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Teachers urged not to fall foul of new data regulations

Teaching staff Trade unions
Teachers who have taken information about pupils’ reports home on USB memory sticks, or have details such as a class registers stored at home, could be in breach of extensive new data protection laws that come into force next month.

Delegates at the annual conference of the ATL section of the National Education Union (NEU), which met in Liverpool last week, heard how teachers are ill-prepared for the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), a reform that is enforceable from May 25.

The new regulations are designed to stop firms and other organisations from using people’s data without their consent, but schools could face punishing fines if they fall foul of the regulations.

Tamsin Palau-Honeybourne, a secondary teacher from the Surrey branch of the NEU, said she had already had case work with teachers who could be in breach of the new data protection laws.

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