Happy Easter from all of us here at SchoolPro TLC!
Here is a summary of the latest updates and alerts for your organisation:
Important Alerts and Urgent Updates
- The DfE has released a couple of updates to the process that allows you to share your daily school attendance data.
- In February, they updated the list of data items in the ‘What data we need’ section, added information on school identifiable level data in the ‘How this data will be used’ section, and also updated the ‘data protection impact assessment (DPIA)’, ‘privacy notice’ and ‘data collection principles’ documents to reflect that this collection is now business as usual.
Sections 2 (a), 3 and 6 in the DPIA have been updated.
The data is being shared with schools, trusts and local authorities, with aggregated attendance statistics being published. - In March, they have added ‘date of birth’ to ‘We collect the following data items’.
- In February, they updated the list of data items in the ‘What data we need’ section, added information on school identifiable level data in the ‘How this data will be used’ section, and also updated the ‘data protection impact assessment (DPIA)’, ‘privacy notice’ and ‘data collection principles’ documents to reflect that this collection is now business as usual.
- The DfE have also updated the guidance for meeting digital and technology standards in schools. They have added the following new sections to the guidance which should be circulated to the relevant individuals and/or teams in your organisation:
- And, the DfE have also issued guidance on generative artificial intelligence in education.Â
The guidance makes it clear that the education sector must continue to protect its data, resources, staff and pupils, in particular:- Personal and sensitive data must be protected and therefore must not be entered into generative AI tools.
- Education institutions should review and strengthen their cyber security, particularly as generative AI could increase the sophistication and credibility of attacks.
- Education institutions must continue to protect their students from harmful content online, including that which might be produced by generative AI.
General Data Protection Updates
- The Regulatory Policy Committee has released its opinion on the DCMS’ Data Protection and Digital Information (No. 2) Bill.
- The ICO have launched a consultation on the draft guidance for ‘Likely to be accessed’ in the context of the Children’s code. The consultation closes on the 19th May 2023.
Latest SchoolPro TLC Information
- Our two main focuses for schools at the moment are:
- to ensure that staff have recent data protection training and also training in cyber security. We can provide onsite data protection training for you as well as remote via Teams or online through our training platform.
- to ensure that you have an up-to-date and accurate data map, a task made much easier using the data mapping tool in our new Data Protection Portal!
- With local elections coming up in May, we know that some schools may be used as Polling Stations. We have issued guidance regarding this before which you can find in our blog and you can also download our Polling Day Checklist.
- We’ve recently added job description responsibilities for data protection for roles within your organisation to our resource bank. These include responsibilities for TAs, Teachers, Administrators, SBMs, Headteachers, Governors, and more. They can be found in the ‘Templates’ folder in Global Documents where they can be adapted for your organisation and adopted in job descriptions.
- We have recently completed a carbon emissions audit of the company based on our 2021-22 financial year. This can be found on our Climate Commitment page or downloaded here.
- Introducing this month’s spotlight partner – rewilding, biodiversity and conservation project: WildStep. WildStep are a corporate partner of SchoolPro TLC and have also recently partnered with Derventio Education who offer a free sustainability audit tool to schools.
Further information on a range of data protection topics is available on our blog.
If you have any other questions, please contact us at DPO@schoolpro.uk.
SchoolPro TLC Ltd (2023)
SchoolPro TLC guidance does not constitute legal advice.
SchoolPro TLC is not responsible for the content of external websites.
