pupil data | Schools Week

DfE dodges data transparency as it plans new pupil register

Department has never released the full report of a damning ICO audit that found it broke the law over pupil data

School reprimanded over illegal use of facial recognition technology

Essex secondary failed to get pupils’ consent and did not assess impact of new cashless catering tech in advance

Revealed: Secret deal to let benefit fraud squad snoop on pupil data

Leaders warn the move may lead to parents ‘withdrawing their children from schools’

Study reveals full scale of London pupil exodus amid school closures

Nearly 50,000 pupils left London’s schools last year, Datalab study shows, as ministers told to ‘get a grip’ amid closures

Oak National Academy could collect ‘basic data’ on users, says chair

The Oak National Academy could begin to collect “some basic data” about its users, its chair has said. Ian Bauckham told a Westminster Education Forum event on education technology this morning that there was a “huge level of interest in the data that we could collect”, and said the site may “move into the realm of […]

Liberty: ‘Secret’ Prevent database ‘destroys’ trust between teachers and pupils

A human rights charity has warned of a potential breakdown in trust between teachers and pupils after details emerged of a “secret” police database containing information gathered by school staff. Freedom of information requests by Liberty revealed the existence of the National Police Prevent Case Management database, which it claims is used to collate “sensitive personal […]

New headsets monitor pupils’ brain waves to track concentration

English universities are interested in researching controversial headsets that claim to monitor if pupils are concentrating in class, say the products’ developers. BrainCo, an American company, says its $350 (£266) headsets called Focus 1, can help teachers to identify pupils who need extra help, with data presented on a dashboard that shows the “average” brain […]

UTC becomes first school with cameras in every classroom

A university technical college in Birmingham has become the first school in the country to install always-on, 360-degree cameras in all of its 28 classrooms. Aston University Engineering Academy, which caters to just over 600 14- to 19-year-olds, officially launched the video equipment at an event at the UTC on July 18. AUEA has been […]

How can schools better support young parents?

The government recently announced they will be collecting data on pregnant pupils transferred from mainstream to alternative schools from next September. What they do with this data is crucial. New research from Action for Children shows that young people who have become parents by the age of 25 are less likely to have moved into […]