Lancaster Royal
Grammar School

Privacy Policy

Schools require information about pupils for many purposes including for your safety and welfare, behaviour and academic performance.

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

  • Personal information (such as name, unique pupil number and address)
  • Characteristics (such as ethnicity, language, nationality, country of birth and free school meal eligibility)
  • Attendance information (such as sessions attended, number of absences and absence reasons)
  • Schools you attended before
  • Behavioural records including exclusions
  • Medical details
  • Academic records such as examination results
  • Special Educational needs information
  • Post 16 learning information
  • Video conference recordings

The categories of pupil’s family information that we collect and hold include:

  • Contact and emergency contact details

For some parents we may request and hold:

  • Financial details
  • Tax details
  • Parental health
  • Driving Licence
  • Employment status
  • Crimincal convictions

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 comply with the law regarding data sharing
  • to assist with the adminintation of school photographs

We use the pupil’s family data:

  • to maintain contact

For some parents we may use parents’ data:

  • For financial payments
  • For volunteer roles

The lawful basis on which we use this information

We collect and use pupil information under Article 6 of the General Data Protection Regulations for the performance of a task carried out in the public interest. In addition, under Article 9 of GDPR we will collect your biometric data with your parents' permission for the purposes of administering the canteen system.

Collecting pupil information

Whilst the majority of pupil information you provide to us is mandatory, some of it is provided to us on a voluntary basis. In order to comply with the General Data Protection Regulation, we will inform you whether you are required to provide certain pupil information to us or if you have a choice in this.

Storing pupil data

We hold pupil data for the time you are in school. Once you have left school we have been advised by Ofsted to retain your information for 80 years in case of legal claims.

Who we share pupil information with

We routinely share pupil information with:

  • schools that the pupil’s attend after leaving us
  • our local authority
  • the Department for Education (DfE)
  • the school nursing service (NHS)
  • The School Photography Company
  • Computer software companies which provide educational services to the school. Details of which may be obtained from the data protection officer.
  • The Police
  • Children’s Social Care
  • the National Health Service including NHS commissioned services
  • the multi agency safeguarding hub
  • the child and family wellbeing service
  • Statutory agencies and other services in relation to our safeguarding duty

Why we share pupil information

We do not share information about our pupils with anyone without 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 school funding and educational attainment policy and monitoring.

We are required to share information about our pupils with the (DfE) under regulation 5 of The Education (Information About Individual Pupils) (England) Regulations 2013.

To carry out our safeguarding duty, for us to receive advice to enable us to better safeguard pupils and for us to make referrals to services.

Data collection requirements:

To find out more about the data collection requirements placed on us by the Department for Education (for example; via the school census) click here.

Youth support services

Pupils aged 13+

Once our pupils reach the age of 13, we also pass pupil information to our local authority and/or provider of youth support services as they have responsibilities in relation to the education or training of 13-19 year olds under section 507B of the Education Act 1996.

This enables them to provide services as follows:

  • youth support services
  • careers advisers

A parent or guardian can request that only their child’s name, address and date of birth is passed to their local authority or provider of youth support services by informing us. This right is transferred to the child / pupil once he/she reaches the age 16.

Pupils aged 16+

We will also share certain information about pupils aged 16+ with our local authority and / or provider of youth support services as they have responsibilities in relation to the education or training of 13-19 year olds under section 507B of the Education Act 1996.

This enables them to provide services as follows:

  • post-16 education and training providers
  • youth support services
  • careers advisers

For more information about services for young people, please visit our local authority website.

The National Pupil Database (NPD)

The NPD is owned and managed by the Department for Education 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.

Click here to find out more about the NPD.

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 Department 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

To be granted access to pupil information, organisations must comply with strict terms and conditions covering the confidentiality and handling of the data, security arrangements and retention and use of the data.

For more information about the department’s data sharing process, please click here.

For information about which organisations the department has provided pupil information, (and for which project), please visit this website.

To contact DfE click here.

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 our data protection officer Dr David Rowe.

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 have a concern about the way we are collecting or using your personal data, we request that you raise your concern with us in the first instance. Alternatively, you can contact the Information Commissioner’s Office here.  

 

Contact LRGS: If you would like to discuss anything in this privacy notice, please contact the data protection officer Dr. David Rowe.

Privacy Notice for alumni, parents, donors and other members of the wider school community

Lancaster Royal Grammar School (LRGS) takes the security of your data seriously. We have internal policies and controls in place to ensure that your data is not lost, accidentally destroyed, misused or disclosed, or subject to unauthorised access. Where necessary, we implement appropriate network access controls, user permissions and encryption to protect data. Where we engage third parties to process personal data on our behalf, they do so on the basis of written instructions, are under a duty of confidentiality and are obliged to implement appropriate technical and organisational measures to ensure the security of data. We have put in place procedures to deal with any suspected data security breach and will notify you and any applicable regulator of a suspected breach where we are legally required to do so. Where we share data with an organisation that is based outside the European Economic Area, we will protect your data by following data protection law.

Summary for data of alumni and other members of the wider school community

Lancaster Royal Grammar School (LRGS) supports a global community of alumni. In order to inform and engage alumni in a bespoke manner, the school processes personal data. This helps to ensure alumni get the best information and contact available and also helps us, where appropriate, to ask for your support with the things we believe you care about. Prior to you leaving the school as a pupil we will write to you to ask whether you wish to be contacted by the school in the future as an alumnus. Data regarding alumni (including whether they wish to be contacted by the school in the future) is held on a specific alumni database. This privacy notice relates to these records. It does not apply to records created whilst a student is on roll at LRGS. As an alumnus or friend of the school, you may wish to make a donation to the school in the future. Where this is the case you will also be classified as a donor. There is a separate donor privacy notice (below) that provides information regarding how this specific data is held. The personal data we hold for former pupils As a former student of LRGS, some of the personal data that we hold about you is transferred from your paper or electronic student record to the school’s alumni database.

This personal data will have been collected from your initial registration and time at school and may include:

  •  Your name, title, gender, and date of birth
  • Your home or parental address, email address and telephone numbers
  • Your familial relationships (parents, grandparents and siblings)
  •  Subjects studied, boarding house if appropriate and achievements (sports, music, etc.)
  • Start and end dates and destination upon leaving.
  • Contact details updates, occupation, event registration and careers volunteer activity.
  • Whether you have consented to be contacted as an alumnus by telephone, email or post to enable us to comply with current data protection legislation.

Please note that for alumni, we use our legitimate interests as the legal basis to process your data and contact you. We may hold personal data relating to your professional history. This data may have been provided by you, or it may have been obtained from social media (e.g. LinkedIn, Facebook) or publicly available sources. It may include:

  •  Your employment status (e.g. part-time, full-time, retired).
  • Your current job title and work email address.
  • Your current and past employers, name, address and telephone number.
  • The dates that you have been employed in any particular role.
  • Your previous role(s) and job title.

The personal data we hold for members of the wider school community

This personal data will have been collected from you and may include:

  • Your name, title, gender, and date of birth
  • Your home or parental address, email address and telephone numbers
  • Contact details updates, occupation, event registration and careers volunteer activity
  • Whether you have consented to be contacted as an alumnus by telephone, email or post to enable us to comply with current data protection legislation. We may hold personal data relating to your professional history. This data may have been provided by you, or it may have been obtained from social media (e.g. LinkedIn, Facebook) or publicly available sources. It may include:
  • Your employment status (e.g. part-time, full-time, retired)
  • Your current job title and work email address

Why we use this data? We use this information to:

  • Send school and alumni news
  • Publicise events
  • Recruit volunteers and mentors
  • Make fundraising appeals by email, direct mail, telephone and face-to-face meetings and ensure that we only send you communications about events or fundraising appeals that would be of interest to you.

Our lawful basis for using this data
We will process the personal information you provide for our legitimate interests and to enhance the experience of both our alumni and potentially our current students. This includes contacting you about relevant news and events.

How we store, access and protect your data

Personal data of alumni and members of the wider community is stored in one of the school’s third-party databases. Access to personal data is restricted to those members of staff who have a requirement to maintain a relationship with you, and is controlled through password protection and user security profiles. All school employees, contractors and volunteers who are given access to personal data receive mandatory data protection training and have a contractual responsibility to maintain confidentiality. LRGS considers its relationship with alumni to be life-long. This means that we will maintain a record for you until such time as you tell us that you no longer wish us to keep in touch. In this instance we will delete the majority of your personal data, but will maintain basic personal data to ensure that we do not inadvertently create a new record in the future.

Data Sharing

Alumni data may be shared with other departments of the school and with the Old Lancastrian Club to help promote closer links between the school, its former students, staff and the Old Lancastrian Club. We will not disclose your details to external organisations or individuals other than those working on behalf of the school or unless the law requires us to do so.

Requesting access to your personal data

Under data protection legislation, you have the right to request access to information about you that we hold. To make a request for your personal information, contact the data protection officer  Dr. David Rowe.

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 regulation

If you have a concern about the way we are collecting or using your personal data, we ask that you raise your concern with us in the first instance. Alternatively, you can contact the Information Commissioner’s Office.

Summary for Donors

This privacy notice explains how we use your data, how you can control the way in which we use that data and what actions you can take if you would like to change the way in which your data is being used. Donations to Lancaster Royal Grammar School Charity are received to benefit students at Lancaster Royal Grammar School. These donations are processed by the Lancaster Royal Grammar School Charity (Registered Charity 526602). To manage its records, a database is utilised.

How we gather information

Data is collected and updated from information provided by donors when making a donation. In some cases, we may supplement the information you have given us with data from elsewhere. Examples could include conducting appropriate due diligence to safeguard the reputation of Lancaster Royal Grammar School in the case of significant financial transactions. Sources of data could include information gathered from a news article, online media, or publicly available directories or Companies House. The data we collect in relation to donors may include:

  •  Your bank account number, name and sort code (used for processing Direct Debits/Standing Order Mandates).
  •  Gift amount, purpose, date and method of payment including cheque numbers or payment references.
  • Tax status and Gift Aid Declaration information.
  • Your spouse/partner’s name.
  • Your contact details.
  • Record of verbal or email conversations/meetings including any personal interests which relate to financial gifts made to the school.

What we do with your data and our responsibilities

The law requires us to tell you the lawful basis upon which we process your data. The personal details held about you will only be used to process your donation in line with our financial regulations and update you on projects you have donated to or expressed an interest in. Many activities are carried out to fulfil an agreement, e.g. the processing of a donation.

Protecting your data

Your data is kept securely with appropriate security measures in place.

How long do we keep your data?

We will keep your data for as long as is needed to complete the task for which it was collected. Relationships between donors and a school are often long term ones, and so we expect to keep your data for as long as that relationship exists. Please note that we are legally obliged to keep certain types of data (e.g. Finance and Gift Aid) for specified periods of time.

Data Sharing

We will not share your data with third parties except where there is a legal obligation to do so, e.g. if you Gift Aid a donation, then we are required to tell HMRC the name and address of the donor and the date and amount of the donation. Our auditors will also inspect our records to ensure that donations are processed in line with the wishes of a donor. In all other cases, the law allows us to process your data if it is in our legitimate interests to do so, provided such processing is not overridden by your interests or your fundamental rights and freedoms. Practically speaking, this means that we carry out an exercise to check that we will not cause you harm by processing your data, that the processing is not overly intrusive and that we will only do so in a way which is described in the Privacy Notice.

Requesting access to your personal data

Under data protection legislation, you have the right to request access to information about you that we hold. To make a request for your personal information, contact the data protection officer Dr. David Rowe 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 have a concern about the way we are collecting or using your personal data, we ask that you raise your concern with us in the first instance. Alternatively, you can contact the Information Commissioner’s Office.

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