Demographic information about secondary schools

The request was successful.

Dear Buckinghamshire County Council,

I would ideally like the full post code of all pupils who have just started in year 7 this September (2015) but feel that may breach the Data Protection Act (DPA). The Information Commissioner’s guidance (https://ico.org.uk/media/1061/anonymisat...) states, “… the objective should be to achieve the maximum level of detail that can be balanced with the protection of individuals’ privacy.” The Commissioner goes on to say that postal sectors (the full post code minus the last two digits) contain approximately 2,600 households and I feel that this level of detail would give me the information I am seeking whilst protecting the identity of the individuals to whom it relates so I am requesting this reduced level of detail. If the Council are in any doubt I would recommend speaking to the Information Commissioner’s Office to seek their guidance first hand.

I have also given some consideration as to how to minimise the burden on the Council in redacting this information. Assuming the information is held in an Excel spreadsheet, I would like to suggest that the Excel functions MID() and LEN() can be combined to automatically return a cell value with the last two characters truncated using the formula:
=MID(A1,1,LEN(A1)-2)
(where A1 is the cell containing the full post code.) The postal sectors would then need to be copied and pasted back as values so the full post codes can be deleted. I can provide a sample spreadsheet if this would help.

I’d like the information to be provided in a spreadsheet or CSV file allowing it to be further analysed. The information can be in a single CSV/Excel file or in separate worksheets broken down by school but should contain the school name in one column and postal sector in the next. The schools I am interested in are
Aylesbury Grammar School, Aylesbury (boys)
Aylesbury High School, Aylesbury (girls)
Beaconsfield High School, Beaconsfield (girls)
Burnham Grammar School, Burnham (mixed)
Chesham Grammar School, Chesham (mixed)
Dr Challoner's Grammar School, Amersham (boys)
Dr Challoner's High School, Little Chalfont (girls)
John Hampden Grammar School, High Wycombe (boys)
Royal Grammar School, High Wycombe (boys)
Royal Latin School, Buckingham (mixed)
Sir Henry Floyd Grammar School, Aylesbury (mixed)
Sir William Borlase's Grammar School, Marlow (mixed)
Wycombe High School, High Wycombe (girls)

Yours faithfully,

James Coombs

Freedom of Information Mailbox, Buckinghamshire County Council

Dear Customer,

 

Thank you for contacting Buckinghamshire County Council.

 

Please be assured that your email is important to us.

 

Your enquiry has been received and we will respond as soon as possible,
but the statutory deadlines to respond are as follows:

 

Data Protection Act 1998 - 40 calendar days.

 

Freedom of Information Act 2000 - 20 working days.

 

Further information on our services can be found at: [1]www.buckscc.gov.uk

 

Information on the Council is available [2]here and independent guidance
is available from the Information Commissioner at: [3]http://ico.org.uk/

 

 

Kind regards,

 

Freedom of Information Team

 

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Freedom of Information Mailbox, Buckinghamshire County Council

Dear Mr Coombs

FREEDOM OF INFORMATION ACT 2000 - INFORMATION REQUEST

Thank you for contacting Buckinghamshire County Council.

I am sorry, but we would not hold the specific information that you have requested, all the schools listed are academies and you would need to contact the schools directly for this information.

We would, however, hold admissions allocation data and this would be 'all children allocated a place at the end of the allocation process for September 2015 entry', but not data on 'all children who have just started' (which would be the schools' on roll data, which would give a definitive answer).

A directory of schools is available at:

http://www.buckscc.gov.uk/education/scho...

If you have any further queries or require any information that we would hold then please contact me.

If you have a complaint about the handling of your request then please use the Council’s complaints procedure (at Stage 3) in the first instance. This is available at:
http://www.buckscc.gov.uk/sites/bcc/abou...
Or by writing to:
FOI Monitoring Officer
Buckinghamshire County Council
County Hall
Aylesbury
Bucks
HP20 1UA
Or via email: [Buckinghamshire County Council request email]

You can also then complain to the Information Commissioner at:
Information Commissioner's Office
Wycliffe House
Water Lane
Wilmslow
Cheshire
SK9 5AF
Tel: 0303 123 1113
Fax: 01625 524510
Email: [email address]
www.ico.org.uk

Regards

Neil Doling

Freedom of Information Officer

Strategy and Planning | HQ Customer & Communications | Business Enterprise

[Buckinghamshire County Council request email]
http://www.buckscc.gov.uk/bcc/foi/freedo...
Buckinghamshire County Council
County Hall
Walton Street
Aylesbury
Buckinghamshire
HP20 1UA

show quoted sections

Dear Mr Doling,

Thank you very much for your reply. I intended to request the information based on places _offered_. It didn't occur to me that there would be a slight variance between the offers which were sent out in March and the figures for those who actually started this September. I'm interested in the broad demographics so the information on _allocations_ which Bucks council hold will suffice. I could, as you suggest, contact each of the schools although I think the overall effort in providing this information would be far greater (although less for the council).

Sorry my original request was not clear but please could you provide information based on offers?

Thanks
James Coombs

Freedom of Information Mailbox, Buckinghamshire County Council

Dear Customer,

 

Thank you for contacting Buckinghamshire County Council.

 

Please be assured that your email is important to us.

 

Your enquiry has been received and we will respond as soon as possible,
but the statutory deadlines to respond are as follows:

 

Data Protection Act 1998 - 40 calendar days.

 

Freedom of Information Act 2000 - 20 working days.

 

Further information on our services can be found at: [1]www.buckscc.gov.uk

 

Information on the Council is available [2]here and independent guidance
is available from the Information Commissioner at: [3]http://ico.org.uk/

 

 

Kind regards,

 

Freedom of Information Team

 

Buckinghamshire Local Offer

Local information and advice for children and young people aged 0-25 with
a special educational need or disability

[4]Family Info

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Buckinghamshire County Council will not accept any liability for damage
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All GCSx traffic may be subject to recording and / or monitoring in
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The views expressed in this email are not necessarily those of
Buckinghamshire County Council unless explicitly stated.

This footnote also confirms that this email has been swept for content and
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Freedom of Information Mailbox, Buckinghamshire County Council

1 Attachment

Dear Mr Coombs

Thank you for your email and your revised request, which we attach information for now.

We hope this is of help.

Regards

Neil Doling

Freedom of Information Officer

Strategy and Planning | HQ Customer & Communications | Business Enterprise

[Buckinghamshire County Council request email]
http://www.buckscc.gov.uk/bcc/foi/freedo...
Buckinghamshire County Council
County Hall
Walton Street
Aylesbury
Buckinghamshire
HP20 1UA

show quoted sections

Andrew Walker left an annotation ()

Sir, would it be possible for you to ask for the same information for other Secondary School in the county?

Dear Mr Doling,

Thank you very much for providing the requested information.

Yours sincerely,

James Coombs

Freedom of Information Mailbox, Buckinghamshire County Council

Dear Customer,

 

Thank you for contacting Buckinghamshire County Council.

 

Please be assured that your email is important to us.

 

Your enquiry has been received and we will respond as soon as possible,
but the statutory deadlines to respond are as follows:

 

Data Protection Act 1998 - 40 calendar days.

 

Freedom of Information Act 2000 - 20 working days.

 

Further information on our services can be found at: [1]www.buckscc.gov.uk

 

Information on the Council is available [2]here and independent guidance
is available from the Information Commissioner at: [3]http://ico.org.uk/

 

 

Kind regards,

 

Freedom of Information Team

 

Buckinghamshire Local Offer

Local information and advice for children and young people aged 0-25 with
a special educational need or disability

[4]Family Info

[5]www.bucksfamilyinfo.org/localoffer

Email: [6][email address]  Tel: 01296 383065

[7]Facebook[8]Like Us [9]Follow Us[10]Follow Us [11]Watch Us[12]Watch Us

[13]LGC Awards Winner[14]Investors In People
Buckinghamshire County Council

Visit our Web Site : [15]http://www.buckscc.gov.uk

Buckinghamshire County Council Email Disclaimer

This Email, and any attachments, may contain Protected or Restricted
information and is intended solely for the individual to whom it is
addressed. It may contain sensitive or protectively marked material and
should be handled accordingly. If this Email has been misdirected, please
notify the author or [16][email address] immediately. If you are
not the intended recipient you must not disclose, distribute, copy, print
or rely on any of the information contained in it or attached, and all
copies must be deleted immediately. Whilst we take reasonable steps to try
to identify any software viruses, any attachments to this Email may
nevertheless contain viruses which our anti-virus software has failed to
identify. You should therefore carry out your own anti-virus checks before
opening any documents.

Buckinghamshire County Council will not accept any liability for damage
caused by computer viruses emanating from any attachment or other document
supplied with this email.

All GCSx traffic may be subject to recording and / or monitoring in
accordance with relevant legislation.

The views expressed in this email are not necessarily those of
Buckinghamshire County Council unless explicitly stated.

This footnote also confirms that this email has been swept for content and
for the presence of computer viruses.

References

Visible links
1. http://www.buckscc.gov.uk/
2. http://www.buckscc.gov.uk/about-your-cou...
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4. http://www.bucksfamilyinfo.org/localoffer
5. file:///tmp/www.bucksfamilyinfo.org/localoffer
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James Coombs left an annotation ()

Dear Mr Walker,
Academy schools are obliged to admit children, ‘wholly or largely from the area in which they reside’ and with the system of ‘parental choice’ (sic) which allows _schools_ to select those children they want to admit, there is clearly a great deal of interest in any policy which gives preference to children living further from a school than another.
I have used information kindly provided by Reading Local Authority along with geospatial postcode data from the Ordnance Survey to quantify the large differences between selective and non-selective Academies here: http://trak.org.uk/wholly-or-mainly-2/ Anyone interested should check the petition https://www.change.org/p/local-schools-f... Although currently targeted at just two schools it’s taken me some time to realise that this is actually a _national_ issue and I’m very keen to add any more ‘decision makers’ to the petition which anyone can recommend.
It’s difficult balancing the burden placed on authorities in providing this information against the public interest in having it. Kent County Council suggested that the DfE’s Autumn School Census could provide information for those actually on roll. This can be broken down by year (allowing some longitudinal analysis) maybe for the whole of Bucks or maybe for the whole of England.
I’d like to give some careful consideration as to what to ask before diving straight in and will undertake to make a request which at least covers Bucks via whatdotheyknow but even if I asked for this today it would be the New Year before getting any response.
best wishes
James Coombs

James Coombs left an annotation ()

I have combined the information provided with information from Ordnance Survey to calculate average home-school distances.
I thought I would be able to add to this request as an attachment but that isn't possible so I've posted it here: trak.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2014/12/BFOI.xlsx
Other information relating to admission (including a link to this spreadsheet) is here: http://trak.org.uk/resources/