School records

[KarenT]

Some of you will know that I deregistered J from mainstream primary in October 08 and we now home educate. At the time I made a verbal request for his school records but all I received was a bland computer printout with his personal details and attendance record, and his attainment levels for Y4 and projections for Y5.

 

I'm aware that legally I have a right to any documentation referring to him but is there a particular way of requesting them? I seem to remember that you have to specifically request SEN info, incident/accident reports etc, but is there anything else? And does anyone have a link to a model letter I can use to request them?

 

I have also been refused his workbooks so have little awareness of where he's at academically or what subjects he's covered. I was told they had to be kept till the end of the year 'for assessment purposes', yet I haven't even had last year's either. What's the position on requesting these?

 

Also, around the time he was deregistered, I made an application for statutory assessment which (needless to say) was turned down. I'm aware that the 'evidence' gathered was largely from people in education who have had little to do with J, and mainly from the Head and class teacher who failed him while he was there and had good reason to be less than honest about his provision. Although we've decided not to pursue the appeal as we don't actually believe he needs a statement, that may change in the future if we decide to return him to mainstream education and I'd like access to the documents submitted by school as evidence and which the panel have examined to reach their decision not to assess - I think this would be useful if we do pursue a statement in the future as I'd need to know what arguments were given in the past for not assessing, iykwim. Do I have any legal right to see the evidence that was submitted, and again how do I go about getting copies?

 

Thanks in advance, wise ones

Karen

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[loulou]

Hi,

 

As far as any records kept by the Education Authority are concerned, you have to request access to them in writing. I did this via our local EA website, which gave me the phone number of the records department. They sent me a request form to fill in.

 

I had trouble getting Kai's school records/reports etc when he was in mainstream too. I would advise to put your request to the school in writing and say when you intend to go to the school to collect the records (this is what i did). I went to the school to collect Kai's records but they told me they weren't available as the secretary was off sick!! I said i wasn't leaving until they gave them to me, so one of the teachers photocopied it all for me.

 

I'm sure someone else will be along soon who knows a bit more about this,

 

Good luck,

 

Loulou xx

[nellie]

Hi Karen,

 

Hope this helps.

 

Accessing your child?s school file.

http://www.yourrights.org.uk/yourrights/th...on-records.html

 

If the school refuses to provide you with a copy of the form or makes excuses as to why it won't release that information then you need to contact The Information Commissioners Office:

http://www.ico.gov.uk/

 

Nellie xx

 

[lynne]

 

 

When requesting information on your child you need to put it in writing to the school or the LEA. My childs school just let me look at the records. Most of the documents in the record I already had.

 

 

All LEA have a data protection officer. This is the person you write to. You can also state a time response for receiving the data. eg 2 weeks.

 

I also asked for email correspondents on my child. It was these that revealed more information.

[KarenT]

Thanks for the advice, all. I hadn't thought about emails, so thanks for that Lynne

 

Karen

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[Unaltronome]

Hi Karen,

 

Any request of records has to be in writing, specifying that you are requesting on behalf of your child. If a child requests the records the time for response is extended to 40 days of compliance rather than 15.

 

You also need to state you want a copy- otherwise the school might offer you a viewing- and that you wish to receive a copy of all records, help both on paper and on electronic format. There are so many different names for the same type of record across the different LAs, that if you were to request specific ones you're bound to miss some.

 

The request has to be addressed to either the Head-teacher or the Chair of Governors, depending on the LA. I would ring your LA to find out to whom it needs to be addressed.

 

You're entitled to the records under the Education (pupil information) regulations 2005, the Freedom of infomation Act 2000 and the Data protection act 1998. I would add this to your letter.

 

Also, I would offer that you understand that there might be a charge to cover the photocopying costs and that you are happy to pay for this. You could ask LA what their guidelines in regards to these charges are, so that you are prepared but as a rule of thumb they shouldn't exceed �50.

 

A letter might look like this:

 

Dear HT,

I, Mr/Mrs A Blog, parent of B Blog (D.O.B. 12/12/12), hereby request on behalf of B Blog, premitted under the Education (pupil information) regulation 2005, the Freddom of info act 2000 and Data protection act 1998, a copy of all records pertaining B Blog, held on both paper and electronic format.

 

I understand that due to the need to contact all parties involved, it might take you up to 15 days to comply with my request, above specified. I shall expect a copy of all records held on B Blog by the (put date=17 days from posting the letter by recorded delivery).

 

I also appreciate that you may incur photocopying costs, which I am happy to pay for.

 

May I take this oppurtunity to thank you in advance.

 

Yours .....

[KarenT]

Thanks Ultranome, that's really very helpful

 

Karen

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[KarenT]

Remember this?

 

I've just received a reply from the school (admittedly it took me till February to write (twice) and request the records) and it says:

 

"The Data Protection Act permits access to personal data held by this school. We have already supplied you with all of the data relating to your son which constitutes personal data within the meaning of the Act. We do not hold any further personal data relating to your son."

 

The letter then gives contact details for the Information Commissioner.

 

I guess the question now is, who DOES hold this information? It must be out there somewhere. I'm thinking particularly about the exclusion, surely that was documented, and I can think of several other incidents and correspondence that must have been recorded. My own feeling is that the school has been lax about recording and there's little documentary evidence available. I still don't have the workbooks either, and as I'm now responsible for J's education I have very little idea about what he's covered to date.

 

Looks like this one might run for a while. Thanks all who have given advice.

 

Karen

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[isme]

Have you tried the LEA? The data protection officer there? They will at least tell you where to go next....

[KarenT]

Will do. Haven't done anything yet as I just got the letter on Friday.

Karen

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[lynne]

 

 

You could ring up the school and ask where are the exclusion letters which they have to keep. Have they forwarded them on or are they still there is looks like an oversite at the school.

 

Also the school do not receive many requests to see a childs records so some school will print off the electronic data but you also need to see the chids personal file which normally contains other documentation such as the request for the school on there opinion for what the child needs, exclusion letters etc

 

Hope you find the infomation

[daniels-mum]

On this subject I ahve requested my sons records from the LA particularly, any relating to Educational Psychology and special needs and got a letter this week saying that Education Leeds have no records about my son, the only information they have located is on the funding for inclusion database, of which I have received copy and this just states his school and the monetary value of his Funding for Inclusion (which is fairly useful in itself but not what I requested!).

 

I am not happy as you can imagine, they are looking into the matter again but if I still dont get any joy I intend to lodge official complaint with Office of the Information Commisioner, Head of the LA and my local MP. My son was first seen by Ed Psyc in 2004 and I cannot belive they have no reports. I am not going to let this one drop. The reason I requested the records in the first place was that I am going for a statutory assesment. Arghhhhhhhhh!!!

[sylvm]

I've found all these posts very interesting. I'm intending to deregister my daughter on Monday and hubby raised the question of what the school will do with her records. Do they pass them on to the LEA or dispose of them, does anyone know? She's only been at this school (secondary) for just over a year, but I know that records are passed from one school to the next so presumably it will have everything on her from starting school. I know when my other daughter moved from state school to a private school aged 7 (ten years ago), my friend who's son was still at the state school was asked if she thought I'd like the records as they were about to bin the contents ..of course things may have changed and there's a lot more key info on younger daughter's file than there ever was on the eldest's one.

[KarenT]

I think we'd all like to assume that school records get passed from one school to another when requested but it seems it isn't always the case. I found out that there was nothing transferred when my son changed schools, and all that the new school had was what I had given them (and they didn't bother to read that either).

 

I never did get my son's school records, other than his attendance and a sheet giving his projected targets for end of Y5. There were even errors on those. I asked the EWO Manager to pursue the school and find out how to get hold of them. The last communication I got said I already had them - It was then that I knew there was no point in continuing as they were now in a position to deny they still had them. I know the school has destroyed the records because I believe his workbooks would have shown evidence that he wasn't doing as well as they'd claimed.

 

Around that time I also got copies of his medical records and documents relating to his statement application - they might as well have been written by Hans Christian Andersen for all the truth that was in them - they paint a very different picture of my son and family to the reality. What a waste of time and effort. I've decided not to bother looking for more documents and to focus my attentions on J's development instead.

 

For the record, he's thriving now in home education and I wish I'd done it years ago. We have a very happy life and our collective stress levels have plummetted

 

Good luck on your journey

 

Karen

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[Grace]

 

Hi,

 

Waltham Forest council have a good form to use as a template - if you go on their website and search 'parents data request' and click on 'subject access request' under parents and guardians, you will get a form that gives you a clear idea of how to ask for ALL information on your child.

 

You can ask for any written info including e-mails, reports, memos and minutes of meeting etc. They have 40 days to provide the info and if you offer to pick up the info from the council offices, you might not be charged at all.

 

I have always been given my DS's work from the year before, but an application as I have detailed above can provide some interesting info!

 

I think you are very brave going for home ed and I can imagine what has happened to drive you down that road - good luck!x