Pupil records
Content updated: 01 September 2008
The Education (Pupil Information) (England) Regulations 2005, which came into force on 8 July, require maintained schools (other than nursery schools) and any special schools not so maintained, to keep a curricular record for each pupil and disclose on request a pupil's educational record to their parent. Under these regulations maintained schools must transfer a pupil's educational record to their new school when they change schools.
Schools should note some changes from superseded regulations and guidance (Pupil Records and Reports: DfEE/0015/2000, The Common Transfer File DfES/0268/2002). The duties outlined above have passed from head teachers to governing bodies, in line with the norm of powers and duties sitting with governing bodies as those legally responsible for the management of schools. However, a governing body may delegate these duties to the head teacher, having regard to their largely strategic role and the head teacher's responsibility for day to day organisation, management and control of the school.
Any Personal Educational Plan (PEP) for a pupil is now part of their educational record and from 3 October 2005, when a pupil transfers to a school in Wales, Scotland or Northern Ireland their educational record, including their common transfer file, must be transferred to that school in line with the arrangements for transfer in England.
Keeping a curricular record for every pupil
The curricular record means a formal record of a pupil's academic
achievements, his/her other skills, abilities and progress in school. The
governing body is responsible for ensuring a curricular record is kept for
every pupil registered at the school and updated at least once every school
year.
Parents' requests to see or have copies of
their child's educational record
The governing body is responsible for a pupil's educational record
being made available for their parent to see, free of charge, within 15
school days of receipt of the parent's written request. If a parent makes a
written request for a copy of the record this must be provided to them, also
within 15 school days of that request being received. The governing body can
charge a fee for the copy, but if they do this it must not be more than the
cost of supply. The educational record will include the curricular record
but also other information about the pupil that may be kept by the school, such
as details of behaviour and family background, the definition is given
below.
The educational record
A pupil's educational record is comprised of any record of
information, other than information which is processed by a teacher solely for
the teacher's own use, which
a) is processed* by or on behalf of a governing body of, or a teacher at, any school maintained by a local authority (LA) and any special school not so maintained
b) relates to any person who is or has been a pupil at any such school; and
c) originates from or was supplied by or on behalf of
— any employee of the LEA which maintains the school (or former school) attended by the pupil to whom the record relates
— where the school is a voluntary aided, foundation or foundation special school or a special school not maintained by an LEA, any teacher or other employee at the school or at the pupil's former school (including any educational psychologist engaged by the governing body under a contract for services),
— the pupil to whom the record relates; or
— a parent of that pupil
Additionally it includes
d) any statement of special educational needs held in respect of the pupil
e) any Personal Education Plan (PEP) held in respect of the pupil. The PEP is the document initiated by children's social services when a child is taken into care and maintained by the child's school which provides a record of educational needs, objectives and progress and achievements.
Information covered by the definition above falls within a variety of categories. The Further Information section of this entry includes guidance on some of these including child protection records, records where a child has a statement of SEN and records regarding exclusions.
* The basic interpretative provisions provided in the Data Protection Act 1998 Chapter 29 are quoted below and provide the definition of "processing" to be applied.
"processing", in relation to information or data, means obtaining, recording or holding the information or data or carrying out any operation or set of operations on the information or data including -
(a) organisation, adaptation or
alteration of the information or data,
(b) retrieval, consultation or use of the
information or data,
(c) disclosure of the information or data by
transmission, dissemination or otherwise make available, or
(d) alignment, combination, blocking, erasure or
destruction of the information or data
Child Protection records
Information relating to any child protection concerns about a
particular child should be kept separately and securely from the main
educational record file. These separate files should be transferred with the
main files if a child changes schools.
Material in a pupil's educational record
exempt from disclosure to parents
When schools comply with a request to see or have a copy of a
pupil's educational record under the Education (Pupil Information)
(England) Regulations 2005 there is some information that must not be
disclosed. This is any information that the child him/herself could not
lawfully be given under the Data Protection Act 1998 (DPA 1998) or to which
s/he would have no right of access under that Act or by virtue of any order
made under section 30(2) or section 38(1) of the Act. The following information
must not be disclosed:
— Information, the disclosure of which would be likely to cause serious harm to the physical or mental health or condition of the child or someone else
— Information as to whether the child is or has been subject to or may be at risk of child abuse, where the disclosure of that information would not be in the best interests of the child
-References supplied to potential employers of the child, any national body concerned with student admissions, another school, an institution of further or higher education, or any other place of education and training
-Information supplied by the school in a report to any juvenile court, where the rules of that court provide that the information or part of it may be withheld from the child
-Information concerning the child which also relates to another person who can be identified from that information or which identifies another person as the source of that information. Unless the person has consented to the disclosure, or it is reasonable in all the circumstances to disclose the information without his/her consent or the person is an employee of the LA or of the school. (This exemption does not apply where it is possible to edit the information requested so as to omit the name or any other identifying particulars of that other person)
-Information recorded by the pupil during an examination
Requests by pupils to see their
educational record under The Data Protection Act (DPA) 1998
Both manual and computerised personal information held by schools are
subject to the DPA 1998. Under the Act pupils who submit written requests to
see or have copies of their records must be allowed to do so within 40 days,
unless it is obvious they do not understand what they are asking for.
When schools receive requests from pupils for disclosure of educational records under the DPA 1998, they must not disclose any information which is prohibited from disclosure under that Act. Queries relating to charging for copies made for pupils or whether to what extent pupils should be allowed to access their records should be addressed to the Information Commissioner's Office.
Transferring the curricular record when a pupil
is under consideration for admission to another educational establishment
When a pupil is being considered for a place at another school or
institution of further or higher education, should the governing body be asked
by the responsible person at that institution for a pupil's curricular
record, it must be provided, free of charge, within 15 school days of the
request being received. A responsible person is the head teacher of an
independent school, the governing body of any other school or the person
responsible for the conduct of any institution of further or higher education.
The record sent must not include results of any assessments of the pupil's
achievements.
Transferring a pupil's educational record when
s/he moves to a new school
When a pupil ceases to be registered at one school and becomes
registered at another (either maintained or independent) in England, the
governing body of the old school is responsible for transferring their
educational record to the new school. This must be done no later than 15
school days after the day when the pupil ceases to be registered at the old
school.
From 3 October 2005, schools must also transfer pupil records to schools which pupils transfer (either maintained or independent) in Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland. The record must be sent to the governing body of the new school or, if the school is an independent one, the head teacher.
When a school doesn't know a pupil's new
school
The duty to transfer a pupil's record doesn't apply where the
old school doesn't know the new school and it is not reasonably practicable
for them to find it out. What is reasonably practicable will depend on
circumstances, but schools might be expected to telephone and write to a
pupil's parents. Where neither of these approaches is successful, and it
would involve disproportionate effort to discover a pupil's new school by
other means, the school will be justified in deciding it is not reasonably
practicable to fulfil the requirement.
Although it is not a requirement that they should do so, in these circumstances schools are encouraged to send a common transfer file for that pupil, via the S2S website identifying the destination school as unknown. The information is then stored in the Lost Pupil Database. Schools which do not receive common transfer files for new pupils can ask the LEA contacts to search this database to see if the files are there.
When a school receives a request for a
pupil's educational record from a school to which s/he has
transferred
If the pupil's old school receives a request for their educational
record (which they still hold) from the head teacher of an independent school
or the governing body of a maintained school, the governing body must ensure it
is provided within 15 school days of the request being received.
