Bad rumours at work (in a school)

[TheStandardLife]

There's a bad rumour going around between staff that the nastiest teacher and I means she really is something, likes to look up other teachers, TA's and even PARENTS GCSE results and qualifications.

This cannot be true surely? I've never heard of some kind of database accessible where this could be held, bearing in mind most people's results would have been from 20+ years ago.

If she is doing it, and there is such a thing that's an invasion of privacy to some degree?

I understand all of our results could be on job websites from our CV'S or LinkedIn ect but if its true I think its very very wrong to just do it for "fun" and also just odd.

Who cares?

How ?

How (and why?) would she do that? Sounds like it’s someone trying to shit stir.

I care.

Yes there is such a data base. If she is accessing that database for anything other than a professional requirement then it's a sackable offence, a breach of GDPR and even a police matter. I'm not exagerating either.

How would she even do that?

They could just look it up on Linkedin …

I doubt any teacher has access to a master database of all GCSE results, going back 20 years - more likely people have posted them themselves on Social Media.

I would be more concerned at the schoolyard gossip than that staff seem to be indulging in. Maybe report it all to the Head, and let them decide

Where is this database @Chowtime I have worked in education for 20 years and I am unaware of it. Evidence please.
OP this is hugely unlikely

Is it via SIMS? How would she have the authority to do that?

Not sure how that’s a nasty rumour. I couldn’t give a shit if she knew my qualifications.

Did you post something similar a couple of weeks ago?

I would report the rumours to the Head, however. Gossip of this sort isn’t good for staff morale and needs stamping out. Or investigating, depending on how likely it is that the teacher is doing what you say.

What is she doing with the info?

SIMS doesn't hold that information in any school I have ever worked at. Only HR would have it

Quite. I recently needed to obtain a copy of my GCSE certificates for a government-based job I had applied for. It was a right palaver as I couldn't remember the exam board and I had to go back to my old school, they had to find out the exam board (which no longer exists) etc. Surely if there was a database with all my qualifications on, this wouldn't have been necessary (especially for a job with the government who presumably would have access to such a database)

I would not give this the time of day. In my school inconsequential things like this world not even feature on my radar. Itba battle to get to.the loo and eat- they would be more of a priority for me. Blank the nasty git

Yes SIMS. I couldn't remember what it was called.

When I was an NVQ assessor if a learner couldn't remember whether she had passed a certain qualification many years ago we could access that data base and find out. Because depending on the highest qualification a learner had depended on whether or not she could have public funding for her course. I can't remember though whether it was actually me that looked it up or whether I passed it on to my manager and he looked it up.

Anyway, there's definately such a database.

She'll be in big trouble for accessing that unnecessarily.

Yes, that’s what I meant. There are different levels of access. Head and Bursar have a certain level but not ordinary teaching staff.

Copies of all application forms (successful applicants) are held at my school. So if you could see those, you could see the qualifications. But who would bother doing that without a valid reason?

A database of GCSEs that has every person in the country's GCSEs is as real as the "permanent record" that makes people think their school behaviour in Year 7 will somehow reach the ears of their employer when they're 45 or that employers share work "permanent records". These are invented rumours designed to keep you compliant with society. Pay them no heed. Even different exam boards have no idea what your exam results were.

The only way anyone could find this stuff out eg in the college example above is if the school where the exams were taken shared the information with the college which may or may not be a GDPR issue nowadays depending on the reason for sharing and the consent of the subject.

I cannot imagine how she would be looking at parent's GCSE results, I had to try and get copies of my own ones once and that was incredibly difficult as the exam board didn't exist any more.

My professional chartership is checkable via my institution, but I thought I had to agree to that and I don't think it's online, but you can verify it somehow.

If she is looking at HR records for staff, I would definitely report her, there is no need for her to have that information therefore she shouldn't have access to it

Honestly @Chowtime I think you are mistaken. Your individual institutions SIMS system will have held information for the learners registered with it which will have been provided either by those learners themselves or their previous educational institution with their consent. There is no national database and no way of accessing staff information.

But when I myself applied for an adult learning course I could only have public funding if I didn't already have a Level 3 qualification - and they checked!

If the government has a law which says you can get public funding as long as you haven't got a certain qualification then surely it's checkable? Otherwise whats to stop you lying?

There is a centrally held record of qualifications achieved since 2012.
It is called the Personal Learning Record and is managed by the Learning Record Service, part of Gov.uk

Posting to say this.

However to search the LRS you need the learner's date of birth and postcode they were living at when they took their qualification. And no such service existed 15 years ago. So it's bollocks.

A 'super-used' (prob exams officer) will also need to have set her up with an account. And I can't see any reason why someone would have given a teacher an account.

Supposedly she does it because she thinks everyone is stupid, and likes to check. Very odd person anyway, she would have access to it potentially as she is high up, but surely what ever she "finds out" she would incriminate herself for misusing the database.

Personal Learning Record - it only records qualifications gained in England from 2012 onwards (2014 for Wales and 2015 for Northern Ireland)

So for anyone over the age of about 27 in England, 25 in Wales and 24 in N Ireland, there will be nothing there. And Scotland is separate.

Also, it's a PERSONAL learning record which individuals can access. The same way that I can access details of pension forecast and how much tax I've paid. There is no way that some randomer in a school has access to every parent's GCSE results, what a load of nonsense.