Data Retention

Responsible Retention of Learning Records, Platform Data, Support Information, and Safeguarding Records

Thoth.School aims to retain learner, platform, communication, support, safeguarding, complaint, and administrative records only for legitimate educational, operational, safeguarding, quality, compliance-readiness, or provider-related purposes.

Purpose of This Page

This page explains Thoth.School’s approach to retaining information connected to online learning. It is intended for learners, parents, guardians, instructors, staff, partners, reviewers, and stakeholders who need to understand why information may be retained, how it may be reviewed, and when retention may be necessary.

Data retention is connected to Privacy & Data Protection, Safeguarding & Child Protection, eSafety & Online Conduct, Complaints Procedure, Academic Integrity & AI Use, Technology Requirements, provider-status clarity, and responsible platform operation.

Retention Principle

Thoth.School aims to retain information only as long as there is a legitimate reason to keep it. Such reasons may include learner access, course participation, assessment, feedback, academic review, safeguarding, complaints, technology support, quality improvement, administration, external provider requirements, or legal and operational needs.

Information should not be retained unnecessarily. Where information is no longer needed for a legitimate purpose, it may be deleted, archived, anonymized, restricted, or otherwise handled according to the academy’s operational needs and platform capabilities.

Types of Records That May Be Retained

Thoth.School may retain different categories of information, including:

learner account and enrollment information;
parent/guardian contact information for school-age learners;
course participation, progress, completion, and activity records;
assignments, submissions, quizzes, feedback, projects, and assessment records;
communications with learners, parents, guardians, instructors, staff, or support personnel;
technology-support requests, access issues, and platform troubleshooting records;
safeguarding, eSafety, conduct, privacy, or learner-support records;
complaints, escalation notes, review outcomes, and improvement actions;
provider-related information where external examination, certification, registration, or pathway processes are involved;
administrative records, financial records, or operational records where applicable.

Learner Academic and Progress Records

Academic and progress records may be retained to support learning continuity, feedback, assessment review, course completion, parent/guardian communication, learner support, quality assurance, and future reference.

Such records may include quiz results, assignments, feedback, project submissions, attendance or participation indicators, completion information, teacher notes, review comments, and learner-support actions.

School-Age Learner Records

Records relating to school-age learners may require additional care. Parent/guardian contact, safeguarding concerns, conduct issues, learner-support information, privacy concerns, and progress-related information may need to be retained to support learner protection and responsible communication.

School-age learner information should be accessed only by those with a legitimate educational, support, safeguarding, administrative, or operational need.

Safeguarding and Child Protection Records

Safeguarding records may need to be retained for longer than ordinary course activity records because they may involve learner safety, wellbeing, escalation, parent/guardian communication, serious concerns, or future reference.

Safeguarding records should be handled carefully, shared only with those who need to know, and protected from unnecessary access or disclosure. Confidentiality is important, but it cannot be promised absolutely where learner safety, legal responsibility, or urgent protection needs require appropriate sharing.

Complaints and Escalation Records

Complaints, concerns, escalation notes, review outcomes, and improvement actions may be retained to support fair handling, accountability, quality improvement, safeguarding, policy review, and operational learning.

Retention of complaint records helps Thoth.School identify repeated issues, review response quality, document actions taken, and demonstrate that concerns were considered appropriately.

Academic Integrity Records

Records relating to academic integrity, plagiarism, misuse of AI, unauthorized collaboration, misrepresentation, or assessment irregularities may be retained where needed to support review, feedback, resubmission decisions, parent/guardian communication, learner guidance, or course quality.

Academic integrity records should be handled proportionately and should focus on supporting fair review, learner development, and responsible educational standards.

Technology and Platform Records

The learning platform may generate technical or activity information related to access, logins, course participation, completion, submissions, messages, system use, errors, support requests, and security monitoring.

Such information may be retained to support platform operation, troubleshooting, account security, learner support, auditability, course improvement, and safe online learning.

External Provider and Examination Records

Where a learning pathway involves external academic, examination, certification, cloud, AI, cybersecurity, technology, or digital-skills providers, additional records may be needed for registration, eligibility, candidate communication, provider requirements, examination arrangements, or certification-related processes.

External providers may have their own retention requirements, privacy policies, registration rules, examination processes, and recordkeeping obligations. Thoth.School will not represent external provider status unless such status has been formally granted.

Administrative and Financial Records

Where applicable, Thoth.School may retain administrative, payment, billing, enrollment, communications, service, or operational records for legitimate business, accounting, support, legal, audit, or administrative purposes.

Such records should be handled carefully and retained only as needed for legitimate operational or legal purposes.

Data Minimization and Review

Thoth.School aims to avoid retaining unnecessary information. Course design, assignments, support requests, and communication should avoid requesting sensitive information unless there is a clear educational, safeguarding, administrative, or provider-related reason.

Retention practices may be reviewed periodically as courses, learner numbers, tools, providers, and operational needs develop.

Deletion, Archiving, and Restriction

Information may be deleted, archived, restricted, anonymized, or retained depending on its type, purpose, age, relevance, safeguarding significance, complaint status, provider requirement, system capability, and operational need.

Some information may not be immediately removable if it is needed for safeguarding, complaints, academic review, legal obligations, financial records, system integrity, backup processes, or external provider requirements.

Backups and System Copies

Platform data may exist in backups or system copies for operational continuity, recovery, security, or administrative purposes. Backup retention and deletion may follow technical processes that differ from ordinary course-page or account-level deletion.

Where information is removed from active systems, it may still remain temporarily in backups until those backups expire or are replaced according to operational procedures.

Learner and Parent/Guardian Requests

Learners, parents, or guardians may contact Thoth.School to ask questions about retained information, request correction of relevant information, or raise concerns about retention.

Requests will be reviewed according to the type of record, learner status, age, parent/guardian relationship, safeguarding implications, course requirements, provider requirements, system limitations, and applicable operational needs.

Security and Access Control

Retained information should be protected by reasonable access controls. Access should be limited to those who need the information for teaching, support, safeguarding, administration, technology operation, complaints handling, quality review, or provider-related processes.

Unauthorized access, copying, sharing, alteration, or misuse of retained information is not permitted and may result in conduct review, access restriction, or escalation.

Retention and AI Tools

Learners should avoid entering personal, confidential, sensitive, employer, client, medical, financial, family, or restricted information into AI tools unless the tool is approved for that purpose and the learner has permission to share the information.

External AI tools may retain or process information according to their own terms, settings, and provider rules. Learners and parents/guardians should treat AI tools carefully and should not assume that information entered into AI systems remains private or removable.

Retention and Safeguarding Overrides

Safeguarding concerns may override ordinary expectations of deletion or confidentiality. Where information is relevant to learner safety, wellbeing, serious misconduct, legal responsibility, or urgent protection needs, Thoth.School may retain and share information appropriately.

The academy’s priority in such situations is learner protection, proportionate handling, and responsible escalation.

Continuous Improvement

Thoth.School will continue improving its data-retention practices as its courses, learner population, platform configuration, provider relationships, and operational procedures develop.

Improvements may include clearer retention schedules, stronger documentation, better access controls, updated policy language, improved backup processes, and more detailed recordkeeping procedures.

Commitment to Responsible Retention

Thoth.School’s commitment is to retain information responsibly, protect learner privacy, support safeguarding, preserve necessary records, avoid unnecessary data collection, and improve retention practices over time.