Privacy Notice

What information is held?

The school collects, and holds a range of information relating to your child. This will include:

• Personal information - e.g. names and addresses, ethnicity, religion, language, country of birth and free school meal eligibility
• Attendance information - e.g. number of absences and absence reasons
• Assessment information - e.g. national curriculum assessment results
• Medical information, where appropriate
• Behavioural information - e.g. number of temporary exclusions
• Photographs
• Personal views and opinions

The personal information you provide to the school is required by law. It allows the school to deliver an appropriate education to West Lothian children and young people. When collecting data, the school will inform you whether you are required to provide this data or if your consent is needed. Where consent is required, the school will provide you with specific and explicit information with regards to the reasons the data is being collected and how the data will be used. Sometimes the school will receive information from other organisations such as previous schools attended, Social Work or Additional Support Services and other groups or organisations connected to a pupil's education.

Who is processing my data?

All personal information is held and processed by West Lothian Council in accordance with data protection law.

How will we use information we hold about you?

The School and/or WL Education Services collect and use personal data relating to pupils and their families to meet our legal requirements to educate your child.

The information will be used;

• To contact you
• To support pupil learning
• To monitor and report on pupil progress
• To ensure pupil access to appropriate courses and qualification
• To provide appropriate pastoral care
• To assess the quality of our service
• To safeguard pupils
• To celebrate achievements and share learning

Who we will share your information with?

In order to carry out our legal requirements to provide an appropriate education for your child/children we will sometimes be required to share information. Pupil information is shared with Education staff in West Lothian to meet our legal requirement to provide an appropriate education to all our children and young people.

All pupil information is held within a secure information management system. We share information with a number of relevant services; examples of these services are:-

• the Scottish Qualifications Authority (SQA (opens new window)) and Scottish National Standards Assessments SNSA (opens new window) for the purposes of assessment and qualifications.
• the suite of Learning Tools (Glow (opens new window)) receives pupil name and class information to allow secure account management throughout the time your child is in school in West Lothian.
• Police Scotland, in the case of any Safeguarding requirements
• Lothian NHS Board for the purposes of NHS Immunisation and Screening Programmes

We share information with appropriate online services to provide an appropriate and high quality education to your child/children.

How long do we keep your records?

Your pupil records will be kept under law for 5 years after your child leaves school, unless there are other legal reasons to extend this period.

Your Rights

How can you see the information we hold?

You have a right to request your information and in some cases ask for it to be changed or deleted. In some cases there may be a legal requirement to keep your data for a specified length of time. To request to see all of the data we hold, you will need to put your request in writing to West Lothian Council, West Lothian Civic Centre, Howden South Road, Livingston, West Lothian, EH54 6FF.

How can you make changes to your information?

It is important the information we hold is correct. If you need to make any changes, please e-mail or call the school. You can view school contact information from the main council website.

Who to contact if you need to make a complaint

If you wish to complain about the way your information is held or processed, you can do so by e-mailing EducationCustomerServices@westlothian.gov.uk or phoning 01506 280000 and asking for Education Customer Services.

You can also contact the Data Protection Officer by emailing dpo@westlothian.gov.uk or by writing to:- West Lothian Council, West Lothian Civic Centre, Howden South Road, Livingston, West Lothian, EH54 6FF. Alternatively, you can also get in touch with the Information Commissioner's Office (opens new window).