Wrong address on school register

[Tryingiton]

I work in a school. If a parent has not changed their address on the school register because they moved in with their boyfriend ( had another baby with him ) almost two years ago would you ask for their current address? I suspect it’s because they have not declared they are living together. We have had lots of dads over the years who lived with their mothers ?? Except they didn’t. I live locally so it’s not a well kept secret.
Do you know anyone who has done the same thing ? Would you report them to UC?

GDPR places an onus on the data controller to ensure their records are accurate and up to date. As ever the word "reasonable" does a lot of heavy lifting in the legalese. However using the obvious technique of looking at what is not unreasonable (little legal tip there) then an annual confirmation of address and contact details is entirely not unreasonable.

Surely she still has the old address though and is paying for it for this to work?

Does the address on file happen to be a location specifically needed for the child to be in the catchment area?

Did you move out of the catchment?

Why would that matter? They don’t chuck your kids out of school if you move out of catchment, and you have to put your current home address on secondary applications 🤷🏻‍♀️

Well they do in Scotland. If you move out of the catchment, you have to submit a "request to remain" and lose any school transport you had. Is it really that lax where you live? What about children waiting for a place?

I’m not in Scotland though so that doesn’t apply. If that was the rule, I’d follow it.

Oh right. Ok. But as a matter of interest, if the school were sending letters to home addresses, how would you know?

Letters? In this day and age?

Exactly, I’ve never had a letter from a primary school, it’s all emails and apps.

If you work in a school then you'll know that you are meant to regularly check to ensure your data is up to date and the parents are required to update you if they move.
Presumably you have sent out data held forms for 2 years and had no response?
If not send them out - cleanse your data - and politely query it.
Knowing most parents it's a total oversight.

Even when my eldest was fat primary ( over 25 years ago) we never had letters posted. They were sent home to live in the bottom of school bags

No data form?

It blows my mind that you are so bothered about this 😂 I have never had a letter posted by the school, they’ve always come by email or given to my child. Schools don’t have the budget for the number of stamps they’d need to send forms by post.

They get a stamp budget from the LA.

Ok. I am more bothered about someone moving out of a school catchment and not informing the school.

I’ve just deleted my response as I’ve just caught on to the fact that I don’t have to explain myself to some random on the internet, and I don’t care that you’re bothered by my shonky admin skills 😂

It’s not “shonky admin skills” to not inform the school you’ve moved! What if they wanted to do a home visit?

🤣 you’re really rattled about this!

I know!

Which could be better USD elsewhere

Why would they do a home visit? I've heard of it before a child starts reception in certain areas but never after

But you don't lose a place you already have so why goes it worry you

Well you do where I live. You have to request to remain.

I don't know how lax the finances are down south, but our schools get specific budgets. The stamp budget is a crucial one. If it isn't spent, they lose it.