pupil nationality | Schools Week

Campaigners fear another ‘hostile environment’ over EU pupils’ status

Schools will face “inappropriate” pressure to snoop on EU pupils’ immigration status from next month, say heads and campaigners afraid of a “hostile environment” damaging relationships with parents. EU nationals who have not applied for settled status by June 30 will become undocumented and could risk losing the right to work or their children’s right […]

Government faces legal action on pupil nationality data

A campaign group is raising money to take the Department for Education to the High Court over its decision to collect data on school pupils’ nationality and country of birth. The human rights charity Liberty will represent Against Borders for Children, which will focus on whether the policy infringes the rights of pupils. The groups also […]

Information Commissioner cracks down on pupil nationality data collection

The information commissioner has told the Department for Education to strengthen its guidance on collecting pupil nationality data. Census guidance issued last month includes more bold text drawing schools’ attention to their duty to inform parents of their data protection rights. It’s important that schools are clearly aware of this right and the requirement for […]

Government reviews pupil nationality check guidance after schools’ passport demands

The government has beefed up official guidance for the controversial pupil nationality data collection duty after schools wrongly demanded copies of non-white pupils’ passports. The move is said to be part of a transparency pledge by the Department for Education (DfE) to ensure schools and parents fully understand the new duty. Schools have had to […]

‘Refuse, retract, resist’ school nationality data collection

Parents can choose not to be complicit in building border controls in our playgrounds – and so can schools, says Martha Spurrier. The spring school census started this week. For the second time this academic year, parents and guardians have been asked to share their children’s nationalities and countries of birth with the state – […]

Wilshaw: I would have refused pupil immigration checks as head

The collection of pupil nationality and country of birth data by schools is a “daft idea”, Sir Michael Wilshaw has said, indicating that he would have refused to carry out immigration checks on pupils when he was a headteacher. The outgoing chief inspector of Ofsted gave his view on recent disclosures that Theresa May wanted teachers to […]

What schools need to know about collecting census nationality data

Changes to the school census that require the collection of data on pupils’ country of birth and nationality are back on the agenda again after more parents took to twitter to share examples of schools’ responses to the new rules. The debate has also potentially reignited following an announcement at the Conservative Party conference that companies will […]