How will the GDPR affect primary schools?

If your school does not comply with the GDPR, you could be facing a pretty hefty penalty. These penalties could be up to £17.3 million, or 4% of the organisation’s annual turnover (whichever is greater).

How does it affect primary schools?

Schools handle a very large amount of personal data. This includes information about pupils such as:

• Names
• Addresses
• Grades
• Pictures
• As well as personal data regarding their parents, or guardians

Schools also hold data on staff, volunteers and any job applicants. So it’s important that this data is processed and stored safely.

Schools also handle special category data, which is subject to much tighter controls under the GDPR. This could be details on race, ethnic origin, biometric data, as well as medical records.

The GDPR requires organisations to document how and why they process all personal data, and gives enhanced rights to individuals.

Do all staff need to know about the GDPR?

It’s very important that all of your staff understand the GDPR so that they can answer parents’ queries about how their data will be used and stored. You need to make sure your staff are crystal-clear about the benefits the GDPR will provide and also that they know about their legal obligations regarding the safeguarding of children.

Online GDPR Training

We offer an Online GDPR Essentials Training course AND an Online GDPR Training course for managers to help your school work towards compliance with the GDPR.

Both courses are available to try for free! Each course only takes around 40 minutes to complete and will run you through the topics you need to know about the regulations in order to work towards GDPR compliance.