Thinking about your schools’ data as if it was a child in your care

“Data is the new oil” was first quoted in 2006. It highlighted how valuable data is and how it needs to be refined to get the power out it. However, when you are thinking about data in a school this can feel risky.

When it comes to young people’s data, we really need to think of it as an extension of them. In the same way we must protect and nurture the young people in our care, the same must be done with their data.

Getting it right for every “data” child

By changing how we think of data we can make sure it is handled safely. If you were to imagine the data is your school was another child, how would you handle it?

Using the SHANARRI factors would be a good starting point,

Safe	who has access to the data?
Healthy	what’s the quality of the data?
Achieving	does your data help you achieve the goals in your school?
Nurtured	does the data in your school develop to match your needs?
Active	is your data refreshed regularly enough?
Respected	is the data respected and correctly used in your school?
Responsible	do you use your data responsibly?
Included	do you include your data in your school’s decision making?

Data can feel like an abstract set of numbers on a screen, but especially when it comes to young people’s data it needs to be cared for and kept safe.

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