Education and lifelong learning privacy statement

Angus Council provides a range of education services for the Angus area. We manage nursery, primary, secondary and adult learning. Services are provided to support early learning and childcare and access to and inclusion in education. This notice provides details of what information we collect from you, what we do with it and who it might be shared with.

Why do we collect this information?

We need to process your data in order that we can provide services which are fit for purpose, efficient and effective whilst meeting our statutory and legal obligations. The information is being collected for the following purposes: 

  1. Enrolment
  2. Attendance
  3. Attainment
  4. Pastoral support
  5. Behaviour / Exclusions
  6. Child Protection
  7. Special Educational Needs
  8. Medical Information
  9. Excursions, Activities and Placements
  10. Digital Learning  
  11. Social (Photographs, Social Media, Newsletters, Award Ceremonies, Digital Information Screens, Surveys)
  12. Online school payments 

The legal basis for each purpose is set out below: 

Legal basis Purpose
Consent 9, 11
Performance of a contract  -
Legal obligation 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7
Vital interests 6, 8
Task carried out in the public interest 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 9, 10, 12
Legitimate interests  -


Where we are relying on legal obligation or task carried out in the public interest, below are the key pieces of legislation that apply: 

  • Education (Scotland) Act 1980
  • Education (Scotland) Act 2016
  • Education (Disability Strategies and Pupils' Educational Records)(Scotland) Act 2002
  • Education (Additional Support for Learning) (Scotland) Act 2004
  • Standards in Scotland’s Schools etc Act 2000
  • Children (Scotland) Act 1995
  • Equality Act 2010
  • Children and Young People (Scotland) Act 2014 

What information do we collect about you? 

The type of personal data we will collect includes your name, address and contact details. For nursery and school pupils, information will be obtained about relevant family members or carers, relevant medical conditions and any additional supports which are needed. We will collect personal data relating to special categories, such as ethnic group and religion. We need this information so the Council can ensure it is delivering services appropriately.

The information provided by you will be used by Angus Council to manage the education provided for you, or for a child for whom you have parental responsibility.

This may include information provided to allow us to provide a child with school meals, Education Maintenance Allowance or school clothing grants, as well as applications for Instrumental Music Tuition.

For nursery and school pupils, information will include data about progress and assessments. For school pupils, information will contain records of attendance, absence, and any exclusions and exam results. We need this information to understand how our pupils are progressing, and to assess how we can help them to achieve their potential.

Where learners leave our provision, information will be obtained about their next setting/school, career paths or intended destinations. We need this information to ensure we support our pupils/children in all their transitions and do all that we can to help their future be a success.

Where do we collect information from? 

We collect information from you using a variety of different methods, including when you complete one of our forms (such as a registration form for nursery, primary school or an adult learning course), an annual data check form from school, when you call, write, email or meet with us. We may also obtain information about you from other council services.

Where we receive pupil concern reports, the information we receive is provided by Police Scotland. Previous pupil record Information and information relating to pupils missing from education may come from other local authorities. This list is not exhaustive and we may on occasion receive information from other sources not listed above, for example other pupils, parents or members of the public.

Who might we share your information with? 

In so far and to the extent that we are permitted to do so by law, we may share information with our community partners such as NHS Tayside, the Scottish Children's Reporter Administration and Police Scotland. We share with other local authorities where children are transferring in/out of Angus Council.

We may share limited personal data with specialised groups who provide learning opportunities; school pupil management and information systems (such as SEEMIS and SEEMIS Messaging (Groupcall) for Parent Evening Booking Systems and for communications between school and parents/carers; Tayside Contracts which provides the school meals catering service; online learning platforms (such as Glow, Microsoft Office365, Google Education, Apple School), and Career Education Planning.

Schools may use apps and websites to enhance children’s learning and in those instances a Data Protection impact assessment is undertaken and appropriate safeguards are put in place.

Schools using SCHOLAR share pupils’ Scottish Candidate Number and Registration Class to Heriot-Watt University trading as SCHOLAR to host a Virtual Learning Platform which provides an improved education service and educational evaluations as well as for educational research purposes.

We are obliged to provide statistics to the Scottish Government biennially on attendance, absence and exclusions, annually for pupil census statistics and on attainment to help improve education across Scotland, and survey data of pupil health and wellbeing (with appropriate consents, commencing academic year 2021/22 – (survey approximately every three years thereafter).

The Scottish Government privacy notices can be viewed on the following link

Scottish Government privacy notices.

Senior Phase learner’s contact information and their main parent/carer contact information will be shared with Skills Development Scotland (SDS) under section 20 of the Post-16 Education (Scotland) Act 2013 to enable SDS

  • to monitor that young person’s involvement in education or training
  • to provide advice or support as regards that young person’s education or training
  • to exercise any of its other functions in relation to that young person

School leaver destinations are provided to Skills Development Scotland.

We will share information with inspections and scrutiny bodies such as Education Scotland. In addition, we share certain pupil or adult learner information with the Scottish Qualification Authority (SQA) in order that they can undertake assessments and qualifications. We may share information with colleges and universities, and with employers offering work placements to pupils, voluntary organisations, care providers or other bodies when it is necessary for us to do so in order to comply with our legal obligations.

We may share information with third parties who provide excursions and activities on our behalf.

Personal information may also be shared if it is necessary for us to do so in order to verify its accuracy, prevent or detect crime, protect public funds or where required by law. The Council may check information provided by you, or information about you provided by a third party, with other information held by us.

In order to promote the progress and achievement of pupils and learners, we may share information externally such as school websites, social media, newspapers and school / Council publications. Consent forms will be issued by schools.

For online school payments, limited information about you and your child(ren) will be provided to our provider, ParentPay, to provide a system of secure identitymatching for those wishing to register for an account. This allows you, if you choose, to create an account in their ParentPay system with which you can make payments for school-related items such as trips, school meals and other expenditure online.

We will never sell information to a third party.  

Will we send your information outwith the UK? 

Some of our learning apps and social media platforms transfer information out with the UK. Where this is the case a Data Protection Impact Assessment is undertaken and appropriate safeguards are put in place. This policy is continuously reviewed in line with the latest guidance from the Information Commissioner’s Office

How long do we retain your information?

We keep your information for as long as necessary to fulfil the purposes we collected it for. Angus Council uses the Scottish Council on Archives Records Retention Schedules to manage the length of time the Council keeps information. There are a number of schedules that cover the retention of educational records. Below is a summary of the key retention periods.  

Information relating to Length of time it is kept
Pupil Record Date of leaving school education plus 5 years (SCARRS 10.006.007)
Records surrounding Child Protection Date of Birth +75 years
Missing Children Referrals 5 years after case closed
Police concern reports 5 years after leaving date and then reviewed prior to destruction
Surveys 1 year and then anonymised
Course Choice 1 academic year
Digital Signage 1 academic year
School Lets 1 academic year
School Incident Forms 10 years from date of incident
Newsletters, Social Media and Promotional Apps and Awards Ceremonies  Permanently 
Excursions 3 years after the trip, 6 years plus current year for financial information
Online school payments Customer details are kept on iPayimpact for 6 years after leaving date.
Financial transactions on the iPayimpact system are kept for 7 years from the date of the transaction.
Adult learning Until superseded
School Library Systems 3 years after leaving date

 
Full details about the retention schedules for education can be accessed on the Scottish Council for Archives website

What are my rights in relation to the information held about me? 

You have the following rights: 

  • to see any information held about you by making a Subject Access Request
  • to withdraw consent at any time, where the legal basis for processing is consent
  • to request rectification or erasure of your information, where data protection legislation allows this

Further information on your rights is available on the Council’s full privacy statement.

Do I have to provide my personal data to you? 

Yes, in most cases in nursery, primary and secondary we are complying with legislation or legal requirement. We need this information to enable us to provide the best quality service. We need to have a way to correspond with you including in an emergency.

If we did not collect this information, we would be unable to meet our obligation or provide you with the services you and your child(ren) are entitled to.

However, you can choose not to register for online school payments.

For adult learning, you do not have to provide us with your personal data, but if you do not we will not be able to provide a learning service to you.

Identity and contact details of the Data Controller and the Data Protection Officer 

Angus Council is the data controller. The council has a Data Protection Officer who makes sure we respect your rights and follow the law. If you wish to discuss your information rights further, or are concerned about the use of your data please get in touch. To assist our information governance team in a first assessment of the issues at hand, please start by completing our enquiries form. You will then be contacted by someone from the team.

Data Protection Officer 

Data Protection Officer, Angus Council, Angus House, Orchardbank Business Park, Forfar, DD8 1AN 

Do I have a right to complain about the way information has been used? 

If you have a concern about the way we are collecting or using your personal data, please let us know by contacting us as above and we will try to resolve this. If you are still concerned, you can contact the Information Commissioner: 

Information Commissioner's Office

Wycliffe House

Water Lane

Wilmslow, Cheshire

SK9 5AF

https://ico.org.uk/

0303 123 1113 
 
This notice was last updated in May 2021