Is this a GDPR breach?

[Lindy2]

Is it a GDPR breach for a teacher to call out the attendance % for each pupil in the classroom? I think it probably is as it's personal data to each student isn't it.

Even if it's not a GDPR breach I don't think it is very professional behaviour. For context this is a classroom where the students mostly have additional needs and difficulties.

The aim is to scare them into increasing their attendance but the result will actually be the opposite of that as for these children it simply isn't that straightforward. Something this particular teacher doesn't seem to quite understand.

I'm just trying to get a balanced and neutral perspective on this.

Most students roughly know their peers attendance, they're the guys who aren't there! As far as actually calling out the actual percentages I think this is unprofessional. However it sounds like the class has an attendance issue, and the teacher is resorting to extreme measures. They've probably run out if patience.

They started this during tutor time at DD's school, she hated it, she's autistic and was struggling to attend every day. Her attendance wasn't actually that bad (85-90%) and I contacted her tutor to let him know it was causing her distress.

Just one of the many reasons she is now not in school. I know attendance is a major focus for Ofsted but I can't help thinking that making school a more bearable environment to attend would help more than constantly nagging students and parents about it.

No it isn’t a data breach under GDPR, attendance is not personal data.

Personal data only includes information relating to natural persons who:

• can be identified or who are identifiable, directly from the information in question; or
• who can be indirectly identified from that information in combination with other information.

I wouldn't think that how often a child is present would be covered by this. If the teacher was including personal info ("Adam, your attendance is only 80% but that's ok because I know you were in hospital for that operation") then that would be different.

I'm not sure what the teacher is hoping to achieve by this though. Some sort of public shaming? I wouldn't have thought other pupils gave a shit that X has 92% and Y has 87%.

Thanks for the clarification everyone. Not GDPR but not particularly professional.

They're actually college age, mostly 16 - 18. Attendance is an issue - these are vulnerable students and keeping them engaged and attending isn't straightforward. They need support and nurturing rather than this approach though. The other teachers do it well.

@Stichintime I don't think she had any patience to begin with - She's new and her classes have falling attendance which she is obviously not happy about but it's her approach with the class that is causing a lot of the problems.

@RhinestoneCowgirl we've been through the same non attendance issues due to ADHD/ASD and the school environment. You have my sympathy and understanding. Things have actually improved a lot at college despite it still being quite a rollercoaster.

I think it is personal data because they are identifying the individual and giving information to everyone else about the individual's attendance. Additionally for any children with disabilities whose attendance is related to the absence it could be considered discrimination. I would draw their attention to this government website https://www.gov.uk/guidance/data-protection-in-schools/what-data-protection-means-for-schools. I appreciate that schools are in a difficult position and they are wanting to improve attendance but this is not appropriate.

John 50% attendance
Jane 69% attendance
Peter 95% attendance

John, Jane and Peter can be identified directly from the use of their names
Jane and Peter can confirm they are not John so can ID John indirectly from the data too

And each student has been given access to data (collected and processed the sum of the daily numbers) of other students who I would assume had not given permission for the attendance to be disclosed to the class.

Thank you for the additional information. That's very useful.

Not sure about the GDPR but it is a pretty shit thing to do. It is no coincidence that there is a high percentage of SEN/neurodiversity amongst those with poor attendance percentages, and shaming them about their attendance will not improve it. To paraphrase Tayor Swift "shade never made anybody less ND". My son is AuDHD and has a day a week at home under a flexischool arrangement - school did an assembly on attendnance and his class was the worse in their year for attendance and his classmates all turned and looked at him - I was pretty cross about that.

Schools need to be careful they don't fall foul of discrimination laws as ASD is considered a disability which is protected under law - I've already quoted this to my son's school regarding his attendance and consequently all his sickness days have been authorised (his flexi days are authorised absenses too). Until educational settings improve their offer for ND pupils we are going to see poor attendance levels and shaming/embarrassing/punishing people is not going to make it any better, in fact it will just push them out of education altogether.

My sons's school is pretty good and I have a good relationship with them, but they are being pushed by the stupid LEA/govt agenda and that is why I have had to quote discrimination laws to them, I don't think they would have acted that way if it were not for the LEA on their case.