Guidance on data retention for schools in England for SIMS .bak Migrations

When migrating your school data to Arbor via .bak, we migrate all of the student, staff and guardian data you need to effectively run your school. If there is any additional data you’d like to top-up following your migration you can find instructions on how to do so here. 

Our data migration process follows DfE guidance on data retention, as well as best practice advice from The Key. The migration to Arbor via .bak is compliant with statutory data retention rules.

However, it is the responsibility of schools and trusts as data controllers to keep and maintain their records for as long as required whether by statutory compliance or otherwise recommended by DfE guidance.  As such, we’d recommend you keep a backup of all your data on file so you can always access it.  

We have set out the legal requirements a school is required to follow regarding data contained within their MIS, and separately additional guidance schools can choose to follow in the links below. Please note that this list is not exhaustive.

Statutory requirements:

• Section 2 of the Limitation Act 1980 sets out a 6 year data retention requirement
• Regulation 7 of The School Attendance (Pupil Registration) (England) Regulations 2024 sets out a 6 year data retention requirement 
• The Education (Pupil Information) (England) Regulations 2005 sets out what is pupil information

 DfE guidance refers to section 2 of The Limitation Act 1980, and Regulation 7 of The School Attendance (Pupil Registration) (England) Regulations 2024, both of which stipulate a six year retention period

Additional guidance:

• UK GDPR: retention and disposal of records (The Key)
• Data record keeping and management (DfE)
• Pupil’s educational record and legislation schools need to adhere to (DfE)