Safeguarding
Safeguarding
What Classfolio does — and does not do — in a school safeguarding context.
For Designated Safeguarding Leads, Headteachers, and Pastoral Leaders evaluating Classfolio.
Classfolio is an educational delivery platform — not a safeguarding reporting system.
Classfolio is not a replacement for your school's safeguarding procedures, reporting tools, or pastoral systems. Concerns about child welfare should always follow your school's established safeguarding processes, regardless of whether the concern arises through use of any digital tool.
Platform design
What Classfolio does
Classfolio is designed to support safe and appropriate use of digital learning tools in schools.
Role-based student access
Students can only access their own work, results, and class materials. Students cannot access other students' work, results, or personal information.
School-managed sign-in
Students sign in using school-issued Google or Microsoft accounts, managed by your school's identity provider. Classfolio does not issue student login credentials.
Teacher oversight of all content
Teachers create and control all lesson content, assessments, assignments, and resources. Where a teacher sets an activity that asks for one, a student can attach an image to their own answer — it goes only to that student's teacher, is never shared into a class space, and cannot be seen by other students. There is no other route for a student to upload files.
Teacher oversight of AI
All AI-generated content is a suggestion presented to teachers for review and editing before it is published to students. AI does not send content directly to students.
No private student messaging
Classfolio has no direct or private messaging between students, and no chat. Students can post to their whole class in a Class Space, but only where a teacher has opened one, and every student message is approved by a teacher before anyone else sees it.
Class Spaces are moderated by default
A Class Space is a per-class noticeboard that stays closed until the teacher opens it. Approval of student messages and replies cannot be switched off, students cannot upload files, and every moderation decision is recorded with who made it and when.
Pseudonymous display names
Student identity within a class can be represented by a pseudonymous display label rather than a full name — helping to minimise unnecessary personal data exposure.
Clear commitments
What Classfolio does not do
Many schools ask us directly about these areas. Here is an honest account of what Classfolio does not do.
Record audio or video
Classfolio does not access, record or store any audio or video from students or teachers. Camera and location access are blocked outright in our browser security headers. The microphone is enabled for one purpose — speaking an answer aloud in an AI-led lesson — and even then the browser does the speech recognition itself: only the resulting text reaches Classfolio, never the audio. The pupil must grant permission, and typing is always offered instead.
Monitor student screens
Classfolio does not capture or monitor student screen content beyond the responses students submit within the platform.
Enable student-to-student contact
There is no direct messaging, chat, or comment feature between students in Classfolio.
Process biometric data
Classfolio does not collect facial recognition, voice biometrics, or any other biometric data.
Use student data to train AI models
Student answers, work, and personal data are never used to train or fine-tune AI models. This applies to all data processed by Classfolio.
Create demographic profiles of students
Classfolio does not build behavioural profiles, inferential profiles, or demographic categories for students based on their platform activity.
Make autonomous decisions about students
AI marking only runs on questions a teacher has configured for it, and a teacher can change any mark or comment at any time. Teachers choose whether marks are held for review or shown as soon as marking finishes. AI output is formative: Classfolio does not stream students, determine progression, or make consequential decisions about them.
Sell student data
Student data is never sold to any third party for any purpose, including advertising, marketing, or research.
Detect or flag safeguarding concerns
Classfolio does not scan, analyse or flag student work for signs of harm, distress or risk. Written responses reach the teacher as part of normal marking, and nothing is escalated automatically. Classfolio must not be relied on to surface a disclosure — that remains the job of your school's own safeguarding procedures.
Teacher responsibility
Teachers remain in control
Classfolio is a tool for teachers. The platform is designed so that teachers control what students see, when they see it, and how their work is assessed. This principle extends to AI-assisted features — AI output is a suggestion a teacher configures, can change, and controls the release of.
Schools remain the Data Controller under UK GDPR, which means your school remains responsible for how the platform is used, which classes and students are enrolled, and how the platform is configured.
Teachers control class access
Teachers manage class membership. Students access a class only when a teacher has added them, either by invitation or via a class code the teacher controls.
Teachers control content release
Assessment results, assignment feedback, and AI-marked responses are released to students only when the teacher chooses to release them — not automatically.
Teachers review AI before publication
AI-generated lessons, assessments, assignments, and resources are presented as editable drafts. No AI content is published to students without teacher approval.
Teachers see student participation
Live lesson participation, assessment completion, and assignment submission are visible to the teacher. Teachers can see which students have responded.
Responsible AI
AI used responsibly in education
Classfolio uses AI to assist teachers — not to assess, monitor, or make decisions about students independently.
AI assists teachers, not students
The primary use of AI in Classfolio is to help teachers create content faster and to provide initial marking suggestions. Students interact with teacher-created content, not directly with AI.
No high-stakes automated decisions
AI-assisted marks are always described as suggestions. Classfolio explicitly cautions against using AI suggestions as the sole basis for high-stakes educational decisions.
Student PII excluded from AI requests
When student answers are sent to AI for marking, no student name, email, or identity information is included in the request. Only the question and answer text are processed.
AI provider: Google Vertex AI
Classfolio uses Google's Vertex AI platform — Gemini for text, processed within Google Cloud's London region (europe-west2), and a Google image model on global infrastructure where a teacher generates an image, which each school switches on or leaves off. Under Google's Vertex AI service terms, data submitted is not used to train Google's models. Image requests contain only a teacher's written description — never pupil work, and nothing uploaded. Every AI-generated image is a draft the teacher reviews before any student sees it.
Optional external AI assistants
A teacher can connect an approved external assistant (currently Claude or ChatGPT) to their own account, if Classfolio, the school administrator and the teacher have each enabled it. It reaches that teacher's own teaching content only. It cannot read student responses, submissions, marks, folio evidence or even class lists, and it cannot publish anything to a class.
Related pages
GDPR & Data Protection
Data controller, processor, student privacy and subprocessors
Read moreSecurity & Infrastructure
Authentication, access controls, encryption and infrastructure
Read moreData Processing Agreement
DPA summary and how to request a signed agreement
Read moreAccessibility
Accessibility features and our commitment to inclusive design
Read moreGet in touch
Safeguarding and pastoral enquiries
If you are a DSL, Headteacher, or pastoral lead with questions about how Classfolio fits your school's safeguarding framework, please get in touch.
For data protection enquiries, contact privacy@classfolio.co.uk