Requested school files in their entirety

[mummymooch]

Hello , I’ve had issues with the pastoral management in my child’s secondary school.
Before I complain to the governors I requested the files .
The files are electronic and PW protected - they have no records of meetings is this normal?
There is no record
of anything by classes etc

Am I legally entitled to any record they have of meetings etc ?

If tney relate to your child yes you can
They may need to redact what isnt relevant to your child if it was part of a bigger meeting.

Electronic just means they have to screen dump it on to paper copies for you

Just repky the request fir personalminformaion under GDPR / Freedim of information act had not been fully adhered to / responded to and ask for the emsil adddess of thevsata protection ifficer.

Yoy can escalate this under GDPR if they have failed to comply with your request.

Did you really need to do that?
You should just have made a complaint using the complaints policy about the real in which you wanted to make a complaint.

To provide all of those records through blanket request costs the school a lot of money and takes up staff member time when schools are struggling to get enough staff to stay open.

Your relationship with the school is pretty much broken down now.
What outcome do you want?

There isnt always a lot on file. It depends on the type of meetings you mean? What sort of records are you expecting.

It depends what systems they use. Yes you’re entitled to all written information on your child, but there’s very little to stop the school being strategic about what they’ve recorded, or what they choose to redact.

Go to your LA instead

Our school refused but we just did a SAR to the LA and they sent us everything

Schools have conversations, appointments, drop in meetings requested by parents and formal meetings. Each school will choose what to minute and what to store. It's slightly different in primary school but I will have 5 conversations on the gate every morning about all manner of things but I don't rush back in to write them all up. We'd grind to a halt pretty quickly.

You are legally entitled to anything which is stored in a system and can be retrieved, and in which your child can be identified. That automatically includes anything electronic, a filing system, a teacher behaviour book etc.

If the school (rightly or wrongly) have not been perceiving the issues as of significance (hence your complaint about pastoral care?) they may not have been writing them down. It may be that this is part of your complaint if you can show that the issues were of significance. It's very hard to tell what should be recorded without knowing what the pastoral issue is.

Governors operate at policy level, so you also need the relevant policy for pastoral care (or safeguarding). A complaint can lead to them changing the policy, or taking action (or asking the HT to take action against a member of staff) when the policy has not been followed. You need to be clear what you are asking for (a policy which requires better recording of pastoral issues, perhaps?).

I think it depends on how old the child is as to who has consent to view them. As far as I'm aware the parent doesn't automatically have consent unless the child agrees past a certain age

You’re entitled to anything with your name or your child’s name on it. Even emails between staff. Everything.

To be honest yes it's normal to meet parents and have no record of the conversation. You may have an email thread where the meeting was arranged but I'm under no obligation as a teacher to record anything more than that we had a meeting.

As a PP said, doing a SAR is a total ballache for schools, takes a person a day to sort. We don't have extra admin staff for SARs so that's a day of their work they have to do some other time.

What are you expecting?

To provide all of those records through blanket request costs the school a lot of money and takes up staff member time when schools are struggling to get enough staff to stay open

The OP is entitled by law to see any records held by the school pertaining to her child, it’s a perfectly reasonable request to make. Are there other duties you think schools should be allowed to drop because it involves staff time and resources?

You need to do a subject access request to get everything. A school file is a specific thing and only holds certain info. A SAR will cover everything they hold on your child

@Jellycatspyjamas

To provide all of those records through blanket request costs the school a lot of money and takes up staff member time when schools are struggling to get enough staff to stay open

The OP is entitled by law to see any records held by the school pertaining to her child, it’s a perfectly reasonable request to make. Are there other duties you think schools should be allowed to drop because it involves staff time and resources?

The OP clearly has a specific issue- it is more more fruitful to pursue that.

A blanket request doesnt help with that.

That is why schools have complaint policies. If you have a complaint use the policy.

The OP is entitled by law to see any records held by the school pertaining to her child, it’s a perfectly reasonable request to make. Are there other duties you think schools should be allowed to drop because it involves staff time and resources?
It might well be a perfectly reasonable request to make, that doesn’t however invalidate the point. A point you clearly can see she has or you wouldn’t need to put words into her mouth. We have 90 members of staff, about 60 of those are teachers, today we had 12 supply in covering those teachers. A staff member sorting out all of that information takes another teacher away from kids.

I think parents tend to ask for emails containing their child’s name. I know some schools where you have to use only initials to swerve this issue.

@Jellycatspyjamas

To provide all of those records through blanket request costs the school a lot of money and takes up staff member time when schools are struggling to get enough staff to stay open

The OP is entitled by law to see any records held by the school pertaining to her child, it’s a perfectly reasonable request to make. Are there other duties you think schools should be allowed to drop because it involves staff time and resources?

How do you know it's reasonable? You don't. And yes - it does take a lot of time and money if the OP is simply making a point because she can. She may have very good reasons - we don't know.

Why do you need a massive data dump of info. Are you trying to find specific meeting or prove meetings weren't held?

You can request Subject Access Data. From the second you request it (formally in an email), they cannot delete any information about you (this is illegal). Every member of staff will have to search their computers/ records for your child’s name. If the name is on something like a sports register, they will have to blank out all the other names.
The only bits they don’t have to give you is info about safeguarding if your child could get harmed as a result of you having this info.
I would formally request it and then they cannot delete anything, but it is a lot of work for the school, so it might then be worth saying exactly what you want so you don’t get millions of emails.
If you request this by email, the info will be sent to you via email.
If you put it in writing, you will get lots of paper back!

Yes you can request a SAR
If there are reasons to request it which there clearly are , don't worry If it puts them out , make sure you state you want the child's name and also hours on the request

@damnthisvirusandmarriage

You’re entitled to anything with your name or your child’s name on it. Even emails between staff. Everything.

Oh yes we got emails between staff ….. that was difficult reading

yours - sorry not hours

This is why we don’t our child’s names in an email

Put*

Say you are making a Subject Access Request in relation to your DC under the GDPR rules. They have 28 days to comply and give you all communication relating to your child

@OliviaBond

You need to do a subject access request to get everything. A school file is a specific thing and only holds certain info. A SAR will cover everything they hold on your child

This.

How long do schools hold data for? My DS left in July, would the school still have information on him?