Privacy Notice

Thinking, Doing, Talking Science (TDTS) research study

York Trials Unit (YTU) is part of the Department of Health Sciences within the University of York. We are the independent evaluators of the TDTS continuing professional development (CPD) programme.

The study is a collaboration between YTU, the Education Endowment Foundation (EEF) and the Wellcome Trust (jointly funding the study), and the Oxford Trust who have designed the programme and are responsible for its delivery.

This privacy notice is for the parents/carers of children in schools which are participating in the TDTS evaluation. It sets out the ways in which YTU gathers, uses, stores and shares your child’s data. It also sets out how long we keep your child’s data and what rights you have in relation to your child’s data under the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).

For the purposes of this privacy notice, University of York is the Data Controller as defined in the General Data Protection Regulation. We are registered with the information Commissioner’s Office, and our registration number is: Z4855807.

Where do we get your child’s data from and what data do we collect?

We collect personal data about your child for the purposes of conducting the study, to evaluate the impact and effectiveness of the TDTS programme, and to prepare a report about the study.

Your child’s school will share the following information about your child with the YTU:

Name
Date of birth
Unique Pupil Number (UPN)
Gender

We will obtain further information by linking this data to the data held on the National Pupil Database. This will include:

Eligibility for Free School Meals
Early Years Foundation Stage Profile results
Key Stage 2 results

We will match the above pupil data to data on pupil outcomes, including data from questionnaires and assessments administered as part of the project.

A Data Sharing Agreement (DSA) will be put in place with your child’s school before any data is collected. The DSA will fully specify the data to be collected, how it will be transferred to YTU, how it will be stored, who will have access to it and how long we will keep it for.

What is our legal basis for processing your child’s data?

Personal data will be processed under Article 6 (1) (e) (Processing necessary for the performance of a task carried out in the public interest) of the General Data Protection Regulation (2018).

At the end of the project the data will be submitted to the Office for National Statistics Secure Research Service (ONS SRS) for archiving in the EEF data archive. At this point the EEF becomes the data controller.

Ethical Approval

The study has received ethical approval from the University of York Health Sciences Research Governance Committee (15/05/2020: HSRGC/2020/391/C).

How do we use your child’s data?

We process your child’s personal data for the following purposes:

To instruct and liaise with our Research Assessment Administrators who will conduct assessments in schools
To match data received from schools to NPD data and outcome data
To evaluate the impact and effectiveness of the programme and prepare a report about the project

Who do we share your child’s data with?

During the period of the evaluation no-one outside of the research team will have access to your child’s data. YTU will act as data controller and data processor throughout the evaluation period.

At the end of the study data will be submitted to the Office for National Statistics Secure Research Service (ONS SRS) for archiving in the EEF data archive (managed by EEF’s archive manager) and will include data only individually identifiable to the Department for Education. Anonymous data will be kept indefinitely by YTU.

For the purposes of research and archiving, the data will be linked with information about the pupils from the National Pupil Database (NPD) and shared with the Department for Education, the EEF, the EEF’s archive manager, the Office for National Statistics and potentially other research teams. Further matching to NPD and other administrative data may take place during subsequent research. Education Endowment Foundation will act as the data controller for the archive which is managed on their behalf by FFT and held in the ONS Secure Research Service.

How do we keep your child’s data secure?

The University takes information security extremely seriously and has implemented appropriate technical and organisational measures to protect personal data and special category data. Access to information is restricted on a need-to-know basis and security arrangements are regularly reviewed to ensure their continued suitability.

Your child’s personal information will not be transferred outside of the European Economic Area (EEA).

How long will we keep your child’s data?

All individually identifiable data held by YTU will be destroyed 5 years after the end of the study (2030). Data in the EEF’s archive in the ONS SRS will include data only individually identifiable to the Department for Education (DfE), the government department responsible for children’s services and education, and is kept indefinitely for the purposes of future research.

What rights do you have in relation to your child’s data?

Under the General Data Protection Regulation, you have rights in relation to your child’s data, including a right of access to the data, a right to rectification, erasure (in certain circumstances), restriction, objection or portability (in certain circumstances).

You are free to withdraw your child from the study at any time during the course of the study (information already collected about your child will be retained). In this event, please tell your child’s school who will communicate this to YTU, or you can contact us directly using the details below.

If you wish to exercise any of the rights set out above in connection with this research project, please email us or write to us at the contact addresses below.

Questions or concerns

If you have any questions about this privacy notice or concerns about how your child’s data is being processed, please contact YTU using the details below, or the University’s Data Protection Officer at dataprotection@york.ac.uk.

Right to complain

If you are unhappy with the way in which the University has handled your child’s personal data, we ask that you contact us in the first instance, to enable us to resolve your concerns. If you remain dissatisfied, you have the right to make a complaint to the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO), the UK supervisory authority for data protection issues (www.ico.org.uk).

Changes to our privacy notice

We may change this Privacy Notice from time to time. If we make any significant changes in the way we treat your child’s personal information we will make this clear by contacting schools and ensuring they provide you with an updated version of this Privacy Notice.

This privacy notice was last updated on 13 January 2022.

How to contact us:

Post: TDTS Evaluation Team, York Trials Unit, Department of Health Sciences, University of York, Heslington, York YO10 5DD

Email: ytu-tdts@york.ac.uk