What would you think about this email from school? Sudden change of class teacher.

@GeneralPeter

Another problem with your demand for schools to share information with parents is that unscrupulous SLT would use it to put a cloud/shadow (whatever) over the teacher that has left.

I have known many teachers that have left, and SLT have just acted like they have disaapeared,
These are teachers of good standing, and frankly your damand/entitlement for more information would just give these nasty people more power to hurt those that have left.
Expeciially whne people like you are prepared to read far too much into any statement or non statement made.

You’ve in danger of winning a long-running argument with yourself, against a position I’m not making. A few more rounds and I think you’ll have it in the bag.

I'll take that as a 'no'.

You haven't, because using any phrase beyond 'they have left' gives more information about the person than any random parent is entitled to know - either due to the detail or the lack of it.

Anything more than the bare fact that they have left can be interpreted multiple ways, depending upon how the parent wishes to interpret it.

Yes I have.

There could be a number of reasons. I wouldn’t be getting my knickers in a twist about it though. Children learn from example and you can just say it’s sad but another good teacher will be teaching them and you will have good memories of Mr Smith and move on.

@Junglemoon when my daughter was in year 4 we got a call (no email then) to say our parents' evening was cancelled and that the teacher was going off that day. Poor lady had just had a breast clinic appointment and discovered she had breast cancer. Things do really happen that quickly!
She gave permission for the reason to be given but had she not then that's her right. The replacement teacher was lovely. She was off nearly a year with treatment, obviously my daughter moved up a class in that time. You just have to be upbeat for your children with whatever is appropriate. Life happens.

I gave notice but had to leave suddenly for health reasons. I was signed off by the doctor until my leaving date but I never intended to go back. I don't know what the Head said about me, it was his bullying that made me ill.

If there had been an actual danger to your child's welfare you would have been told personally. There is no continuing danger to anyone as the teacher has left.

I love the people on here going "the poor kids not getting to say goodbye to a popular teacher, they should be told why he's left" and simultaneously "well he's obviously been let go because he's a peado"...

But you haven't offered an acceptable alternative to what the school did.

Poor chap, he could be seriously ill and you are moaning that you weren’t given notice?

sometimes people are so ill that they never can even clear their office, happened to exh, my dd cleared it. Just understand that schools are employers and have a duty of care to their employees to maintain confidentiality. It could be down the line more information is released in the case of illness but that is for the teacher to decide not the school

Safeguarding concerns about a teacher are usually not communicated to parents because the school has a legal duty to handle such matters confidentially while an investigation is ongoing. Under guidance like KCSIE, concerns are reported to appropriate authorities (such as the LADO or police), and sharing details prematurely could compromise the investigation or breach the staff member’s legal rights.

If it is a safeguarding concern, school’s priority is to protect children immediately, so any risk would be managed internally and with external agencies involved as needed. I resigned from a teaching position some years ago, nothing to do with safeguarding, and a fairy story was spun to parents about how I had to care for an elderly relative. I stayed until the end of the school year, too. No NDA but I didn’t want to badmouth the school.

Teachers go off sick all the time or genuinely have to care for relatives, and have a right to expect their health condition or family member’s health condition to be kept confidential. If it is a matter of misconduct related to the welfare of children the teacher should be dismissed and reported to the TRA, not managed out using a NDA.

Which data privacy right(s) are you discussing here?

It will never breach UK data protection law to share all the information you need to with an appropriate person or authority in order to safeguard a child. Consent is one lawful basis, but it is not required for sharing information in a safeguarding context. (That's from the ICO, not me). The parent is by default the child's data representative. Sharing information with a parent about a child's situation, in data law, is in that sense not even sharing with a third party.

There's either a welfare concern with the child (related to Mr Smith), or there is no such concern, or it's not yet known.

If there is... sharing of the information that there is a concern is highly unlikely to be a data protection breach. Even much more specific information is likely to have a lawful basis if the purpose is safeguarding. ICO spends quite a lot of effort dispelling the "GDPR Says No" idea in this area.

If there isn't.... absolutely no court or regulator anywhere is going to find that an individual (least of all Mr Smith) had their data rights infringed by a school saying: "there is nothing to suggest any welfare concern". What protected data of Mr Smith is disclosed there? That he's not a suspected abuser?

There might be reasons like avoiding prejudicing a criminal investigation. A NDA settlement agreement creating a contractural penalty for the school is another possibility, and shouldn't ever stand in the way of answering a reasonable safeguarding question like "is there a welfare concern related to my child?".

"its none of your business" is not only a reasonable response, its a legal response as well.

The school can’t tell you because teachers have the right to data privacy, as we all do.

You haven’t been reading my posts then.

Also, your position is bizarre:

”We wish him well” or “there is no cause for concern” is an unconscionable privacy violation.

Yet “It’s none of your business” is a normal reasonable response to a parent asking if there is a welfare concern with their child.

Is it reasonable to ask yes.

Is it reasoinable for schools to say anything other than its none of your business?
No its not.
You seem to be asking for schools to have some sort of code that circumvents other people's right to privacy.

You have no such entitlement.

@Cyclingmummy1 but if you want an example from another sector, based on the OP:

Your daughter regularly sees a doctor, without you present, as part of a long-running course of treatment. You get an unusually terse announcement to say he has left. It’s unexpected. Next time she attends the clinic she is met by a counsellor, without you. No explanation to you of why, and no reassurance that there is no welfare concern for your child.

In such a circumstance, is it reasonable for you to ask what has happened?

If it were your daughter in real life, would you in fact ask?

Don’t reply about how the clinic has a duty to protect privacy. I’m not asking about what the clinic should do in replying.

Don’t reply saying “you’re saying clinics must give full details of their staff’s personal lives whenever they move”. You know I’m not.

I’m asking about what steps you as a parent would take to check if your daughter is OK in that situation.

can you give another example where you feel it would be unreasonable for a customer not to have access to a service provider's personal circumstances?

You are having a completely phantom argument here. You are the one maintaining that the only way to reassure parents there is no welfare concern is by sharing personal staff details, not me.

Even when I suggest a form of words that you accept doesn’t do that.

Your objection to that privacy-safe wording then becomes “but then if there is a child welfare concern the parents might find out.”

Your objection is also to parents even asking questions if they are concerned about their child’s welfare. Not merely that the school must be mindful of privacy when responding.

It’s a pretty extreme position.

No one's privacy has been violated. There is not an acceptable comment because the absence of s comment then becomes an indication that there is an issue. 'No cause for concern' is fine until there is cause for concern when its absence tells you everything.

As for 'teacher privilege', can you give another example where you feel it would be unreasonable for a customer not to have access to a service provider's personal circumstances?

Re the first para: then you haven’t been understanding what I’ve been writing.

There are thousands of ways the school might have communicated in a way that indicates there’s no cause for concern. I’ve described it as “trivial”, a matter of a few words, I’ve suggested a few of those words. I’ve said I have no interest in knowing personal details of a teacher, only in knowing that nothing is seriously amiss, and only because I have a legitimate interest in welfare of my child.

You seem to be privileging “teacher privacy” to an absurd degree, if you see “we wish him well” as an unacceptable invasion of it. As for another alternative you reject: “there is no cause for concern”, whose privacy do you think it violates?

It’s very unlikely it’s a planned absence, teachers have to give half a terms notice. And with no details it’s wrong to speculate. That said, a sudden absence in teaching usually means health or grief or disciplinary. Sometimes it could be a relatives health, but it would more likely be short term absence then. You’re going to have to be okay with not knowing.

A nursery teacher my kids loved left suddenly and we were all for writing to her etc. The school kept close lipped. It later turned out she’d been a nightmare to work with and stole. Not the hunkydory impression we had!!

Well, we definitely agree on the latter.

I feel it is. It is impossible for schools to respond in a way you deem reasonable because any reason has an implication for someone.

Asking why a member of staff has left is not safeguarding your child, it's invading the staff member's privacy. As to your last comment, I have no idea how it relates to this discussion.