The Pupil Information (Wales) Regulations 2011

Transfer of information when a pupil changes school

6.—(1) In this regulation “common transfer information” (“gwybodaeth drosglwyddo gyffredin”) means the information listed in Schedule 2.

(2) Where this regulation requires information to be transferred in machine readable form, that requirement may be met by transferring the information—

(a) through a secure internet website provided for that purpose by or on behalf of the Welsh Ministers; or

(b) through an intranet provided for that purpose by or on behalf of a local authority, and for the purposes of this regulation an intranet means a closed network that can only be accessed—

(i) by the local authority,

(ii) by or on behalf of a governing body of a school within that authority,

(iii) by a teacher at a school within that authority,

save that where a pupil transfers to a maintained school maintained by another local authority the requirement must be met by transferring the information through a secure internet website provided for that purpose by or on behalf of the Welsh Ministers.

(3) Subject to paragraph (8), where a pupil ceases to be a registered pupil at a maintained school (the “old school”) and becomes a registered pupil at another school (the “new school”), the pupil’s common transfer information and educational record must be transferred to the head teacher of the new school as soon as possible after the date on which the head teacher of the old school first learned of the pupil’s registration at the new school and in any event no later than within fifteen school days after the day on which the pupil ceases to be registered at the old school.

(4) The information and record referred to in paragraph (3) must be transferred by the head teacher of the old school or, where this has been agreed between that head teacher and the local authority, that authority.

(5) The common transfer information must be transferred in machine readable form.

(6) The educational record may be transferred in machine readable form or in paper form or in a combination of both forms.

(7) Where it is not reasonably practicable for the head teacher of the old school to ascertain the pupil’s new school, or where the head teacher is aware that the pupil is moving to a school other than a maintained school in Wales or England, the requirements in paragraphs (3) and (4) of this regulation do not apply but the head teacher of the old school must transfer the common transfer information to a secure internet website provided for that purpose by or on behalf of the Welsh Ministers.

(8) Where a pupil has been registered at a maintained school for less than four weeks, it is to be sufficient compliance for the purposes of paragraphs (3) and (4) if the head teacher of that school or, where applicable, the local authority transfers such information and record as they have received under this regulation from the school at which the pupil was previously registered in the form in which it was received by them.

(9) For the purposes of paragraph (8), the reference in paragraph (3) to “fifteen school days” is a reference to the number of days after the day on which the pupil ceases to be registered at the school in question or to the number of days after the information and record have been received by the head teacher of that school, whichever is the later.

(10) If the head teacher of a pupil’s old school receives a request from the head teacher of the school at which the pupil is currently a registered pupil, either for the common transfer information relating to the time when the pupil left the old school or for any educational record relating to that pupil in the old school’s possession, the head teacher must provide it within fifteen school days of receiving the request.

(11) If a pupil arrives at a new maintained school without his or her old school being available, the head teacher of the new school must contact the local authority which maintains the new school to request a search of the secure internet website provided by or on behalf of the Welsh Ministers for the pupil’s common transfer information.