Possible confidentiality breach

[bluebell8329]

Just wanting a bit of "next step" advice. Twice in the last two months I have had to email my child's teacher about a sensitive issue. Both times the teacher has inadvertently shared my email on the large screen in the classroom rather than sharing the intended spelling list or whatever lesson they were learning. I only know this as my child came home and asked why I had contacted the teacher as they had seen my email on the screen. Once is a mistake yes, but twice??

Just wanted thoughts?

I should imagine it's not the actual email, but a notification with the sender's email address that flashes up in the corner?

It's the actual email that is on the screen, not the notification, complete with screenshots and all.

That's not good at all - I'd contact the Head to raise your very legitimate concerns over breach

Thanks, you know when you doubt yourself, and think "no, this couldn't have happened", especially not twice. I'm a bit concerned about why the emails are even open and not secure during lesson time.

Why on earth is the teacher using the large screen which is presumably for teaching to check her emails? Her email app shouldn't even be open when the laptop is connected to the screen!

That's exactly my thoughts. I'm not even going to get into her replies which are basically brushing me off. I assume it was an error but either way I don't think it should have been shared. Email to headteacher pending it is then.

That's awful. Are you emailing during teaching time? That wouldn't make it ok but it may be contributing.

It’s a human error, which for the first occasion I’d suggest “letting go”/nice email reminder. If it was me, I’d have been mortified that I’d done that and learn from it.

After one mistake, the teacher should be much more aware and the second time is much more of an issue to me and even more so because of the quick succession.

You’re totally right to raise this, especially as the teacher doesn’t share your concern!

No, the first I sent on a weekend and the second was sent on an evening.

That's awful. Are you emailing during teaching time? That wouldn't make it ok but it may be contributing.

??
Email is asynchronous, the sender has no idea when it will be read. It's the teacher's responsibility to ensure parents' emails are kept confidential. Is she dippy or could she be doing this on purpose OP?

Thanks. I have no idea if she is either but she doesn't seem to care. She is young but is that even an excuse, I don't think so. The fact the first email with screenshots was related to bullying makes it worse in my eyes.

That is a major data breach and it needs to be reported to the head asap. Sounds like they need to review their data security processes.

This is indeed a breach of GDPR. I suspect it is careless rather than malicious, but the teacher concerned needs to know that this must stop or she could get the school into trouble.

Teachers have their laptops connected to the whiteboard all the time, where I work. Teacher needs to be much more careful what she's showing !

The school needs to tighten up their procedures - one way is to make sure that staff do not open Outlook during lesson time, another is to insist that the screens are frozen if they are checking emails.

For anybody sending an email that could contain sensitive information, the recommendation is to have a neutral email header and then return a few lines down before starting the message text.

How old are the students? I only ask, because if it’s 5 year olds, I wouldn’t consider it such an issue, because most of them wouldn’t be able to read the email. If it’s KS2 or older, that seems more of a concern to me.

It’s a GDPR breech. The Head will want to know so procedures can be put in place to prevent it happening again.

What year group is this ?

OP's child was able to read enough of the email to know what it was, so unless they're way ahead of the rest in reading, it's reasonable to assume others could too.

It's year 5 so everything was very readable. I have spoken to the head who has confirmed it is a GDPR breach and is going to speak to the member of staff and have it logged. My only worry is that the teacher denies it and it becomes a he said/she said kind of thing. At the end of the day the emails should not be open during class time in case this sort of thing happens.