Frequently asked questions about how schools use IRIS Connect
Please note: IRIS Connect provides the platform, but it is each individual school — not IRIS Connect — that decides how it is used, and that is responsible for this data under data protection law. The answers below describe what most schools typically do, based on our experience across the schools we work with. Your own school may do things differently. For anything specific to your child, always contact your school directly.
About IRIS Connect
1. What is IRIS Connect, and why does my child's school use it?
IRIS Connect is a market-leading professional development platform that uses video to support teachers' professional development and improve learning outcomes for pupils. Teachers record their own lessons so they can reflect on their practice and can securely share with a mentor or coach for feedback. It's used by schools across the UK and internationally as part of their approach to continuing professional development (CPD) — it is not used to assess, monitor, or make decisions about individual pupils.
2. In what circumstances would my child be recorded?
Teachers use IRIS Connect to record their own classroom teaching so they can reflect on and improve their practice, and your child may appear in these recordings simply by being part of the class while this happens. Recording is focused on supporting the teacher's development, not on capturing or assessing individual pupils.
3. Do I need to give permission, or can I object to my child being recorded?
This is set locally by each school, so practice varies. Many schools ask parents to indicate a preference as part of registration or an annual data collection form; others rely on their own published policy without seeking individual consent for each recording, typically because they rely on "public task" rather than consent as their legal basis (see question 13). If you would prefer your child isn't recorded, contact your school directly — most schools will make reasonable arrangements, such as positioning the camera to exclude your child or not recording particular classes.
Access and who can see recordings
4. Am I able to request to see any recording that includes my child?
Recordings are made solely for staff professional development and are not made available to parents, carers, or pupils to view as a matter of routine.
Separately, you (or your child, depending on their age and understanding) have the right to make a Subject Access Request (SAR) under UK data protection law, asking the school for a copy of any personal data it holds about your child — which can include a recording they appear in. Because a classroom recording will usually also show other pupils and the teacher, the school has to balance your child's right of access against the data protection rights of those other people: UK GDPR is explicit that this right "shall not adversely affect the rights and freedoms of others" (Article 15(4)).
Contact your school, or its Data Protection Officer, to make a request — exactly how it's handled will depend on their own SAR process and the specifics of the recording.
5. Who is able to see these recordings?
IRIS Connect provides a secure, closed platform for professional learning. Recordings can only be shared by the teacher who made them, with the specific individuals or groups their school has approved — typically a coach, mentor, or member of the school's leadership team supporting their development.
Administrators are able to see thumbnail preview images, without sound, as a safeguarding check that the platform is being used appropriately; this does not give them access to full recordings.
6. Besides educators, who else can see these videos? Will IRIS Connect share these videos with third parties?
Only educators with authorised accounts at your child's school can access videos on the IRIS Connect platform. IRIS Connect never shares classroom videos with third parties in normal use. There are limited circumstances — such as where a crime is suspected — in which IRIS Connect would disclose data if legally required to do so by a body with the appropriate authority.
7. Could these recordings be uploaded to other websites, or downloaded?
IRIS Connect does not enable video content to be downloaded from the platform by default — this is part of how we keep control of footage secure and prevent it being copied or uploaded elsewhere. In controlled circumstances, and with appropriate authorisation, downloading is permitted — for example, when a teacher is evidencing their practice for a professional qualification. Recordings are never made public or searchable outside the platform.
Safeguarding and behaviour
9. What happens if a recording captures something that raises a safeguarding concern?
IRIS Connect recordings are made for professional development, not to monitor pupil behaviour. However, if a recording happens to show something that raises a safeguarding concern, schools have the same duty to report and act on it as they would if a member of staff had witnessed it directly — this is handled under the school's own safeguarding and child protection policy, not through routine viewing of CPD footage. UK data protection law specifically permits this kind of use to safeguard children, provided the school documents its decision-making appropriately. Ask your school for details of how this works in practice.
10. Could a recording be used as evidence in a behaviour or disciplinary matter?
No, not as a matter of routine. Recordings are collected for one specific purpose — teacher professional development — and using them as behaviour or disciplinary evidence would be a different, incompatible purpose. Unlike a genuine safeguarding concern (see question 9), there is no specific legal condition that automatically makes routine behaviour management a compatible reuse of this footage, so a school using recordings this way as standard practice would be going beyond what IRIS Connect is intended for.
The exception is where an incident is serious enough to itself raise a safeguarding concern, or may amount to a criminal matter — in those specific circumstances, a recording could legitimately be escalated in the same way described in question 9, under the school's safeguarding process, rather than as routine disciplinary evidence. If you're concerned about how a specific recording has been used, raise this with your school directly.
Storage and retention
11. How long are recordings kept?
This is set by each school as part of its own data retention policy. Our guidance to schools is to keep recordings only for as long as they remain useful for a teacher's professional development — often a single term or CPD cycle — and then to delete or anonymise them. Ask your school for their specific retention period.
12. Where is my child's data stored, and is it secure?
Yes, IRIS Connect's system is very secure. Recordings are uploaded automatically to IRIS Connect's platform, with no local copies kept on cameras or devices, and are never made public.
Further information can be found here:
Legal basis and your rights
13. What legal basis does the school rely on to do this without asking for individual consent?
Most schools rely on "public task" as their lawful basis, since supporting pupil learning through the training of teaching staff is generally part of a school's statutory function. Some schools instead choose to rely on consent, particularly where they've built this into their registration process. This decision is made by each school individually.
14. What data protection rights do I have on behalf of my child?
Parents and carers can ask their child's school about their child's information under UK data protection law — for example, asking what's held, requesting a copy, asking for something to be corrected, or objecting to how it's used. Exactly how these requests are handled depends on the lawful basis the school is using and their own policies, so your school (or their Data Protection Officer) is the first point of contact. If you remain concerned after raising something with your school, you also have the right to contact the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) at ico.org.uk.
AI features
15. Does IRIS Connect use AI on my child's recordings?
Not every school uses this feature. Some schools use an optional feature called AI Insights, which analyses the transcript of a lesson — not the video itself — to help surface teaching patterns, such as questioning, feedback, and pupil engagement, for the teacher's own reflection. Video and images are never sent to the AI service; only the text transcript is, over an encrypted connection, and it is deleted after analysis. This data is not used to train or improve the underlying AI models, and teachers can switch AI analysis off for any individual recording.
Contact us
16. Who do I contact with more questions?
For anything specific to your child — their recordings, your school's policies, or a request under data protection law — contact your child's school directly; they are responsible for these decisions as the data controller. For general questions about the IRIS Connect platform itself, you can start a live chat or email dpo@irisconnect.co.uk