Handling Subject Access Requests (SARs) (Knowledge Bank subscribers) involving pupils is rarely straightforward. A recent helpdesk scenario put a school in a particularly difficult position: a 14-year-old pupil disclosed that her parents had pressured her into signing a form authorising them to request her personal records.
Most organisations will ask us to come and do a data walk at some point, when one of our consultants will visit your site and walk around with your data protection lead. If you are a DPO Assure customer, it is included as part of your SLA, but it is also possible to purchase a visit from one of our school consultants.
Understanding "making the rounds" audits, the 12-point compliance framework, and what schools should expect from a report
We present an article written by our Featured Guest Expert Ralph T O'Brien for our school and multi academy trust customers about using AI in schools and trusts. Ralph O’Brien is a global privacy and data protection professional with over 25 years’ experience helping organisations manage data protection and privacy risk, prevent data harms, and build practical, trustworthy information governance programmes
Artificial Intelligence is shorthand for more automation. Less humans, more machines. AI is already in schools, and not because the headteacher has approved an AI strategy. Not because the governors have discussed it.
A new academic year brings a full inbox of statutory guidance, policy refreshes and operational pressure — often all landing in the same first few weeks of term. Before the pace picks up, it's worth pausing to check that the key data protection foundations are in place. Here's what should be on your radar this September.
Schools across the Thames Valley area are being targeted by criminals attempting to access staff payroll accounts, according to a warning issued by the South East Cyber Crime Unit's Cyber Protect team. In several confirmed cases, the attacks have succeeded, leaving affected staff without their pay after criminals diverted their salaries elsewhere.
The Department for Education confirmed that hackers have accessed its internal helpdesk and the Turing Scheme portal, taking more than 600,000 records. Contact details belonging to headteachers, senior school leaders, government officials and university staff were among the data taken, and some of it has since appeared on the dark web.
Understandably, this has caused a lot of anxiety across the sector and, predictably, a lot of speculation. Was this preventable? Should the DfE have done more? Who's to blame?
As schools prepare for term and statutory obligations under Benedict’s Law (taking effect from September 2026), leadership teams face a critical operational question: How do we share life-saving pupil allergy data quickly without committing a personal data breach?
A Management Information System (MIS) is the single most important data processing system a school operates. It holds pupil records, including special category data, safeguarding information, and family contact details. So when the Department for Education publishes guidance on choosing one, DPOs and data protection leads should pay attention, even when, as here, the guidance is framed in commercial rather than data protection terms.
The Academy Trust Handbook 2026 was published on 15 July 2026 and comes into effect on 1 October 2026. This year's edition strengthens the position on the DfE digital and technology standards and introduces new procurement requirements that have direct data protection implications, most notably around Management Information Systems (MIS).
On 15 July 2026, the Department for Education published How to reduce procurement risk: good practice guide for academy trusts. The guide is aimed at business managers, finance staff and others involved in procurement decision making, and follows the four phases of the procurement lifecycle: plan, define, procure and manage.
On 9 July 2026, the DfE added a new section to its Data Protection in Schools guidance: Procuring educational technology (EdTech). It sets out what schools should consider before, during and after procuring EdTech tools, and the questions to put to prospective suppliers. Significantly, it is the first DfE guidance to directly reference the ICO's EdTech Examined audit report, telling schools to take the ICO's findings into consideration when procuring EdTech tools.
A summary of the data protection changes in the new KCSIE guidance, including the Data (Use and Access) Act 2025, information sharing and child protection file transfers.
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