Staff Names — Legitimate Interest Assessment
Last updated: 22 April 2026
School Atlas shows the name and job title of the most senior member of staff at each school we list (most commonly the headteacher, principal, or head of school). That data is personal data of a living person, so we rely on a specific lawful basis and accept a corresponding right to object. This page documents our Article 6(1)(f) UK GDPR Legitimate Interest Assessment for that processing and explains how named staff can exercise their Article 21 right to object.
1. Purpose
Parents choosing a school commonly want to know who leads it. Headteacher identity is a signal of the school's current direction, is routinely published by the schools themselves, and is the key contact point quoted in inspection reports, local authority directories, and governing-body minutes. Making this information findable alongside the rest of the school's data helps parents reach informed decisions without needing to open multiple sources.
2. Data processed
For the current senior leader of each school we hold:
- Full name (as published by the school or a recognised register)
- Job title (Headteacher, Principal, Head of School, Head of Lower School, etc.)
- The source and date we observed the information
We do notstore personal contact details, home address, date of birth, private biographical information, or any special-category data about staff. Photographs, where shown, are taken from the school's own published profile.
3. Source
Staff identities come from (i) the Department for Education's Get Information about Schools register, (ii) the equivalent registers for Scotland (SEEMIS), Wales (Estyn), and Northern Ireland (DENI), (iii) the school's own published profile on its website or its Ofsted / Estyn / Education Scotland / ETI / ISI inspection report, and (iv) where a school holds a claimed profile on School Atlas, the updates entered by a verified representative of that school.
4. Necessity test
Is the processing necessary for the stated purpose? Yes. Telling parents who leads a school is a routine piece of information; omitting it would materially weaken the usefulness of the profile. There is no less intrusive way to achieve the same outcome — initials or anonymised roles would not convey the same signal and are inconsistent with how schools themselves publish the information.
5. Balancing test
Our legitimate interest
- Providing a complete, usable school profile to parents.
- Keeping the platform consistent with government and inspection sources that also publish staff names.
Impact on the data subject
- The information relates to the person's public professional role, not their private life. Headteacher identity is, in almost all cases, already published by the school itself.
- The impact is therefore limited. Possible concerns include the information persisting after the person has left the role, or a person with a safeguarding concern about their personal safety preferring not to be named. Our objection route below addresses both.
- We do not sell, enrich, profile, or use staff data for any purpose beyond display and factual accuracy.
Reasonable expectations
A person who takes up a published headship or principalship reasonably expects the school and independent education reference sites to list their name alongside the school. We do not extend that expectation beyond the published role.
6. Safeguards
- Data minimisation — only name, job title, and provenance are held. No contact details or private attributes.
- Accuracy — any claimed school can correct staff details via the institution portal; unclaimed schools rely on automatic updates from the government and inspection sources.
- Article 14 notice — this page, together with the privacy policy, serves as the Article 14 notice to data subjects whose information was obtained from a third-party source. The first time a named staff member checks their school's profile they encounter both this page and the removal route below.
- Article 21 objection route — the named individual (or the school on their behalf) can request removal in one click via the name removal form. We action every objection within 30 days and by default do not republish the name; we only decline in the narrow case where the school itself, through its verified institution portal, asks us to keep the information live.
- Periodic review — staff rows are refreshed when we re-ingest GIAS / the devolved registers or when a claimed school updates its profile. Rows more than 12 months stale are flagged for review.
7. Conclusion
The legitimate interest in helping parents understand who leads a school outweighs the limited impact on the named individual, given the public nature of the role, the minimal data held, and the accessible objection route. Article 6(1)(f) is the appropriate basis. We will review this assessment at least annually.
8. How to object
Use the one-click name removal form to ask us to remove your name from a school profile. We will confirm receipt within 48 hours and complete the removal within 30 days. You do not have to give a reason. If you would rather email, write to privacy@schoolatlas.co.uk with the school name and URN.