School class lists

[afreshnewname]

My son has just started mornings in school, his school refuse to send out a list of (first) names in the class, although Iv been told they have done it every year up to now.

My plan was to go down the list and ask my son if he wanted each person to come to his party, our venue won't hold his entire class, Iv only heard two or three names so far of his friends when I ask about his day so I'm at a bit of a loss.

So aibu that this policy is not data protection, it's ridiculous?

Also, Any handy hints on gathering names gratefully received 😃

Some schools have taken the whole GDPR thing to excess. Hence why some won't have lists of names in classrooms.

We have never issued lists of names but parents come into our classrooms every day at drop off and they can see the lists of first names all round them - in drawers, pegs, signing in sheets, etc. The class learning blogs have a list of first names too. So all accessible and all perfectly fine from a GDPR sense.

Can you ask the teachers who your child plays with most at school?

Ours didn't give them out either. How many are you planning on leaving out?

It is data protection issue and schools have to go above and beyond.

It’s hard, perhaps ask your DS to pick out his friends.and do something small.

Otherwise invite everyone knowing that several won’t attend. I did a whole class party at the same age and only about half of them came.

That only works for parents who don’t work full time.

If he's only just started school he probably won't know half the names. I would either invite everyone or just the 2 or 3 he actually knows.

We were not allowed in the school building either so just had to go by the names they could remember

I'm a teacher and have had this request. I'm waiting to hear from senior leaders about whether I can or not (send a list of first names only - which is what I'd usually do). Schools have been given a lot of info about GDPR and are rightly conscious of getting into hot water (it only takes one )

So I imagine school/the teacher wouldn't have a problem, blame GDPR.

It's likely different this year due to new GDPR rules. Or, possibly, this year's cohort includes a child in need of extra protective measures.

It’s becaise of GDPR. We are still allowed to hand out first names though.

I imagine when the school is running short of PTA funds or need a parents emergency tree set up they will find a way of making a class list available.

How many kids were you looking at inviting? Could you just send in unnamed invites for the whole class? Don't give the location of the party - ask them to RSVP with their child's name for more details. That way you'll know how many - and who to expect. I'd bet about 50-60% responses.

GDPR is still very new and I expect many places are being extra cautious because of it which explains why it’s changed this year.

My daughters school give out lists and have actually put them all into the school website?! Not sure how I feel about that. However the primary school I work at have refused to give them out. Instead we can tell them how many children are in the class, ask them write the invites without names on and we write them on and send them out. The parents just ask to rsvp with their child's names too.

As other people have said this is due to GDPR and believe me it is causing teachers all kinds of headaches. Yet another thing for teachers to take the blame for when it is not their fault.
And there is no way they are going to be able to make lists available 'when the school is running short of funds'. And those funds go to help the children, not for some teacher's jolly. Teachers don't want to budget cuts either.
Sorry if this sounds narky but I have just been up since 6am on a Sunday planning and making resources for the week ahead having spent most of yesterday doing that too. And planning a trip out soon to spend my own money on resources. A lot of extra work is being caused by GDPR and this thread has touched a raw nerve.

Our school never gave out names even before gdpr.

Our school never gave out class lists either. After three years I still have no idea of the names of most of the children in my son's class.

Ours is compiled informally by the parents on an opt in basis works well. Also a parent need private Facebook group very pilot and information only no nonsense

Polite!!

We've had this problem as well. DD has just started Reception and has a birthday coming up. We decided to do a whole class party as friendships aren't yet fully established but of course she can't remember the names of all 30 children and there are only about 20 on the parents Facebook group. Not sure how I'm supposed to find out the other names of school won't release them and don't want to children to be left out because their parents aren't on FB.

People aren't taking GDPR to the extreme- it's just that GDPR is pretty strict unfortunately. I presume that parents could opt in to have their child's name included in such a list but i don't think the school could give it out as they see fit without permission.

People aren't taking GDPR to the extreme

Having been involved with it a fair bit through school and another small company I am involved with, I'd say some definitely are. DH is a a solicitor and has also been involved in this at his company, plus at the other small company I mention before. We have had to do a lot of reading, research, working with others and finding out over the past year or two.

Whilst there are a lot of hoops, and a lot of things needed to put in pace the requirements, I still truly believe that some of the things some people are saying/doing putting in place are OTT and not necessary to comply with GDPR. This has been seen on MN alone over this past year, with the things you read.

Ours used to give out class lists but has stopped because of GDPR. It's quite annoying.

Last year we got a list of first names at the beginning of December so the dc could send each other christmas cards. We also had the programme for the Christmas play which contained first and last names of all the dc in both Reception and Nursery. We kept the programme for sentimental reasons but it was very useful for sending out birthay party invites in July and making sure we had spelt names correctly.
When the Data Protection Act came in many companies went OTT, so I assumed GDPR would have the same effect. I honestly hadn't thought about the impact on schools.

You could set up a class list through Classlist.com. You need the school to initiate it by sending a link out to the parents but then it’s managed by the parents and school doesn’t have to worry about gdpr. Either that or the school asks for consent to distribute lists. It’s not that tricky for the school to get around it if they want to!

My school have never given out class lists, both now and before gdpr. Birthday parties aren't our issue to solve. Most classes have a WhatsApp ime and they make their own list using that.

Just ask the teacher to put a generic party invite in everyone’s book bag asking parent to text you with child name and if they can or can’t come. They won’t all come so you should be fine.