Disposal of school records

Guidance for schools

The current Model Disposal of Records Schedule was developed by a joint working group including members of DE, Education Boards and CCMS. It provides guidance on the scheduling of records for disposal, whether by destruction or by transfer to the Public Record Office of Northern Ireland (PRONI) for permanent preservation.

The model guidance has been quality assured by PRONI in accordance with the Public Records Act (Northern Ireland) 1923 and laid before the Northern Ireland Assembly for a 10 day statutory sitting period, following which the Schedule became operational in June 2013.

The schedule is available below in Word format to download and personalise for your school. Any queries regarding completion of this schedule should be addressed by the FOI Records Officer within your employing authority.

• Schools model disposal of records schedule

Transfer of Records to PRONI

As public authorities, schools in Northern Ireland are subject to the Public Records Act (Northern Ireland) 1923 and the Disposal of Documents Order 1925. Under the terms of this legislation, they are obliged to present, to PRONI, records, which are of significant public or historic interest. The point of transfer for these records is by the time the records reach 20 years of age, or earlier if agreed with PRONI.

The current Disposal of Records Schedule for schools identifies the following categories of record which must presented to PRONI:

• 1.2 BOG Meetings Minutes
• 1.3 Senior Management Team - Meeting Minutes
• 1.12 Annual Report
• 3.2 Pupil Attendance Information/Registers

PRONI has indicated that School Development Plans are no longer under consideration, so these records may be disposed of, without being presented to them, so long as they have reached the minimum retention period of ten years from the date the plan ended.

PRONI may also accept, outside of those records specified by the Schedule, original hard-copy versions of the records listed at the Annex below.

Annex – Hard-copy school records accepted by PRONI outside of disposal schedule

PRONI may be contacted, for further information or advice, at RecordsManagement@communities-ni.gov.uk