John Taylor High School shares pupils' exam results in data breach

John Taylor High School sent a second email apologising for the error about 40 minutes after sharing the data on attachments

A parent has said he is "flabbergasted" a school mistakenly shared all students' A-level results in an email.

John Taylor High School in Barton under Needwood, Staffordshire, sent a message containing the attachments to parents and students on Thursday.

A second email from the head teacher about 40 minutes later urged recipients to delete the earlier one.

The school has confirmed the data breach was a result of human error and has apologised to students and parents.

"[It has] potentially made a happy day for some pupils a very unhappy day," the anonymous parent said.

"I'm just flabbergasted and exceptionally disappointed and [have] concerns about what the possible ramifications can be".

'Each and every pupil'

The school is an academy attended by about 1,600 pupils, rated outstanding by Ofsted.

The parent, whose child is an A-level student at the school, explained the initial email, titled GCE A Level Exam Grade Boundaries Summer Series 2023, outlined how students could review their own grades.

"This email included four attachments which detailed the grades received by each and every pupil in the sixth form at John Taylor High School, identified by name and surname as well as not only the grade, but also the individual marks," he said.

The second email, sent at 09:05 BST and titled Urgent Y13 grade boundaries, said the school was "extremely sorry" for the error.

"Please do not open and please delete the email titled grade boundaries. We have just been made aware that this email has been sent out in error and contains student data," it said.

'Major concern'

The message went on to say the school had recalled the email from students but was unable to do the same for parents.

"We have immediately reported this breach to the data protection officer and will take any further action as advised by them. We apologise profusely at this time for any upset this may have caused," it said.

The parent said the mistake was of "major concern" and left him questioning the competence of the school's leadership team.

"No person wants their child walking down the street and have another pupil tell them what marks they got or get derogatory remarks," he said.

"It is of major concern that an education institution can make such a fundamental error.

"The school has ultimately failed to protect their confidentiality in a fundamental way."

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Head Teacher Katie Cochrane said: "This was a case of human error, and the school are deeply distressed about the potential upset that could be caused to our students and parents.

"For this we are truly sorry. We have already completed an internal investigation into this with the support of the data protection officer to ascertain the reasons for this mistake.

"We are aware of these and will put measures in place to ensure that this does not happen again."

Speaking on Friday morning, a spokesperson for the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) said the breach had not yet been reported to the watchdog.