Principle
Synergy keeps personal information only for as long as it is needed for education, safeguarding, administration, legal obligations or the establishment and defence of claims.
Retention decisions
Retention periods should reflect the type of record, the age of the student, safeguarding duties, contractual needs, limitation periods and any legal or regulatory requirement. Records may need different periods even when they relate to the same person.
Record categories
- Enquiries and unsuccessful applications
- Student and parent contact information
- Enrolment, attendance and academic records
- Safeguarding and welfare records
- Financial and transaction records
- Complaints and incident records
- Consent, media and lesson recording records
- System logs and website information
Review and disposal
Records should be reviewed at suitable intervals. When no longer required, paper and electronic information must be securely deleted or destroyed. Backups should expire through controlled cycles. Anonymised information may be retained where a person can no longer be identified.
Legal holds
Normal deletion must be paused where information is needed for a complaint, safeguarding matter, investigation, legal claim or request from an authorised body.