Introduction

This notice is to help you understand how and why we collect personal information about you, categories of personal data and what we do with that information. It also explains the decisions that you can make about your own information.

If you have any questions about this notice please contact the School Office in the first instance.

What is personal information?

Personal information is information that identifies you as an individual and relates to you. This includes your contact details, next of kin and financial information. We may also hold information such as your religion or ethnic group. Photos and video recordings of you are also personal information.

How and why does the school collect and use personal information?

We set out below examples of the different ways in which we use personal information and where this personal information comes from. We only process your personal data where applicable law permits or requires it, for example, where the processing is necessary for the performance of our contract with you, or where the processing is necessary to comply with a legal obligation that applies to us as a School. The School’s primary reason for using your personal information is to provide educational services to your child.

• We obtain information about you from admissions forms and from your child’s previous school or childcare setting. We may also get information from professionals such as doctors and from local authorities. We may have information about any family circumstances which might affect your child’s welfare or happiness. This is so that we can safeguard the welfare and wellbeing of your child and the other pupils at the School.
• We may take photographs or videos of you at School events to use on social media and on the School website. This is to show prospective parents and pupils what we do here and to advertise the School. We may continue to use these photographs and videos after your child has left the School.
• We may send you information to keep you up to date with what is happening at the School,

for example, by sending you information about events and activities taking place (including fundraising events) and the School newsletter.

• We may keep details of your address when your child leaves the School so we can send you The Froebelian Digest and find out how your child is progressing. We may also pass your details onto the alumni organisation.
• We may use information about you if we need this for historical research purposes or for statistical purposes.
• We may need information about any court orders or criminal petitions which relate to you.

Financial information

• We will process financial information about you in relation to the payment of fees. In some cases we get information about you from third parties such as credit reference agencies or from your child’s previous setting or school(s).
• We may hold information about bankruptcy petitions and statutory demands.
• We may search the files of any licensed credit reference agency in order to verify your identity. This also allows us to assess your application for the award of a bursary The credit reference agency will keep a record of that search and details about your application. This record will be seen by other organisations which make searches about you.
• Failure to supply information may result in a refusal of an award or credit.

Sharing personal information with third parties

• In accordance with our legal obligations, we may share information with local authorities, the Independent Schools Inspectorate and the Department for Education, for example, where we have any safeguarding concerns.
• On occasion, we may need to share information with the police.
• We may also need to share information with our legal advisers for the purpose of obtaining legal advice.
• Occasionally we may use consultants, experts and other advisors to assist the School in fulfilling its obligations and to help run the School properly. We might need to share your information with them if this is relevant to their work.
• If your child is not of British nationality we have to make sure that your child has the right to study in the UK.
• We may share some information with our insurance company, for example, where there is a serious incident at the School.
• If you have unpaid fees while your child is at the School we may share information about this with other schools or educational establishments to which you intend to send your child.
• If your child leaves us to attend another school we may need to provide that school with information about you. For example, details of family circumstances for safeguarding reasons.
• We may share information about you with others in your family, such as another parent or step-parent, for example, where this is part of our obligation to take care of your child, as part of our wider legal and regulatory obligations, or in connection with school fees.
• We may need to share information if there is an emergency, for example, if you are hurt whilst on School premises.

Data Security

All information you provide to us is stored on our secure servers.  Once we have received your information, we will use strict procedures and security features to try to prevent unauthorised access. All information you provide to us is stored on our secure servers.  We have implemented appropriate physical, technical, and organisational security measures designed to secure your personal data against accidental loss and unauthorised access, use, alteration or disclosure. In addition, we limit access to personal data to those employees, agents, contractors and other third parties that have a legitimate business need for such access.

Our legal grounds for using your information

This section contains information about the legal basis that we are relying on when handling your information.

The School must also comply with an additional condition where it processes special categories of personal information. These special categories are as follows: personal information revealing racial or ethnic origin, political opinions, religious or philosophical beliefs, trade union membership, genetic information, biometric information, health information, and information about sex life or orientation.

Substantial public interest: The processing is necessary for reasons of substantial public interest. Vital interests: To protect the vital interests of any person where that person cannot give consent, for example, if they are seriously hurt and are unconscious. Legal claims: The processing is necessary for the establishment, exercise or defence of legal claims. This allows us to share information with our legal advisors and insurers. Medical purposes: This includes medical treatment and the management of healthcare services.

We may ask for your consent to use your information in certain ways. If we ask for your consent to use your personal information you can take back this consent at any time. Any use of your information before you withdraw your consent remains valid. Please speak to the School Office if you would like to withdraw any consent given.

Sending information to other countries

We may send your information to other countries where:

• we store information on computer servers based overseas; or
• we communicate with you or your child when you are overseas (for example, during the summer holidays if you live in a different country).

The European Commission has produced a list of countries which have adequate data protection rules. The list can be found here:

http://ec.europa.eu/justice/dataprotection/internationaltransfers/adequacy/index_en.htm

If the country that we are sending your information to is not on the list or, is not a country within the EEA (which means the European Union, Liechtenstein, Norway and Iceland) then it might not have the same level of protection for personal information as there is the UK.

For how long do we keep your information?

We keep your information for as long as we need to in order to educate and look after your child. We will keep some information after your child has left the School, for example, so that we can find out what happened if you make a complaint.

In exceptional circumstances we may keep your information for a longer time than usual but we would only do so if we had a good reason and only if we are allowed to do so under data protection law.

We can keep information about you for a very long time or even indefinitely if we need this for historical, research or statistical purposes. For example, if we consider the information might be useful if someone wanted to write a book about the School.

What decisions can you make about your information?

From May 2018 data protection legislation gives you a number of rights regarding your information. Some of these are new rights whilst others build on your existing rights. Your rights are as follows:

• if information is incorrect you can ask us to correct it;
• you can also ask what information we hold about you and be provided with a copy. We will also give you extra information, such as why we use this information about you, where it came from and what types of people we have sent it to;  to request this information, please email SAR@froebelian.co.uk;
• you can ask us to delete the information that we hold about you in certain circumstances, for example, where we no longer need the information;
• you can ask us to send you, or another organisation, certain types of information about you in a format that can be read by computer;
• our use of information about you may be restricted in some cases, for example, if you tell us that the information is inaccurate we can only use it for limited purposes while we check its accuracy.

The School Office can give you more information about your data protection rights.

Further information and guidance

The Headteacher is the person responsible at our school for managing how we look after personal information and deciding how it is shared.

Like other organisations we need to keep your information safe, up to date, only use it for what we said we would, destroy it when we no longer need it and most importantly – treat the information we get fairly.

This notice is to explain how we use your personal information.

Please speak to the School Office in the first instance if:

• you object to us using your information for marketing purposes e.g. to send you information about school events. We will stop using your information for marketing purposes if you tell us not to; or
• you would like us to update the information we hold about you; or
• you would prefer that certain information is kept confidential.

If you consider that we have not acted properly when using your personal information you can contact the Information Commissioner’s Office – www.ico.org.uk