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St Matthew's Primary School
Norfolk Street
Cambridge
CB1 2LD
 
16th June 2006
 
Dear parent,
 
Thank you for your letter to Julian Jacobs of 8 June 2006 concerning Junior Librarian. I should inform you that Julian has very recently stepped down as the Chair of St Matthew's Governing Body and I have been elected as his replacement. Julian has therefore passed your letter to me and I would like to take this opportunity to reply to you on behalf of the Governing Body.
 
I am certainly interested in you views and would like to assure you that I have no wish to trivialise the use of Biometric data or any of the associated concerns. I understand from Tony Davies that you have had a number of productive discussions in which many of the points you raised have been covered in some detail and are fully understood by both sides. I am not therefore proposing to cover many of these again, although there are a couple of points which I feel I should address.
 
With regard to the question on the legality of Junior Librarian (and specifically the Identikit part of the system, as I am sure Tony has explained, in legal matters the school seeks advice from the local authority. The school has obtained such advice and, based on this and the judgement of the Information Commissioner, we have chosen to implement Junior Librarian and Identikit as part of our new library development, as have many other schools. I understand that you are seeking to challenge the judgement of the Information Commissioner in this matter but that you are not seeking to involve the school directly in the campaign, which I agree is in the best interests of the school.
 
In implementing Junior Librarian, it was recognised that some parents might have concerns, therefore a conscious decision was taken not to make the system compulsory and the school has never had any intention of forcing children to use the system if their parents or carers object. I appreciate your concerns regarding the school's approach to parental consent and understand from Tony that this is one of the matters on which you and Tony have "agreed to differ".
 
I would therefore like to reassure you that St Matthew's Governing Body is entirely supportive of the use of Junior Librarian and Identikit and the way in which it has been implemented, noting specifically that it is not compulsory.
 
I trust the above, together with your discussions with Tony, has allowed you to understand the way in which the school has approached the matter.
 
As a Governing Body we always welcome the views of parents and I would like to thank you for your valuable input.
 
Yours sincerely,
 
 
Tim Steel
Chair Of Governors