Choosing a belonging tool: ten questions to ask about your pupils' data

For school and trust leaders, and the people who check data protection for them

With the national Pupil Engagement Framework now expected before the end of 2026/27, schools are being offered surveys, audits and dashboards to fill the gap. Many are useful. Before any of them holds information about your pupils, these are the questions worth asking. They apply to every provider, Belongio included, and our answers are beside each one.

Who you are dealing with

1. Is there a named company behind it, registered with the ICO?

Any organisation processing personal data for a school should be identifiable and, in almost every case, registered with the Information Commissioner's Office. You can check the ICO's public register in a minute.

Belongio: Belongio Ltd, company number 17410716, ICO registration ZC246324. Both are at the foot of every page.

2. Will they sign a data processing agreement with you?

When a provider handles pupil data on your behalf, UK GDPR requires a written contract setting out what they may do with it. "You remain the controller" is not a substitute for one.

Belongio: yes. We sign a data processing agreement with every school or trust, and we will work from your own template if you have one.

3. Will they help with your DPIA?

A tool that profiles pupils, or holds information about them that staff will act on, normally needs a data protection impact assessment before it is used.

Belongio: yes, and no pupil data reaches us until the DPIA and the agreement are in place.

Where the data goes and who can see it

4. Where is the data stored and processed?

The DfE's cloud guidance for schools says data should be stored and processed in the UK or EU unless a lawful transfer is in place. "Our providers may process data outside the UK" deserves a follow-up question.

Belongio: school data is stored and processed in the UK, in London data centres, and is not transferred outside the UK.

5. Who can open it, and is that recorded?

Ask whether access is by named account or by a shared link or code. Anyone who holds a shared code may be able to read or change everything behind it. Ask whether someone who should not answer a survey could still answer it, and whether anyone could answer it many times.

Belongio: staff sign in with their school Microsoft account, protected by the school's multi-factor authentication. A school account alone gives no access; each person needs a role in Belongio and sees only what that role needs. Access to pupil-level data is logged.

6. How does the data get in?

Data keyed in by hand drifts out of date, and free-text boxes collect more than anyone intended, often pupils' names.

Belongio: attendance and behaviour come from your management information system through Wonde, the integration route most schools already use. Your school approves exactly which fields we can read and can switch the connection off at any time. Nobody uploads a spreadsheet of pupils.

Keeping it, and getting it back

7. Is it backed up, and could you get it back?

If a school comes to rely on a measure, losing its history means losing the trend that made it useful. Ask where backups are kept and whether they are encrypted. If the only copy is a file someone downloaded, the school is the backup.

Belongio: backed up regularly by our UK hosting provider, with backups encrypted.

8. How long is it kept, and can you delete it?

Ask for the retention period in writing, and what happens to the data when you stop.

Belongio: we keep attendance and behaviour history for the current and previous academic year. When an agreement ends, we return and/or delete the school's data within 30 days.

Whether the results will count

9. Will the results compare with the DfE's?

By 2029 every school is expected to monitor pupils' sense of belonging, and the Pupil Engagement Framework will set out how. Results from a home-made scale cannot be compared with national figures, and may not map onto the Framework when it publishes.

Belongio: we ask the belonging question the DfE used in its August 2026 national study, so a school's figure sits next to the national picture, including the gaps by SEN, disadvantage and gender. More on what the DfE expects.

10. Can staff act on it?

An anonymous survey shows how big the problem is. It cannot show a tutor which pupil to talk to, or whether the support worked.

Belongio: belonging is shown per pupil, next to attendance and behaviour, with early alerts that give their reason and a record of the support offered. It works alongside any anonymous audit or survey a school already runs.

Why schools choose Belongio

This page is general guidance, not legal advice. Read alongside our privacy notice, which sets out how Belongio handles school and pupil data.