News

Impact Assessment and scrutiny not fit for purpose: the Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill so far

news - February 7, 2025

School pupils’ ‘sex survey’ data offered to researchers: Opt out fails children on reuse of ID and Local Authorities’ survey

news - February 5, 2025

DUA Bill amendments and commitments made in HOL Report Stage #DataProtectionDay 2025

Blog - January 29, 2025

The consequences of ignoring time in the UK Data Use and Access Bill #DUABill

Blog - January 21, 2025

A reflection on 2024 for pupil data in England and beyond

Blog - December 30, 2024

Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill: more questions than answers

Blog - December 17, 2024

DUA Bill Committee Stage Day 2 #HumanRightsDay 2024 #DataProtection

news - December 11, 2024

Peers call for Code of Practice in Educational Settings: Data Use and Access Bill

news - November 20, 2024
This is a card which says legislation: the data use and access Bill

Data Use and Access Bill: our view and call to action

news - November 17, 2024

Autumn term school census 2024

news - October 3, 2024

Education data reuse for AI development

news - August 28, 2024

Essex school reprimanded by ICO for facial recognition in canteen

news - July 26, 2024

An update on legal action

news - July 1, 2024

General Election 2024: scrutinising party plans on digital and education

Blog - June 22, 2024

Manifesto Proposals for Education and the Digital Environment

Blog - June 5, 2024

Comment: “Secret deal lets benefit fraud squad snoop on pupil data.“

news - May 10, 2024

Open Letter to Ministers: Drop the damaging UK Data Protection Bill

news - April 14, 2024

World Book Day 2024: 1 in 5 children feel judged for what they read

Blog - March 7, 2024

Down’s syndrome to be added to the School Census plus genomics

Blog - March 4, 2024

Ban Biometrics in Schools (2022)

Videos - February 28, 2024

Call on the education sector to stop posting children’s faces online

Press releases - January 28, 2024

#HandsOffOurData Protect families data rights

news - January 15, 2024

What’s the goal?

Blog - January 2, 2024

New KC legal opinion on the Data Protection and Digital Information Bill

news - November 28, 2023

AI and Society Forum event summary: Algorithmic oppression in our education system.

Blog - November 2, 2023

The ICO audit of the Department for Education: three years on

news - October 7, 2023
Live Illustration map of discussion on AI and education from event credit Sophia for Katie Chappell dot com

AI and Education: Existential threat or an everyday toolkit?

Events - July 18, 2023

Does your national school record reveal your sexual orientation or religion?

news - April 2, 2023

Call for action from the UK Information Commissioner to uphold children’s rights in the Hostile Environment

news - March 21, 2023

School census expansion 2023: young carers

Blog School census - January 19, 2023

International Migrants Day 2022: DfE has handed over 1,780 pupils to the Home Office

Blog - December 18, 2022

Ten-years after National Pupil Database commercialisation: ICO reprimands the Department for Education over “woeful” misuse

Campaign - November 6, 2022

National pupil data: next legal steps

Campaign National Pupil Database - October 14, 2022

The ICO audit of the Department for Education two years on

Blog National Pupil Database - October 7, 2022

News: Challenging the Department for Education on excessive pupil data collection

news - September 16, 2022

Data Protection and Digital Information Bill

Blog - June 20, 2022

The State of Biometrics 2022: new report

Blog Press releases - May 4, 2022

Counting children outside schools in national records

Blog news - April 8, 2022

World Social Work Day 2022. Artificial Intelligence in CSC.

Blog - March 15, 2022

Keeping Children Safe in Education consultation

Campaign - March 11, 2022

What keeps children safe online? A reflection on #SaferInternetDay 2022

Blog news - February 9, 2022

20 years on: children’s names in national pupil data

Blog Campaign - January 4, 2022

Restoring trust in awarding exam grades: the case for a Personal Exam Grade Explainer

Blog Campaign - December 4, 2021

UK Data Protection Law consultation. Speak up.

news - November 11, 2021

Facial recognition and biometrics in schools

Blog - November 4, 2021

Facial recognition in schools

Blog - October 17, 2021

The ICO audit of the Department for Education: one year on

Blog - October 7, 2021

The Skills and Post-16 Education Bill: Report stage

Blog - October 6, 2021

On World Teachers’ Day 2021. Our latest report: A reflection on the Best Interests of the Child

Press releases - October 5, 2021

Making digital rights a reality in the classroom

Events - September 29, 2021

Let’s talk about data — new report: the words we use in data policy

Blog Events - September 18, 2021

Grading and Admissions Data for England 2020: opinion

Blog - August 7, 2021

End of term report: summer 2021

National Pupil Database - August 2, 2021

An update on National Pupil Data

National Pupil Database - July 1, 2021

The Skills and Post-16 Education Bill: More data for them, but no more control for us

Blog - June 15, 2021

The Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts (PCSC) Bill briefing

National Pupil Database - May 20, 2021

National Children’s Day 2021 UK

Campaign - May 16, 2021

Victory in the Against Borders for Children campaign. School census nationality data destroyed after ICO audit.

National Pupil Database news school census - March 18, 2021

Ofqual consultation: How results 2021 could look for exam candidates

Campaign - January 26, 2021

Betting firms use schools data on 28m children: one year on

Campaign National Pupil Database - January 24, 2021

SATs 2021 scrapped. What’s next?

Campaign school census - January 6, 2021

2020 a look back at a year in action and looking ahead

Campaign policy Prevent pupil privacy - December 31, 2020

Age Appropriate Design Code applies to edTech

Blog - October 24, 2020

The State of Data 2020 report launch

Campaign MyRecordsMyRights - October 15, 2020

ICO findings on national pupil data: comment

Campaign pupil privacy - October 7, 2020

The State of Data 2020 Event

edTech news - September 22, 2020

The ICO Age Appropriate Design Code and schools

edTech news - September 4, 2020

Take action on algorithms in education after exams 2020

Campaign MyRecordsMyRights - August 18, 2020

Exam grade process 2020: eight areas for enquiry

Blog - August 13, 2020

The Education Act 1996 is twenty-four today

Campaign MyRecordsMyRights - July 24, 2020

Baseline beaten back to 2021. Time for change in the Accountability system

National Pupil Database - June 25, 2020

Response to the Russell Group Report Pathways for Potential

Higher Education National Pupil Database policy pupil privacy - May 27, 2020

Happy 3rd Birthday defenddigitalme

news - May 12, 2020

Call for action on children’s rights in COVID-19 rapid adoption of online learning tools

edTech policy pupil privacy - April 16, 2020

edTech in a time of Coronavirus: reflection, realism, and rights.

edTech legislation - March 20, 2020

Google education products under scrutiny: lawsuit in New Mexico and Norway DPA investigates.

edTech legislation - February 24, 2020

Towards the UK Education and Digital Rights Act

National Pupil Database - February 10, 2020

Comment: Bodycams in Ofsted investigations

edTech - February 1, 2020

Data Protection Day 2020

pupil privacy - January 28, 2020

Comment on Sunday Times story: Betting Firms use Schools Data

National Pupil Database - January 19, 2020

Happy 18th Birthday School Census

National Pupil Database School census - January 17, 2020

2019 in Review. Happy New Year.

National Pupil Database - January 1, 2020

Enforcement action in 2019

edTech legislation National Pupil Database - December 20, 2019

Unsafe safeguarding

National Pupil Database - November 29, 2019

The Queen’s speech

National Pupil Database - October 15, 2019

Advisory Council launch

National Pupil Database - October 1, 2019

Statement on appointment of the Reviewer for the Prevent programme

Prevent pupil privacy safeguarding - August 19, 2019

Left school? So has lots of personal data about you.

legislation National Pupil Database - August 13, 2019

Statement on student religion or belief, and sexual orientation data in the National Pupil Database

Higher Education National Pupil Database - July 27, 2019

Summer 2019 report card

edTech National Pupil Database - July 26, 2019

National Surveillance Camera Day 2019

edTech - June 20, 2019

Behind the Baseline Test

National Pupil Database - May 28, 2019

The Multiplication Tables Check (MTC)

Campaign legislation - May 10, 2019

Defend Digital Me Response to the Timpson Review

Alternative Provision Campaign LabelsLastALifetime legislation - May 8, 2019

SATs are not just like going for a health check, Minister.

National Pupil Database - April 28, 2019

Spring 2019 first half term report card

National Pupil Database - April 18, 2019

Response to the ICO Code of Practice for Age Appropriate design

edTech National Pupil Database - April 15, 2019

Multiplication tables check admin guidance missing vital information

National Pupil Database - April 3, 2019

Our week’s edu news highlights

edTech news - March 30, 2019

SATs and scores that last a lifetime

National Pupil Database pupil privacy - March 2, 2019

Safer Internet Day 2019

National Pupil Database pupil privacy safeguarding - February 4, 2019

2018 in Review. Happy New Year.

news - December 31, 2018

NetSupport DNA complaint

legislation Prevent safeguarding - December 19, 2018

Response to school pupils being spied on through webcams and school web monitoring software

National Pupil Database pupil privacy surveillance - December 16, 2018

Children’s Comissioner concerns on school children’s data

MyRecordsMyRights school census - November 8, 2018

Social media surveillance by the Student Loans Company and new laws

Higher Education policy - November 5, 2018

Response: UKSA National Pupil Database Update

legislation National Pupil Database - October 22, 2018

National pupil data switches to Secure Research Access model

National Pupil Database pupil privacy School census - October 12, 2018

Data must not be collected in the autumn school census

National Pupil Database pupil privacy School census - September 22, 2018

Where do your exam data go? Children’s Right to Know must be respected

National Pupil Database - August 14, 2018

Capita SIMS Autumn 2017 pupil data update caused data corruption

National Pupil Database - July 20, 2018

Defend Digital Me welcomes the Council of Europe recommendations to member States on children’s rights in the digital environment

National Pupil Database surveillance - July 4, 2018

Schools must no longer request pupil nationality data

National Pupil Database - June 28, 2018

Student data rights packaged up for Pearson

National Pupil Database - June 18, 2018

The State of Data 2018: Report for Policy Makers with a view to GDPR in Education

National Pupil Database - May 13, 2018

Write now: we need your support for children’s data protection

National Pupil Database - May 6, 2018

Nationality and country of birth school census data collection to end

National Pupil Database - April 9, 2018

Response to the Office for Statistics Regulation DfE recommendations

National Pupil Database - April 9, 2018

Legal challenge continues #LabelsLastaLifetime

Alternative Provision National Pupil Database - March 31, 2018

What should Educators do about Facebook?

National Pupil Database surveillance - March 28, 2018

Half of schools have no decision on a Data Protection Officer #GDPR

National Pupil Database - March 23, 2018

Recommendations for Policy Makers for the Data Protection Bill #StateOfData2018

National Pupil Database surveillance - March 17, 2018

Only half of parents think they have enough control of their child’s digital footprint in school

Blog - March 13, 2018

Judicial Review of new children’s school census data #LabelsLastaLifetime

National Pupil Database - February 15, 2018

New Year. New Minister. New Supporters. Campaign for children’s privacy in Education #LabelsLastaLifetime

Alternative Provision National Pupil Database policy - January 12, 2018

Open letter to the Editor, published in The Observer 24.12.2017

National Pupil Database - December 24, 2017

Second half of autumn term 2017-18 school year data report card

pupil privacy - December 22, 2017

The Spirit of Education Future visits the Powers-at-be 2017

National Pupil Database surveillance - December 22, 2017

Peers demand answers from DfE on sensitive data in children’s national records #LabelsLastaLifetime

National Pupil Database - December 12, 2017

Lords debate rights for children and pupils in education in data protection bill

legislation policy - December 12, 2017

Leading advocates join campaign for children’s rights and pupil privacy in Education #LabelsLastaLifetime

pupil privacy transparency - December 10, 2017

The DfE hid the truth from the decision-making Star Chamber

legislation National Pupil Database transparency - November 19, 2017

National Pupil Data releases March 2012 – May 2017: summary review

National Pupil Database pupil privacy transparency - October 31, 2017

Last minute lobbying must not weaken the e-Privacy Regulation we need

legislation pupil privacy transparency - October 25, 2017

The privacy of some of our most vulnerable children is under threat

National Pupil Database pupil privacy - October 20, 2017

Report card: Summer term update and first half of the 2017-18 school year

National Pupil Database pupil privacy transparency - October 14, 2017

Write for your rights: Oppose the new immigration law that affects you

legislation National Pupil Database pupil privacy - October 13, 2017

Response to the Data Protection Bill debate and Green Paper on Online Strategy

legislation pupil privacy - October 11, 2017

Message for Autumn school census on October 5, 2017

National Pupil Database - October 3, 2017

What will GDPR Privacy by Default and Design mean for national pupil data?

National Pupil Database pupil privacy transparency - September 13, 2017

Annual grant received from the Joseph Rowntree Reform Trust Ltd.

National Pupil Database - September 3, 2017

Back to School: #Boycott School Census Nationality data

National Pupil Database - September 3, 2017

School census changes one year on – when will children be told?

legislation National Pupil Database pupil privacy transparency - September 1, 2017

Comment on Data Protection Bill DCMS Statement of Intent

legislation National Pupil Database pupil privacy - August 7, 2017

The making of a very bad law: school census nationality data one year on

legislation National Pupil Database pupil privacy - July 27, 2017

Department for Education works on privacy API for National Pupil Database

National Pupil Database pupil privacy transparency - July 21, 2017

Queen’s speech: safeguarding children, data, and digital rights

Blog - June 22, 2017

What’s Next? Under 364 days to fix pupil data privacy.

legislation National Pupil Database pupil privacy transparency - June 8, 2017

Letter to schools: Take action today on School Census nationality data

legislation National Pupil Database pupil privacy - May 18, 2017

Ten steps for schools why and how to refuse nationality in school census

National Pupil Database pupil privacy - May 15, 2017

Children’s voice won’t be heard in DCMS consultation on data privacy

legislation National Pupil Database pupil privacy transparency - May 14, 2017

Ten steps for parents and schools: how and why to retract nationality data

National Pupil Database pupil privacy transparency - April 16, 2017

New review of school census data releases from the National Pupil Database

National Pupil Database pupil privacy transparency - April 11, 2017

Response: Ofsted to use private social media to predict performance in schools

National Pupil Database - March 31, 2017

Spring term report card: children’s pupil data privacy in England Q1 2017

National Pupil Database pupil privacy - March 29, 2017

Growing up with the Internet report: privacy and other child rights

National Pupil Database pupil privacy - March 22, 2017

The countdown to GDPR compliance: children and consent

National Pupil Database pupil privacy - March 18, 2017

Five questions for schools before your school census 2017 submission

National Pupil Database pupil privacy - February 1, 2017

In 2017 what’s next for us in pupil data privacy in England?

legislation National Pupil Database pupil privacy - January 2, 2017

2016 in review. What’s happened in pupil data privacy in England?

National Pupil Database pupil privacy - December 31, 2016

Children’s nationality data from new school census was planned for the Home Office

National Pupil Database pupil privacy - December 15, 2016

A foreign office apology, Home Office secret use, forced ethnic labels: The school census 2016

National Pupil Database pupil privacy - December 5, 2016

Latest news: School census can be deleted and pupil data work-in-progress

National Pupil Database - November 29, 2016

The Digital Economy Bill and the pupil premium

National Pupil Database pupil privacy - November 28, 2016

Government withdraws plan to collect Early Years nationality pupil data

National Pupil Database pupil privacy - November 17, 2016

Timeline: the school census national pupil data expansion 2016-17

National Pupil Database - November 14, 2016

School census national pupil data expansion: status Nov 5

National Pupil Database - November 5, 2016

Lords strongly critical of school census expansion in Motion of Regret

National Pupil Database pupil privacy - November 1, 2016

Urgent call to action: the Government must answer questions on collecting country of birth

National Pupil Database pupil privacy - October 28, 2016

Status report: the Lords’ debate a Motion of Regret 31/10/2016

National Pupil Database - October 27, 2016

Pupil data questions before the Lords debate on October 31st

National Pupil Database - October 26, 2016

Pupil data used in secret breaches public trust: Home Office purposes confirmed

National Pupil Database pupil privacy - October 13, 2016

Why shouldn’t we collect every child’s country of birth and nationality?

National Pupil Database pupil privacy - October 10, 2016

The new school census law needs scrapped

National Pupil Database pupil privacy - October 9, 2016

New releases of school census data from the National Pupil Database

National Pupil Database - October 9, 2016

Responses to controversial new law: changes to the school censuses 2016-17

National Pupil Database pupil privacy - September 16, 2016

Back-to-School sees new pupil data expansion

National Pupil Database pupil privacy - September 5, 2016

A wish list for the Data Strategy and Information Standards Lead

National Pupil Database pupil privacy - September 4, 2016

Home Office and Police have accessed data from the National Pupil Database

National Pupil Database pupil privacy surveillance - August 15, 2016

The child is not the mere creature of the state: No2NP ruling and the right to a private and family life

National Pupil Database pupil privacy - July 29, 2016

Pupil data collection turns Kafkaesque in 2016-17 school and early years census

National Pupil Database pupil privacy - July 7, 2016

Schools must collect extra census data for children from autumn

National Pupil Database - June 26, 2016

Rights and obligations under the Data Protection Act for processing sensitive data

National Pupil Database pupil privacy - June 22, 2016

Pupil privacy in schools survey in response to national pupil policies

pupil privacy surveillance - June 20, 2016

Three strides towards transparency in the National Pupil Database

National Pupil Database pupil privacy - April 29, 2016

Director General for Regulation, UK Statistics Authority supports call for transparency and better data handling of 20 million pupils’ data

National Pupil Database pupil privacy - April 26, 2016

Government Internal Audit Agency found improvement needed on National Pupil Database

National Pupil Database pupil privacy - April 21, 2016

Surveillance of every child’s online activity risks a spiral of silence

National Pupil Database pupil privacy - April 15, 2016

Parallel processes will not work for pupil data

National Pupil Database - April 11, 2016

‘Researchers’ overreach will put public trust at risk

National Pupil Database - March 5, 2016

Scope creep in National Pupil Database now means names released

National Pupil Database - February 18, 2016

Twenty million pupils’ identifiable data handed out from the National Pupil Database

National Pupil Database - February 12, 2016

#DataProtectionDay 2016: Five steps to improve pupil data

National Pupil Database - January 28, 2016

Fixing the National Pupil Database: security, choice, and transparency

National Pupil Database - January 20, 2016

The UK is behind the curve on Protecting Pupil Privacy

National Pupil Database - January 4, 2016

National Pupil Database – using named data from the School Census

National Pupil Database - January 1, 2016

The Big Data Dilemma and Big Datasharing Intentions

National Pupil Database - December 9, 2015

What sensitive data do the papers get and why have they not destroyed it?

National Pupil Database - December 1, 2015

Access to school pupil personal data by third parties is changing

National Pupil Database - November 20, 2015

What does the National Pupil Database hold about me?

National Pupil Database - September 23, 2015

The National Pupil Database end of year report: an F in Fair Processing

National Pupil Database - September 23, 2015