Media coverage and publications

These stories and media coverage are about a wide range of content related to education and data, privacy and digital rights, and provide a record of some of the issues in the UK media and relevant topics in education and technology; some of which make reference to our work.

2023

2022

November

October

September

August

July

May

April

March

2021

November

October

March

February

January

2020

October

August

April

January

2019

November

September

July

June

April

March

January

2018

December

November

October

September

August

July

June

May

April

March

February

January

2017

December
The Observer Plan to collect data on excluded pupils could put them at ‘lifelong risk’ of stigma and Letter to the Editor Children’s privacy at risk #LabelsLastaLifetime
Buzzfeed The Names Of Children Who Leave School Due To Mental Illness Will Now Be Added To A Government Database #LabelsLastaLifetime
The Register UK.gov told: Your frantic farming of pupils’ data is getting a little creepy #LabelsLastaLifetime
Schools Week Schools fail to ‘obtain’ nationality data on quarter of pupils
Schools Week Opinion Government needs to rethink the alternative provision census expansion #LabelsLastaLifetime
Sky News

October
Schools Week Pregnant? Offender? What the government wants to know about AP pupils #LabelsLastaLifetime
The Morning Star The recklessness of the National Pupil Database
Sky News We must resist border controls in schools
Left Foot Forward Parents and teachers call for school census boycott amid deportation fears
Politics.co.uk The real Theresa May: How the PM tried to introduce immigration checks in schools

September
Private Eye Class War – Nationality monitoring
Schools Week Information Commissioner cracks down on pupil nationality data collection

July/August
Bristol Cable [Summer Issue 12]: Schools, Children’s Data and Immigration Enforcement
The Teacher, NUT Magazine “Call to end sale of pupil data“
UK Authority DfE works on privacy API for National Pupil Database

June
Open Democracy Child safeguarding cloaks state surveillance and data exploitation

May
Schools Week Hackers steal Edmodo users’ details
Open Democracy Refuse, retract, resist: boycott the school census
Huffington Post The School Census Is Turning Sanctuaries Of Learning And Growth Into Places Of Discrimination And Division – It Must Be Boycotted
The Independent Parents urged to withhold personal data in latest school census targeting foreign-born children

April
Interview on Partly Political Broadcast By Tiernan Douieb (10 minutes) with Gracie from Against Borders for Children
The Guardian NUT urges parents not to give details of children’s nationality and birthplace

March
The Telegraph Ofsted to spy on Facebook accounts of parents and pupils
Independent Ofsted to consider ‘snooping’ on pupils’ and parents’ Facebook pages to monitor school performance
The I-newspaper Ofsted to ‘snoop’ on parents’ and pupils’ social media
The Daily Mail Ofsted wants to snoop on children’s Facebook and Twitter accounts so officials can spot failing schools through signs of unhappiness
Schools Week Ofsted considers tracking Facebook and Twitter to check on schools
CAFCASS blog “Get ‘out there’ to find out what’s going on”

February
Schools Week Government reviews pupil nationality check guidance after schools’ passport demands

January
Huffington Post blog by Green Party leader Jonathan Bartley, The School Gates Should Not Be A Border Checkpoint
Huffington Post University Of Buckingham To Monitor Students’ Social Media Accounts To Tackle Depression And Suicide
BBC Boycott birth census, civil rights group urges parents
Schools Week Refuse, retract, resist school nationality data collection
The Independent Human rights campaigners attack Government’s ‘foreign children list experiment’
Schools Week Human rights charity warns headteachers over pupil nationality data collection
i-News School governors forced to declare nationality to Government
City of Sanctuary guest blog “Let the little children come to me” – the school census boycott

2016

December
The Independent – UK Government apologises to Italian families over ethnicity question in school census
Schools Week – DfE had agreement to share pupil nationality data with Home Office
The Guardian – Pupil data shared with Home Office to ‘create hostile environment’ for illegal migrants
New Statesman – Why does the government want to know your child’s nationality?
Schools Week – Nationality data was ‘compromise’ on Theresa May’s school immigration check plan
Buzzfeed – Here’s Why People Are Worried That The Home Office Wanted To Check On Schools
Guardian Comment is Free – Don’t help the State bully migrants
Schools Week – Wilshaw: I would have refused pupil immigration checks as head
The Mirror Theresa May’s department ‘wanted to shunt illegal immigrants’ kids down the list for school places’
Daily Mail Theresa May’s Home Office ‘wanted to send children of illegal immigrants to the bottom of the list for school places’
Labour list Rayner: May’s plan to put children of illegal immigrants at bottom of school places list shows nasty party is back
TES Theresa May wanted to ‘deprioritise’ children of illegal immigrants on school admissions
RT ‘Deprioritizing’ kids of illegal immigrants for school places was May’s Home Office policy
Daily Record Theresa May ‘wanted illegal immigrants at bottom of list for schools’ as home secretary
Independent Theresa May planned to put immigrant children to bottom of school places list, leaked letters reveal
Telegraph Theresa May called for illegal migrant pupils to be ‘deprioritised’ as Home Secretary
The Guardian – May wanted to ‘deprioritise’ school places for children of people illegally in UK
BBC – Theresa May had plan to ‘deprioritise’ illegal migrant pupils


November
Buzzfeed – Parents Can Now Ask The Government To Delete Their Child’s Country-Of-Birth Data
Diane Abbott, Shadow Home Secretary – Let teachers teach, not act as border guards
Politics Home – The Government has an irrational and damaging determination to campaign against migrants
The Independent – Government scraps plans for controversial nationality census for 2-5 year-olds in humiliating U-turn
The Independent – ‘Racist’ school census that ‘targets two-year-olds’ to go ahead despite growing pressure
Schools Week – MPs hope power of prayer will scrap pupil database changes
Schools Week – Nicky Morgan: I had to ‘fend off ideas’ from Downing Street
The Independent – Government’s controversial school census to record pupil nationality ‘has all the hallmarks of racism’, Lords warn

October
The Guardian – Home Office requested schools census data on nearly 2,500 children
Schools Week – Nationality data won’t be included in National Pupil Database, says minister
The Independent – Schools told to guess pupil ethnicity
Schools Week – DfE refuses to release pupil nationality data agreement
The Guardian Schools – What society lets families fear deportation for sending children to school?
The Guardian UK news- Individual children’s details passed to Home Office for immigration purposes
BBC – UK school pupil ethnicity question angers Italy
Corriere della Sera – Il questionario inglese che scheda gli studenti napoletani e siciliani
La Stampa – L’iscrizione nelle scuole inglesi: “Italiano, siciliano o napoletano?”
The Guardian Opinion – The national pupil database puts children at risk of racial profiling
The Guardian Schools – #BoycottSchoolCensus: why parents are refusing to reveal their child’s nationality
Schools Week – What schools need to know about collecting census nationality data
iNews – Parents call for ‘racist’ immigration request policy to be scrapped from schools
Metro Listing of foreign nationals has actually already begun
Guardian letters – Ignore school census queries on nationality
The Canary – The shocking texts and letters being sent by schools trying to identify ‘non-British’ children [TWEETS]
Buzzfeed – Parents Are Sharing Messages From Schools Asking If Their Child Was Born In The UK
Teacher Toolkit – Misapprehension and Misinformation

September
Media Diversified – New immigration data collection in schools: another brick in the wall
The Independent – Non-white schoolchildren asked to provide proof they are not asylum seekers
Muslim News – Parents urged to boycott schools migrant census
Huffington Post – Parents Urged Not To Disclose Child’s Nationality And Country Of Birth On School Census
The Sun – Human rights groups tell parents to not tell schools where kids were born over immigration clampdown fears
Daily Mail – Parents urged to boycott schools’ country of birth requests
UK Authority – Row blows up over schoolchildren’s birth data
The Guardian – Scrap this pupil data collection: it’s a divisive threat to our children’s safety
The Times (£) – Boycott school data trawl, parents urged
BBC online – Pupil Data ”will not be passed to the Home Office”
The Guardian – Parents urged to boycott requests for children’s country of birth information
Schools Week – Pupils who were not white British told to send in birthplace data
Schools Week, Editorial – Schools are not mini-immigration offices – and never should be
Schools Week – Pupil database changes made ‘without debate’

August
Buzzfeed News Parents Are Worried About Schools’ Plan To Ask What Country Their Child Was Born In

July
LSE Digital parenting School census changes add concerns to the richest education database in the world
Schools Week – Schools must report EAL data differently from September – are you ready?

June
Schools Week Schools must collect data on immigrant children from autumn
Schools Week – Mandatory web monitoring in schools opens a slippery can of worms

April
The Register Stop using USB sticks to move kids’ data, auditor tells Education Dept

February
The Register National Pupil Database engorged to 20 million individual kids’ records

2015

Schools Week – Criminal check needed for access to National Pupil Database
Schools Week Army recruiter considers appeal to access pupil data
Forces Watch ‘Targeted messaging’ in schools about armed forces careers not for the ‘well-being’ of students
Daily Mail How army tried to pry into pupils’ private files
Schools Week – MoD requests sensitive pupil data… by mistake

2014

Wired.co uk Government offers school pupil data to private companies

2012

The Register Psst – Heard the one about the National Pupil Database? Thought not – Minister hopes to ‘maximise the value’ of kiddie data ‘resource