To flame the school for sending kiddo home with someone else's report & they got hers

[GallopingHeffalumps]

What the title says. It's not ok, right, if the school sends your child home with another kids report & they get your child's report?

We have shared pics of them over messenger & kids will swap them back at school on Monday. But wondering how much of a fuss to make to the school about the mess-up. Thoughts?

So you have never ever in your entire life made an error at work? I am sure the person responsible is mortified sometimes mistakes happen. A decent adult would just deal with it as no real harm done. What’s to be gained from ramping up the drama except to make a secretary at the school feel really shit?

Kiddo ??

I think aside from mentioning I wouldn't be that cross, unless there was some sensitive info in there.

Most of them are copy & paste jobs anyway

This did happen to me last year my dd has the same first name (different spelling by 1 letter) as her friend. I messaged the other girls Mum and swapped reports at the gate the next morning. We saw the teacher on the yard and mentioned it to her in a non arsey way and had a laugh about it. I wasn't too bothered to be honest it wasn't as though they shared top secret information just how she is progressing and targets for the next year. I think involving the head is a bit ott but that is just my opinion.

OP YANBU. And no, I have never delivered the wrong appraisal letter, bonus award etc to the wrong member of staff. I’m REALLY careful about things like that. I check, double check, and check again.

I aknoweldge we both may have felt differntly if there was any sensitive information in there ie any extra help required that we didn't want broadcasting, although of course there is nothing wrong with needing help. Some parents may feel differently though.

Relax OP. Obviously your "kiddo" didn't get as good a report as you exptected kiddo to get.

That's kiddos for you.

I would be annoyed because it is potentially a breach of data confidentiality.

I'd just swap the reports over if I knew the other mum, and then mention it to the class teacher on Monday. I probably wouldn't pursue it any further.

Yes, it's just a mistake but it's technically a pretty bad one nowadays - data breach that will need reporting under GDPR, I think. Plus, depending on the children and parents involved, could be very upsetting.

20 years ago I was at school with 2 girls with the same common first and last name (think Emma Jones) and they never seemed to get the right report- even though there'd be a 50/50 chance each time. But in those days it wasn't seen as a big deal.

It sounds like you're friendly with the other parents and that there's no big issue. But, if one of the sets of parents receiving the wrong report was bitchy, toxic or had something against the other it could be really horrible fuel for them to get their hands on another child's report. Or if one of the children had additional needs, difficult circumstances or a negative report then it could be upsetting or embarrassing for them and their parents to have it read by someone else.

I think it needs to be noted by the school that it happened but that no harm was done on this occasion.

It wasn't on purpose. Everyone (except maybe you?) has made mistakes in life. It really is no big deal. Swap them and forget about it.

Surely that's a data breach under GDPR?

Surely sending things home in sealed opaque envelopes is ASKING for human error to mix them up? They might want to reconsider that one!

Oh, and I didn't have kiddos. I had children, or maybe kids.

GDPR means our school can’t even share parents e mail addresses - pretty sure sharing academic reports is a bigger breach.

I’d be pretty annoyed if it was one of my dc as their medical diagnosis would be discussed in the report. My other straight A child whose report reads like monologue of how fantastic they are I wouldn’t mind so much.
There is often confidential info in reports. I would expect schools to be exceptionally careful that they are given to the right person.
That said it’s a mistake. I would point it out to the person I thought made it and leave it at that.

Not a real problem and I'd just do the swap with no drama

D’you know what’s more irritating than the term ‘kiddo’? Reading people moaning about it again and again like it hasn’t already been mentioned about 10 times.

We used to get another child's home/ school diary sent home and them DC1's. But it didn't bother me.

If I opened the report envelope and noticed it wasn't my DC's I wouldn't read it.

Just let the school know.

Nursejackie just because it’s not a big issue to you, doesn’t mean it’s not a big issue to the other parents involved.

I used to be responsible for collating and issuing over 1000 school reports twice a year. As far as I know we always managed to get the right one to the right parents but I hope if an innocent mistake had ever been made the parents would have understood the logistics of the task and forgiven an innocent error.

Have you never ever done anything similar at work before?

That's just life, people fuck up sometimes, if it's not a pattern of fuck ups, let it go.

The headteacher will have looked at your complaint and sighed a heavy sigh of 'why would I care about this miniscule piece of nothing when I have hundreds of kids to worry about?'

Sharing reports is a breach of GDPR and regardless of what are own opinion of the mistake is, it’s the law and there are repercussions for this happening. There are also processes for the school to follow now that they have made this mistake ico.org.uk/for-organisations/guide-to-the-general-data-protection-regulation-gdpr/personal-data-breaches/

See I work in investment banking. If I accidentally share information with people I’m not supposed to, it’s called insider trading and people go to prison. So all of you asking if I make mistakes like this at work, no, I don’t.

if the wrong report was in the wrong envelope then this is most likely an admin error and not the teacher's mistake.

i wouldnt be surprised if they stop sending out paper reports soon. GDPR means that the potential repercussions for this are not worth the risk for someone who probably earns £15k a year pro rata with school holidays not included.

Personally i would have mentioned it to teacher and asaumed teacher would mention it to office staff so they could maybe tighten up procedures. I think the head has probably got bigger fish to fry. However I would be annoyed if this happened particularly if my DC had any special need or personal matter which was referred to and wasnt common knowledge.

This happened to us. I handed it in to the school secretary. She just said 'Oh'. We got the correct one next day.

So more work for an overstretched underfunded service for the crime of putting the wrong piece of paper in the wrong envelope. What complete bullshit that gdpr is if this is the end result. If it had happened to edwinbears child I’d completely understand further concern but it happened to two parents who like grown ups have a, sorted it for themselves and b, let the school know do they can avoid it happening again.