Bernie

Hi Chris, I generally schedule in a similar way to you i.e. manually schedule some of the Option / Core blocks then automatically schedule the rest. I generally use the 'Auto' screen for this although there's other ways of doing it. A useful tip is to make the sure the Auto screen is sorted by 'Recommended' as Nova will then try and schedule the more difficult blocks first. For non-linear blocks which are normally the last to go in (i.e. streams rather than sets) I generally schedule them without building first - use the 'Blocks' screen to do this. And then build the block in the Block screen. I don't think you can schedule using 'Optimize' though.

Thanks for all the replies. In summary our argument to the parent will be we do not need individuals consent to authorise software companies to process data on our behalf. More detail below, can anyone see anything I’m missing / misinterpreting. I believe that this https://ico.org.uk/media/for-organisations/documents/1546/data-controllers-and-data-processors-dp-guidance.pdf makes it fairly clear that we are Data Controllers and the companies are Data Processors Looking at general principles Schedule 1 https://ico.org.uk/for-organisations/guide-to-data-protection/principle-1-fair-and-lawful/ “Personal data shall be processed fairly and lawfully and, in particular, shall not be processed unless – (a) at least one of the conditions in Schedule 2 is met” Schedule 2 - https://ico.org.uk/for-organisations/guide-to-data-protection/principle-2-purposes/ The relevant bits from here is Personal data shall be obtained only for one or more specified and lawful purposes, and shall not be further processed in any manner incompatible with that purpose or those purposes. In practice, the second data protection principle means that you must: •be clear from the outset about why you are collecting personal data and what you intend to do with it; •comply with the Act’s fair processing requirements – including the duty to give privacy notices to individuals when collecting their personal data; •comply with what the Act says about notifying the Information Commissioner; and •ensure that if you wish to use or disclose the personal data for any purpose that is additional to or different from the originally specified purpose, the new use or disclosure is fair. Which we do in our Privacy Notice where we say "We hold this personal data to: - Support your learning;" (my bold)

An effective way of ensuring a good split /spread is to use the 'Optimize' screen. In the middle towards the top of the screen there are some fields showing 'Day', 'Per' and 'Wk' together with the NCY groups. Type 'H' in all the 'Wk' fields and 'L' in the others. Then click on the 'Score' radio button. This will then show all blocks ordered by how badly they are split between the weeks. Highlight one of the blocks in the timetable panel towards the bottom of the screen and click 'Search'. This will show you all the possible periods that the block can move to. You may well need to increase the depth of search to find any. The Optimize screen is really useful for improving a timetable - I use it a lot! Particularly for two week timetables!

Banjo, thanks. I will add this in to our Privacy notice. Phil, GREED - very interesting, and would certainly solve our issue! I think it's an excellent argument to use - Do you have any documentation that states this and if so could you let me have it?

I think it would be fair to say that the parent is concerned about data sharing. I think the passing of any personal details (name, DoB) is enough. We use PARS for our external communication but that passes details to a website to send, I presume on an as and when basis when texts/ emails are sent. I'm now wondering whether I should block communications to them on that basis....... It shows that it's simply not practical to not use 3rd party systems - what if we wanted to use cloud storage for SIMS for example! That's why I'm finding the lack of response from the DfE frustrating as the potential implications of this are huge and obviously will affect nearly every school.

I think they have concerns over data security generally and their details being used for marketing specifically. The parents have had the purpose of the websites explained to them and how we protect data generally. This is not cutting it! I suspect in at least one instance they are against using the website per se and are using data protection as an excuse to stop their child using it. We are hopefully going to get the parents to come in and discuss their concerns as trying to do so by email is getting us nowhere and is wasting time. Obviously we will try and be as flexible as possible in terms of meeting parental consent requests but ultimately this is about getting the best possible education for the pupils. We therefore need to know what we can insist on and where we have to give some leeway.

Just an update on this. I contacted both our LA and Professionals Online Safety Helpline, both of whom were very helpful and gave detailed responses. In summary, Our LA said we were probably within our rights to pass data regardless of parental concern as it is genuine school business - providing that we have satisfied ourselves that the company hold the data properly and data sharing is covered in our fair processing notice The Professionals Online Safety Helpline said that parents are within their rights to request and prevent the further sharing of identifiable information to third parties without consent. The Dfe gave the following considered response which I quote verbatim. "I can confirm that the department would advise that you seek independent legal advice regarding the sharing of child level data with these organisations, due to the sensitivity of the data. I hope you find this information helpful." I've contacted the Information Commissioner's office in the hope of getting a definitive response as I couldn't find anything that directly addressed the issue on their website. As an aside the parent has complained that we didn't ask for specific consent for each external website, does anyone do this in their school when they introduce a new system?

Our Privacy Notice is almost identical to the above. We include the text below as well. "We will not give information about you to anyone without your consent unless the law and our policies allow us to. We are required by law to pass some information about you to our Local Authority (LA) and the Department for Education."

As I'm sure a lot of schools do we use third party web hosted systems for teaching (SAM Learning, MathsWatch, Show My Homework etc.). A parent has asked that their child's personal data are not passed to commercial third party companies. Do we have to comply with this i.e. do we need specific consent to pass pupils details on? Or is the data transfer covered by Fair Processing?

We're currently reconfiguring our behaviour management system and I'm writing some recording rules to accompany it. When describing an incident teachers have free text to describe it and I'm looking to provide some guidance about what should be written. Things such as sticking to the facts, no supposition etc. At some point in the future we'd like parents to receive notifications of behaviour incidents and some of the comments I've seen written on our current system could be described as inappropriate at best! Does anyone have any rules or guidance about what should and shouldn't be recorded when commenting on incidents?

Thanks vikpaw

Hi, Sorry to jump in but wuld it be possible to send me a copy of the Advanced Training Handbook? I'd find it really useful!