Letters to parents

I enclose an information leaflet about ethnic monitoring and a short form for you to fill in about the ethnic background of your child, [child's name], as all schools are required to do by the Department for Children, Schools and Families (DCSF). Please read the leaflet and the description of "ethnic background" then tick the appropriate box on the form. Please return the form to me in the enclosed envelope, or by sending it or bringing it to the school office (or by email if it has been sent to you that way). The Information Commissioner (formerly the Data Protection Registrar) has advised that pupils aged 11-15 are considered capable of deciding their own ethnic identity. The DCSF recommends that this decision be made with the support and knowledge of the parent or guardian. Pupils aged 16 and over are recommended to make their own decision.

The information you provide will be used to compile statistics on the school careers and experiences of children from different backgrounds, to help ensure that all children have the opportunity to fulfil their potential. These statistics will not allow individual children to be identified publicly and the information will not be used for any other purpose. From time to time this information will be passed to the Local Education Authority and the DCSF to contribute to local and national statistics. Information about your child's ethnic background will be passed on to any other school to which your child transfers to save you having to be asked for it again. You can ask to check your child's information at any time, and, if you wish, have the ethnic background changed or removed.

[If you have not returned your completed form within four weeks, then the school may use its best judgement to assess the ethnic background of your child, noting that the information has been arrived at in this way, rather than provided by you. The school will let you know this decision and you can ask to have this decision altered or removed, if you wish.] ¹

[We may have asked you about your child's ethnic background before. However we need to check with parents again as there has been a change in the ethnic categories being used nationally.]

Thank you very much for your help.

Yours sincerely
[Headteacher's name]

Model letter to parents - letter 2

Collection and Recording of Pupils' Ethnic Background
You may recall receiving a letter from us about a month ago, asking you to fill in a form about the ethnic background of your child, [child's name]. We have not received a reply from you and so, as we said in our previous letter, we have used our best judgement to arrive at an ethnic background for your child, as recommended by the Department for Children, Schools and Families (DCSF). [Child's name] has been recorded as [ethnic background], with a note that the information has been provided by the school rather than by you. If you wish, you can have this ethnic background changed or removed by returning the original form, or writing to or visiting us at the school.

Many thanks.

Yours sincerely
[Headteacher's name]

¹ This paragraph only to be used by those schools undertaking ascription (and see model letter 2)
² This paragraph only to be used for the one off exercise in cases where the information has recently been requested on the 1991 basis