teachers GDPR shouldn't make a great deal of difference - but it may be that things you did before weren't actually good practice. As long as any information you ask for has a genuine purpose and is properly looked after there shouldn't be an issue. Some of the generic privacy impact statements on this site will cover many common situations.

I have used a USB drive to store all my teaching material for years, why can't I carry on using them in school?

We banned their use because of serious security concerns, and because we believe we have better alternatives available. Have a look at http://training.dret.tv for a number of help videos on alternatives to USB drives that are better and safer.

Does GDPR apply to paper records or is it only electronic ones?

It makes no difference. There are different problems in looking after paper records but the law is the same.

What about parent’s rights when their child is over 13?

Obviously a 13 year old now has a legal right over their data and we must respect that. We also need to consider other legislation and responsibilities - for example the legal duty of a parent or guardian to ensure their child attends school. For this reason, please always refer difficult choices to dataprotection@dret.co.uk so that we can be consistent in our responses. We will always seek to respect the rights of the individual in a way that allows us, and parents to discharge their responsibilities.

Should we remove progress data on our wall displays?

This is an example of a situation where there is a risk to privacy, but where we also need to consider the benefit of sharing the information, in a sensible way. Provided those wall-displays are located where only those that need to access the information come into contact with it (many schools use a blind to cover them when not in use) then our Privacy Impact Statement covers the situation. In general - if you feel that data protection is being used as an argument to stop us doing something is an entirely normal, lawful and sensible part of our work, then the rules are probably being interpreted wrong.

Will students sign their own medical plans over the age of 13?

Data protection legislation does not cancel out existing regulations. This is a good example of where the individual has a right to privacy over their information, but other obligations continue to apply.

Will students sign their own photo consent form over the age of 13?

We will continue to operate with the photo consent we collected for this academic year until 31 August. There will be new consent systems for the 2018-19 year.

Who is responsible for writing Privacy Impact Statements for our school?

Initially all will be written by the Data Protection Team - simply to ensure we keep a consistent approach. If someone had already taken an existing one and modified it, and then wanted to share it with us for checking that would save time.

If a parent contacts the school and asks for data about their child, can we still give that information?

Firstly, you need to check that the person asking for the data is who they say they are - the parent of the child. The best way to check is to call them back using the contact information that we hold for them in SIMS.

In short, the answer is yes you can still give a parent information about their child. As an educational provider we have a duty of care, and need to be able to do things with data that means we can provide an education to the child and ensure that they make good progress whilst attending a DRET school.

What should I do if a student specifically requests not to share information about them with their parents?

This is a data protection request and the set procedure must be followed. Please ask the student to submit this data protection request in writing and it must be then forwarded on by a member of staff to dataprotection@dret.co.uk or submitted using the form on gdpr.dret.cloud. The Data Protection Officer will then make a decision and respond back in a set amount of time.