At the Central Region Schools Trust (the Trust), we are committed to protecting the privacy and data of our students. This Privacy Notice explains how we collect, store, and use personal data about pupils. The Trust is the ‘data controller’ for the purposes of data protection law, and each school's Principal/Head of School is responsible for ensuring compliance with the UK General Data Protection Regulation (UK GDPR) and Data Protection Act 2018 (DPA 2018). Our Data Protection Officer (DPO) oversees data protection compliance.

The personal data we hold

We hold some personal information about you to make sure we can help you learn and look after you.

For the same reasons, we get information about you from some other places too – like other schools, the local council and the government.

This information includes:

• your name, unique pupil number, address, date of birth, identification documents
• the name of your contacts along with their email address, telephone number and contact preference
• your test results and assessment details
• details of any behaviour issues or exclusions
• your attendance records
• information to help keep you safe
• details of support you may need

We may also collect, use, store and share (when appropriate) information about you that falls into "special categories" of more sensitive personal data. This includes information about (where applicable), but is not restricted to:

• your characteristics, like your ethnic background, language, if you have free school meals or any special educational needs
• any medical conditions you have
• photographs, videos and CCTV footage where used
• biometric data

Why we use this data
We use this data to help run the Trust including to:

• get in touch with you and your parents/carers when we need to
• check how you are doing in lessons and exams
• work out whether you or your teachers need any extra help
• track how well the Trust and its schools as a whole are performing
• look after your wellbeing

Our legal basis for using this data
We will only collect and use your information when the law allows us to. Most often, we will use your information where:

• we need to comply with the law
• we need to use it to carry out a task in the public interest (in order to provide you with an education)

Sometimes, we may also use your personal information where:

• you, or your parents/carers have given us permission to use it in a certain way
• we need to protect your interests (or someone else’s interest)

Where we have got permission to use your data, you or your parents/carers may withdraw this at any time. We will make this clear when we ask for permission and explain how to go about withdrawing consent.

Some of the reasons listed above for collecting and using your information overlap, and there may be several grounds which mean we can use your data.

Collecting this information
While in most cases you, or your parents/carers, must provide the personal information we need to collect, there are some occasions when you can choose whether or not to provide the data.

We will always tell you if it is optional. If you must provide the data, we will explain what might happen if you do not.

How we store this data
We will keep personal information about you while you are a pupil in our Trust. We may also keep it after you have left the Trust where we are required to by law.

We have a Records Management Policy which sets out how long we must keep information about pupils.

Your information is stored securely and at the end of the retention period is disposed of in a secure way. Our methods of disposal are in accordance with government guidance and are conducted in a way that ensures that reconstruction is highly unlikely.

Data sharing
We do not share personal information about you with anyone outside the Trust without permission from you or your parents/carers, unless the law and our policies allow us to do so.

Where it is legally required, or necessary for another reason allowed under data protection law, we may share personal information about you with:

• other schools in the Central Region Schools Trust
• schools that you go to after leaving us
• other education providers
• our local authority - to meet our legal duties to share certain information with it, such as concerns about pupils’ safety and exclusions
• the Department for Education (a government department)
• your family and representatives
• educators and examining bodies
• our regulator (the organisation or ‘watchdog’ that supervises us) - Ofsted 
• suppliers and service providers - so that they can provide the services we have contracted them for
• financial organisations
• central and local government
• our auditors
• survey and research organisations
• health authorities
• school nurse
• security organisations
• health and social welfare organisations
• professional advisers and consultants
• charities and voluntary organisations
• police forces, courts, tribunals
• professional bodies

National Pupil Database
We are required to provide information about you to the Department for Education as part of statutory data collections such as the school census. This data sharing underpins school funding and educational attainment policy and monitoring. We are required to share information about you with the Department for Education under regulation 5 of the Education (Information About Individual Pupils) (England) Regulations 2013.

To find out more about the pupil information we share with the department, for the purpose of data collections, go to https://www.gov.uk/education/data-collection-and-censuses-for-schools.

Some of this information is then stored in the National Pupil Database (NPD), which is owned and managed by the Department for Education and provides evidence on school performance to inform independent research, as well as studies commissioned by the Department of Education. The database is held electronically so it can easily be turned into statistics. The information is securely collected from a range of sources including schools, local authorities and exam boards.

To find out more about the NPD, go to https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/nationalstudent-database-user-guide-and-supporting-information

The Department for Education may share information from the NPD with other organisations who promote children’s education or wellbeing in England. Such organisations must agree to strict terms and conditions covering the confidentiality and handling of the data, security arrangements and retention and use of the data.

The Department for Education 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 the Department for Education 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

For more information about the Department for Education’s data sharing process, please visit:

https://www.gov.uk/data-protection-how-we-collect-and-share-research-data

For information about which organisations the Department for Education has provided pupil information, (and for which project), please visit the following website:

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/national-pupil-database-requests-received

To contact the Department for Education: https://www.gov.uk/contact-dfe

Youth support services
Once you reach the age of 13, we are legally required to pass on certain information about you to your local authority and/or provider of youth support services, as they have legal responsibilities regarding the education or training of 13-19 year olds.

This information enables it to provide youth support services, post-16 education and training services, and careers advisers.

Your parents/carers, or you, once you are 16, can contact our Data Protection Officer to ask us to only pass your name, address and data of birth to the local authority or post-16 education and training providers.

Transferring data internationally
Where we share data with an organisation that is based outside the UK, we will protect your data by following data protection law.

Your rights
How to access personal information we hold about you

You can find out if we hold any personal information about you, and how we use it, by making a Subject Access Request, as long as we judge that you can properly understand your rights and what they mean.

If we do hold information about you, we will:

• give you a description of it
• tell you why we are holding and using it, and how long we will keep it for
• explain where we got it from, if not from you or your parents
• tell you who it has been, or will be, shared with
• let you know if we are using your data to make any automated decisions (decisions being taken by a computer or machine, rather than by a person)
• give you a copy of the information

You may also ask us to send your personal information to another organisation electronically in certain circumstances.

If you want to make a request, please contact our Data Protection Officer.

Your other rights over your data
You have other rights over how your personal data is used and kept safe, including the right to:

• say that you do not want it to be used if this would cause, or is causing, harm or distress
• stop it being used to send you marketing materials Page 12 of 22
• say that you do not want it used to make automated decisions (decisions made by a computer or machine, rather than by a person)
• in certain circumstances, have it corrected, deleted or destroyed if it is wrong, or restrict our use of it
• claim compensation if the data protection rules are broken and this harms you in some way

Complaints
We take any complaints about how we collect and use your personal data very seriously, so please let us know if you think we have done something wrong.

You can make a complaint at any time by contacting our Data Protection Officer.

You can also complain to the Information Commissioner’s Office in one of the following ways:

• Report a concern online at https://ico.org.uk/concerns/
• Call 0303 123 1113
• Or write to: Information Commissioner’s Office, Wycliffe House, Water Lane, Wilmslow, Cheshire, SK9 5AF

Contact us.
If you have any questions, concerns or would like more information about anything mentioned in this Privacy Notice, please contact our Data Protection Officer via one of the methods below:

• Address: The Central Region Schools Trust, B.06 Assay Studios, 141-143 Newhall Street, Birmingham, B3 1SF
• Telephone number: 0121 270 3117
• Email: dpo@crst.org.uk