Technology & Innovation - Issue 12

standing agenda item for your IT governance board. Consider also piloting AI tools in a controlled sandbox environment first. Collect feedback from teachers, parents and even students concerning the potential issues around transparency and perceived fairness. Their input can surface concerns that a purely technical evaluationmight miss. The ‘invisible firewall’ Technology alone won’t save you. Ongoing staff training, crystal-clear privacy notices and leadership that models best practice will all help to create cultures in which compliance is second nature. When everyone sees data protection as part of their job, you reduce risk and rapidly build trust. Leadership also matters when resources are tight. Budgets rarely stretch to every item on the security wishlist. Senior IT decision- makers must therefore weigh certain investments – a newer firewall, say, versus expanding staff training – and show governors the return on every pound spent. Often, the cheapest and most effective measure is education. A single well- crafted phishing simulation can reduce successful attacks dramatically. And remember, culture flows downward . When executives take GDPR seriously – asking probing questions in board meetings, reviewing audit results, publicly praising good data habits – staff notice. That visibility turns dry policy into a shared mission. Futureproofing through process Regulation will evolve. The EU and UKmay yet diverge. AI governance is already on lawmakers’ desks. Schools that treat compliance as a one-off project will forever be playing catch-up. Those that embed it into everyday processes – regular audits, annual DPIAs for new tools, vendor checks – will adapt with ease. Think of compliance as continuous improvement, rather than a finish line. A scheduled quarterly review of data flows, retention schedules and third-party contracts will soon become as routine as testing the fire alarms. Some IT leaders are now building ‘data governance dashboards’ that visualise risk levels, breachmetrics and training completion rates. The payoff for this is twofold: governors gain quick oversight, and the IT team spots weak points before regulators do. Why itmatters Handled well, GDPR isn’t a speed bump; it’s a trust accelerator . Parents and staff notice when a school treats its personal information with care. Regulators see it in your documentation and quick responses. Your own leadership teamwill benefit fromhaving cleaner, more reliable data informing their decision-making. In an era when public confidence in institutions is fragile, that trust is priceless. A reputation for responsible data stewardship canmake partnerships easier, funding bids stronger and innovation faster. Far from being a drag on progress, GDPR, done right, bestows a competitive edge. When data is managed as carefully as the pupils it represents, IT decision-makers canmove from being silent guardians to strategic partners, turning compliance into a story of confidence, credibility and progress. ABOUT THE AUTHOR Elliott Lewis is chief information security officer at ParentPay Group; for more information, visit parentpay.com AGDPR TOOLKIT FOR BUSY IT LEADERS 1-MINUTE AUDIT Data map – Keep an up-to-date record of where every dataset lives and who touches it. Retention clock – Flag files approaching end of life so that they’re deleted or anonymised on schedule. Third party contracts – Check vendors’ security clauses and insist on documented data- sharing agreements. RAPID RESPONSE PLAYBOOK 1 Identify and contain – Isolate affected systems and secure backups. 2 Assess impact – What categories of data are involved and what’s the risk to individuals? 3 Escalate – Alert your data protection officer and SLT immediately. 4 Notify if needed – ICO and data subjects must hear from you within 72 hours if there’s high risk FORWARD-LOOKING HABITS Run penetration tests and regular security audits. Require multi-factor authentication for all staff and admin accounts. Bake data protection impact assessments into every new project plan – from cloud migration to AI pilots. Annual refresher training – short, scenario-based sessions keep awareness sharp. These actions aren’t glamorous, but they turn GDPR from a regulatory headache into a routine discipline – while also giving you evidence for when the auditors or inspectors come calling. 53 A D M I N I S T R AT I O N teachwire.net