FOI, Privacy Notices, Complaints, Whistle-Blowing, Funding & Charging Policy
Freedom of Information
The Freedom of Information Act 2000 gives the public right of access to information produced in the course of the Federation’s work.
There are exemptions to this right. In particular, data about living, identifiable people ('personal data') continues to be covered by the Data Protection Act and is not generally publicly available except to the "subject" of the data - that is, the person whom the data is about.
Under the Freedom of Information Act, the Harris Federation of South London Schools has developed a Publication Scheme which lists all the documents which the Federation will make public as a matter of routine.
If the information you are looking for is not available on our Publication Scheme which can be found further down the page, you can make a request for the information you require in writing, please make sure you read our charging policy for information about cost you may be liable for.
Yours sincerely
Sir Dan Moynihan
Chief Executive Officer
Privacy Notice
Under data protection law, individuals have a right to be informed about how the Federation and its Academies use any personal data about its students. We, the Harris Federation, comply with this right by providing Privacy Notices to parents/carers and students, as appropriate, where we are processing their personal data.
Harris Federation is the Data Controller for the purposes of data protection law and therefore will determine the purposes for which personal data is processed (the ‘why’ and the ‘how’). Your Academy and authorised 3rd parties, e.g. ParentPay, process and ‘use’ data on behalf of the Federation and are therefore Data Processors.
We collect and use personal data about the students who attend our Academies, in order to provide an outstanding education. This personal data includes identifiers such as name, address and contact details of parents/carers, characteristics such as ethnic group, nationality and language, attendance information, test results, medical conditions, and special educational needs information.
This data is used for a variety of reasons, including:
- Support student learning.
- Protect student welfare.
- Monitor and report on student progress.
- Contact students and parent/carers when we need to.
- Provide appropriate pastoral care.
- Assess the quality of the services we provide.
- Administer admissions waiting lists.
The Federation and its Academies will ensure that all personal data is processed fairly and lawfully, is accurate, is kept secure and is retained for no longer than is necessary. We do not share personal information about our students with any third party without consent, unless the law and our policies allow us to do so. For example we are required to pass on some data to the Department of Education (DfE).
See our Privacy notices below to learn how we collect, use, protect and share the personal information about our students.
If you have any questions, concerns or would like more information about anything mentioned in the Privacy Notice(s), please contact the Federation’s Data Protection Officer (DPO), details below:
Data Protection Officer
Harris Federation
Interchange
81-85 Station Road
Croydon
CR0 2RD
Email: dpo@harrisfederation.org.uk
Tel: 0208 253 7777
Charging
Parents can request paper copies of any information provided on the website free of charge. Please contact the school for this to be arranged.
Funding
The Academy is part of the Harris Federation for which the annual report, annual audited accounts, memorandum of association, articles of association and funding agreement can be found here. The Academy’s own supplementary funding agreement can be found below.
Complaints
We value your comments and feedback. If you have experienced an issue or have a concern you'd like to raise regarding the Academy or a member of staff, please contact the Principal, Ms Aisha Samad, at the Academy via the Principal's PA.
Mrs M Gavin, PA to the Principal
E-mail: gavinm@harrismerton.org.uk
Telephone: 020 8623 1022
We will work hard to resolve issues quickly and informally whenever possible by understanding the problem and finding a prompt solution. Most concerns can be addressed in this way. You might also like to refer to the Parent Guide to School Complaints (downloadable below). This is a checklist to resolving concerns quickly, easily and positively, published by the Department for Education. Our Complaints Procedure is also shown below.
If your complaint is about the Principal, please direct it to the Harris Federation Chief Executive's Office on info@harrisfederation.org.uk.
