School admissions and appeals privacy notice

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Why we collect and share information

We need to collect and share information to provide services effectively.

We take our responsibility to protect your data seriously. We follow the legal requirements of the Data Protection Act 2018 and The UK General Data Protection Regulation (UK GDPR).

We share information to ensure that all school places for state funded schools and academies (not maintained special schools), are allocated and offered in an open and fair way. We do this according to the published admission arrangements for the school.

Councils organise the admission arrangements for entry to normal admission rounds. For Barnet Schools, the normal admission rounds are:

  • Reception
  • Year 3 in junior schools
  • Year 7 in secondary schools

In-year applications

For in-year admissions, Barnet Council is the admission authority for all community schools.

Academies, including free schools, foundation and voluntary aided schools in Barnet (with the exception of Finchley Catholic High School and the Hasmonean High Schools) have delegated the co-ordination of their admissions to Barnet Council.

Information on your application

The information you provide to us on your application, including any supporting papers will be used to:

  • process your application
  • help to co-ordination and allocate school places fairly, in accordance with the School Admissions Code
  • make sure education is provided to all children, through processes that cover Children Missing Education and Fair Access Protocol processes and panels
  • consider admission appeals

School Admissions Appeals for Barnet community schools

An appeal against a school admissions decision can be made once in any school year.

September admissions appeals are heard within 40 school days, in-year appeals are heard within 30 school days.

Your appeal form, along with the view of the school and the recommendation of the council, is provided to an Appeal Panel.

Appeal Panel details

A panel has 3 members. 

At least 1 member must be a lay person. This is someone who isn't connected to a school or the education service. 

At least 1 member must be a person with experience of schools and education in Barnet, not connected to the school subject to the appeal.

Panel members are independent and work under a confidentiality agreement with the council.

We make annual statutory returns to the Department for Education in January.

Personal information we use

To effectively and efficiently process applications for admissions to schools and school admission appeals we collect:

  • name, date of birth and gender of the child
  • parent or carer name
  • address and contact details including address where the child ordinarily lives at the time of application, which will be used for distance calculation purposes where the school is oversubscribed, and distance is used as a tie-breaker
  • application information of school preferences, reasons for requesting a school and any information provided as part of an admissions appeal
  • family and relationship information for siblings where this has an impact on admissions criteria
  • information about current or last education provision
  • evidence relating to child looked after or previously looked after status
  • health and medical information where relevant, and whether the child has an Education, Health and Care Plan (EHCP)

In-year admissions

A list of fair access questions identify whether the child falls into a vulnerable category, as defined by the Code.

This ensures that vulnerable children and those who are having difficulty in securing a school place in-year, are allocated a school place as quickly as possible.

Additional information such as relevant background information from the current school or last school (where applicable), is required under our Fair Access Protocol.

Who we share your information with

  • education providers to advise them of upcoming admissions and to enable them to administer their admissions accurately
  • other local authorities (via London Grid for Learning and the Governments School-to-School (S2S) data transfer system ) to enable councils to process applications for schools in their area
  • Department for Education to comply with statutory data collections
  • other teams within the council to verify the application information provided so that the admission process can be accurately administered, such as the Corporate Anti-Fraud Team (CAFT)
  • other teams in the council, such as the Education Welfare Team, to ensure access to education and for other safeguarding purposes
  • Health agencies, to inform school nursing services of destination schools
  • Admission Appeal Panel Members
  • Schools Adjudicator in response to any complaints made
  • Local Government Ombudsman who has a remit for investigating maladministration in respect of school admissions and appeals
  • other local authorities, agencies, organisations, and internal departments to identify and prevent fraudulent applications as part of our duty to prevent and detect crime and protect public funds

Legislation that applies

  • Schools Admission Code 2021
  • School Admissions Appeals Code 2022

School admission and appeals are governed by the Schools Admission Code 2021 and the School Admissions Appeals Code 2022

How long we keep your information

We keep your information for the current application year plus another 7 years.

Appeals panel members only keep data until the formal decision is made. The council keeps records of appeals applications and decisions for 2 years.