Blunder as pupils' private details revealed on website of Cuxton Community Junior School
Pupil data was
published on the website of Cuxton Community Junior School
by Nicola Jordan
A shocking lapse in security at a Medway primary school has led
to vulnerable children's details being published on the
internet.
The embarrassing blunder revealed the full names of pupils in
foster care, children who qualified for free school meals because
parents could not afford to pay and the names of children whose
parents are in the Armed Forces.
The details appeared on Cuxton Community Junior School's public
website, which could be accessed by anyone.
The lapse was discovered by a parent, but it is not known how
long the details had been public.
The parent, who did not want to be named, said: "I am horrified.
This is appalling. This is a clear safeguarding breach and very
wrong."
Confidential details of
pupils were posted on the school website
Private details of pupils were published on the website of
Cuxton Community Junior School
The details were removed from the website later that day Medway
Council was connected about the matter.
Head teacher Tracey Terry has apologised to all families
affected and said they would all be contacted individually by the
school.
One of the documents listed pupils who require counselling and
those who need special tuition.
There were seven pupils who were listed as having weekly
counselling for emotional and or psychological problems.
Another list included the names of 17 pupils who receive extra
maths and literacy tuition, who the extra tuition was provided by
and how much it cost.
Another document listed a total of 14 pupils claiming free
school meals, with a further 10 named as past claimants. Four were
also listed as Armed Forces children and one as being in foster
care.
The document could be accessed via a link on the school's home
page, alongside details of terms dates and other school news. Any
member of the public visiting the site could have accessed the
information.
Miss Terry said: "At the school we go to great lengths to ensure
this type of sensitive information is kept private and we deeply
regret that this has occurred.
"The school will be looking at the processes it uses to upload
sensitive information and will be agreeing some changes with the
governors to ensure this type of error does not happen again."
Barbara Peacock, director of children's services at Medway
Council, said the website was operated by the school and not the
council.
"All schools are required by the Department for Education to
publish information about how the government's pupil premium is
spent, however, no individual details should be made public," she
said.
"In this case there was a very unfortunate issue where a working
document was mistakenly put on to the site before some details had
been removed."
21/02/13
- Click here for more Medway news...
- Click here for more news from across the county...