Class names - is giving them to parents a safeguarding issue?

[SW1A1AA]

Does your school publish class lists? Our school has stopped doing this for safeguarding reasons. It makes organising parties or getting to know new kids and families very hard. Can anyone tell me how a list of children's names in a school calendar compromises pupils' safeguarding?

It may be necessary to safeguard a child or family who need to not be found

Hi, my dc's schools didn't do it.

There are loads of children and families out there who, for one reason or another, need to be protected and kept safe, one way of doing this and keeping them from harm is to not publicise their names, makes it harder for them to be found.

HTH.

Our school doesn't 'publish' them - but offers a list of first names on request.

TBH - WhatsApp has overtaken the classlist for party planning.

It is a Data Protection issue more than a safeguarding issue.

Is this just for primary schools then? My child's secondary school has a full list of every pupil's name and address, plus telephone numbers and email addresses of parents that you can access via the parents portal on the website.

Blimey. No, that is not usual at all.

I expect data protection is involved as well. However, there are numerous reasons why lists of children's names handed out by schools is grossly inappropriate: children living in care or who are living in refuges/ away from violent fathers also need to have their identities protected for their safety.

Is that a private school? Because I can't imagine any state school being so cavalier with that type of information.

I'd be horrified if my information was available to allow parents somewhere as big as a secondary school. I prefer to choose who I give myself contact details to

One of my dcs school has a class list for each class, there are a couple of children who are not on the lists through parental choice. The other school has no lists. I don't think there is a blanket policy

My child is year 9 now and I have never known a class list be given out in all the years - didn't think it was a thing.

I assume to have gathered all those email addresses from parents, the school must have asked at the very least if then wanted to opt out of the "data share"

It could be a safeguarding issue if it was shared widely. E.g. a family with an unusual surname who are fleeing domestic violence happen to be discovered via Facebook because the class has 3 Tarquins in it and another parent thought it would be hilarious to share the list with the world. Our school shares first names only I think, although it wouldn't be that hard to produce a full list because they all know each other's surnames anyway.

Both private schools. The primary school doesn't even list a child's full name in the weekly newsletter either. Secondary school names the kids names in full in their newsletter.

I get why it is necessary but not even having a list of first names makes it hard to know who my kid is in a class with.

It's definitely a safeguarding issue.

Are you wanting to ask the whole class to a party? If so, then you should be able to ask the office to distribute without names

Data Protection, we never give out class lists (primary).

Sometimes we have to protect children.
We give out first names on request.

I would have been horrified at all that information going out at Secondary School . There was some little bitches at my daughter's school and I liked the fact that they hadn't a clue where we lived.

We give out lists of first names only on request (especially in the run up to Christmas).

We sent a note via the school to all parents asking if they wanted to be on the list which would be available to all parents. The school wouldn''t provide it and rightly so. So it was built as parents opted in. Most did and it's used to communicate PTA stuff, cake sales, events etc or for parents to contact each other. These days it's not used as much as there is a parent facebook page.

Your child's school may be in breach of the Data Protection Act. They should not be publishing personal information in this way unless they have specific consent from all parents.

at the idea of schools putting all that info online! Presumably you consented to this, OP?

Re the children in your kids' classes - can't you just ask your DC?

For secondary we have a form list with children's names, parents names, address and phone number. For primary we have names, telephone numbers, email addresses and DOB. We were asked and gave consent. Have always had this

When DS started secondary we were given a list with all the children's names & what form they were in but no other personal information at all.

For a few it may be a safeguarding issue.
For everyone, it's a data protection issue.

If a parent wants you to have their contact details, that's between you and the other parent. There is no way any school should be publishing that information and giving it out freely.