Policies

This policy is intended to provide information about how the school will use (or "process") personal data about individuals including: its staff (including volunteers and external service providers); its current, past and prospective pupils; and their parents, carers or guardians (referred to in this policy as "parents").

We are providing this information as we believe it is important for you to understand that Data Protection Law gives individuals rights to know how their data is used. Staff, parents and pupils are all encouraged to read this Privacy Notice in order to understand the school’s obligations to its entire community.

This Privacy Notice applies alongside any other information the school may provide about a particular use of personal data, for example when collecting data via an online or paper form.

This Privacy Notice also applies in addition to the school's other relevant terms and conditions and policies, including:

•     any contract between the school and its staff or the parents of pupils;
•     the school's policy on taking, storing and using images of children;
•     the school’s CCTV policy;
•     the school’s data retention policy;
•     the school's policies relating to pupils, such as: safeguarding, behaviour, medical records, off site activities, learning support and how concerns or incidents are recorded;
•     the school’s policies relating to staff, such as:  recruitment, capability, disciplinary, grievance, sickness absence, parental leave; and
•     the school's IT policies, including its Code of Conduct, Terms and Conditions, Electronic Information and Communications Systems policy and Social Media policy.

Anyone who works for, or acts on behalf of, the school (including staff, volunteers, school council and service providers) should also be aware of and comply with the school's data protection policy for staff, which also provides further information about how personal data about those individuals may be used.

Organisations used to be required to appoint a ‘Data Protection Officer’ who would be in charge of all high-level data protection tasks. This is no longer the case, and a ‘Senior Responsible Individual’ is accountable for data protection compliance.

The School has appointed the Information Systems Manager, Ross Madderson at the time of writing, as the Senior Responsible Individual who will endeavour to ensure that all personal data is processed in compliance with this Policy and the principles of the DPA with oversight from the Bursar. Any questions about the operation of this policy or any concerns that the policy has not been followed should be referred in the first instance to the Information Systems Manager via email.

Or write to us at Information Systems Manager, St Swithun’s School, Alresford Road, Winchester, Hampshire, SO21 1HA

In order to carry out its ordinary duties to staff, pupils and parents, the school needs to process a wide range of personal data about individuals (including current, past and prospective staff, pupils or parents) as part of its daily operation.

Some of this activity the school will need to carry out in order to fulfil its legal rights, duties or obligations – including those under a contract with its staff, or parents of its pupils.

Other uses of personal data will be made in accordance with the school’s legitimate interests, or the legitimate interests of another, provided that these are not outweighed by the impact on individuals, and provided it does not involve special or sensitive types of data.

Legitimate interests:

The school expects that the following uses will fall within that category of its (or its community’s) “legitimate interests”:

•     For the purposes of pupil selection (and to confirm the identity of prospective pupils and their parents);
•     To provide education services, including musical education, physical training or spiritual development, career services, and extra-curricular activities to pupils, and monitoring pupils' progress and educational needs;
•     For the purposes of donor due diligence, and to confirm the identity of prospective donors and their background;
•     For the purposes of management planning and forecasting, research and statistical analysis, including that imposed or provided for by law (such as tax, diversity or gender pay gap analysis);
•     To enable relevant authorities to monitor the school's performance and to intervene or assist with incidents as appropriate;
•     To give and receive information and references about past, current and prospective pupils, including relating to outstanding fees or payment history, to/from any educational institution that the pupil attended or where it is proposed they attend; and to provide references to potential employers of past pupils;
•     To enable pupils to take part in national or other assessments, and to publish the results of public examinations or other achievements of pupils of the school;
•     To safeguard pupils' welfare and provide appropriate pastoral care;
•     To monitor (as appropriate) use of the school's IT and communications systems in accordance with the school's Pupil IT Code of Conduct policy;
•     To make use of photographic images of individuals, including, pupils for use within the school community and in accordance with the school's policy on taking, storing and using images of children;
•     To make use of photographic images where individuals, including pupils, appear in groups and are not identified and are clearly not the focus of the image, in school publications, on the school website and (where appropriate) on the school's social media channels in accordance with the school's policy on taking, storing and using images of children;
•     For security purposes, including CCTV in accordance with the school’s Electronic Information and Communications Systems policy;
•     To contact parents by post, phone and email in order to notify them of school events;
•     To contact current parents to notify them of planned fundraising activity;
•     To maintain relationships with alumnae and the school community, including direct marketing of fundraising events;
•     To carry out or cooperate with any school or external complaints, disciplinary or investigation process;
•     To provide an environment that safeguards the welfare of pupils, staff and visitors; and
•     Where otherwise reasonably necessary for the school's purposes, including to obtain appropriate professional advice and insurance for the school.

Consent:

The school will obtain consent prior to:

•     Making use of photographic images of individuals and small groups of individuals, who are the focus of the image, in school publications, on the school website and (where appropriate) on the school's social media channels in accordance with the school's policy on taking, storing and using images of children;
•     Publishing current parent contact details to the parent directory, accessible by other parents via the secure parent portal;

In addition, the school will on occasion need to process special category personal data (concerning health, ethnicity, religion, biometrics or sexual life) or criminal records information (such as when carrying out DBS checks) in accordance with rights or duties imposed on it by law, including as regards safeguarding and employment, or from time to time by explicit consent where required. These reasons will include:

•   To safeguard pupils' welfare and provide appropriate pastoral (and where necessary, medical) care, and to take appropriate action in the event of an emergency, incident or accident, including by disclosing details of an individual's medical condition or other relevant information where it is in the individual's interests to do so: for example for medical advice, for social protection, safeguarding, and cooperation with police or social services, for insurance purposes or to caterers or organisers of school trips who need to be made aware of dietary or medical needs;
•     To provide educational services in the context of any special educational needs of a pupil;
•     In connection with employment of its staff, for example DBS checks, welfare, union membership or pension plans;
•     As part of any school or external complaints, disciplinary or investigation process that involves such data, for example if there are SEN, health or safeguarding elements; or
•     For legal and regulatory purposes (for example child protection, diversity monitoring, UK Visa and Immigration and health and safety) and to comply with its legal obligations and duties of care.

This will include by way of example:

•     names, addresses, telephone numbers, e-mail addresses and other contact details;
•     staff vehicle details;
•     bank details and other financial information, e.g. about parents who pay fees to the school or make bursary applications;
•     past, present and prospective pupils' academic, disciplinary, admissions and attendance records (including information about any special needs), and examination scripts and marks;
•     personnel files, including in connection with academics, employment or safeguarding;
•     where appropriate, information about individuals' health and welfare, and contact details for their next of kin;
•     references given or received by the school about pupils, and relevant information provided by previous educational establishments and/or other professionals or organisations working with pupils;
•     correspondence with and concerning staff, pupils and parents past and present; and
•     images of pupils (and other individuals) engaging in school activities, and images captured by the school's CCTV system (in accordance with the school's policy on taking, storing and using images of children).

Generally, the school receives personal data from the individual directly (including, in the case of pupils, from their parents). This may be via a form, or simply in the ordinary course of interaction or communication (such as email or written assessments).

However, in some cases personal data will be supplied by third parties (for example another school, or other professionals or authorities working with that individual); or collected from publicly available resources.

Occasionally, the school will need to share personal information relating to its community with third parties, such as:

•     professional advisers (e.g. lawyers, insurers, PR advisers and accountants);
•     government authorities (e.g. HM Revenue & Customs, Department for Education, the Disclosure & Barring Service, UK Visa and Immigration, police, social services or the local authority);
•     appropriate regulatory bodies (e.g. Teaching Regulation Agency, the Independent Schools Inspectorate, the Charity Commission, or the Information Commissioner.); and
•     examination and assessment boards such as the Independent Schools Examinations Board and other assessment providers.

For the most part, personal data collected by the school will remain within the school, and will be processed by appropriate individuals only in accordance with access protocols (i.e. on a ‘need to know’ basis). Particularly strict rules of access apply in the context of:

•    medical records held and accessed only by the school’s lead nurse and appropriate medical staff under their supervision, or otherwise in accordance with express consent; and
•     pastoral or safeguarding files.

However, a certain amount of any SEN pupil’s relevant information will need to be provided to staff more widely in the context of providing the necessary care and education that the pupil requires.

Staff, pupils and parents are reminded that the school is under duties imposed by law and statutory guidance (including Keeping Children Safe in Education) to record or report incidents and concerns that arise or are reported to it, in some cases regardless of whether they are proven, if they meet a certain threshold of seriousness in their nature or regularity. This is likely to include file notes on personnel or safeguarding files, and in some cases referrals to relevant authorities such as the LADO or police. For further information about this, please view the school’s Safeguarding Policy.

Low-level concerns raised by staff that do not meet a statutory threshold are recorded in a secure database provided by CPOMS Systems Limited, access to which is tightly controlled by the Designated Safeguarding Lead.

In accordance with Data Protection Law, some of the school’s processing activity is carried out on its behalf by third parties, such as financial or IT service providers, web developers or cloud storage providers. This is always subject to contractual assurances that personal data will be kept securely and only in accordance with the school’s specific directions.

Transferring information outside the European Economic Area (EEA):

In certain circumstances, your personal data may be processed outside of the UK and the EEA; for example, third party service providers may store certain personal data in a country outside the UK and the EEA.

If we (or our service providers) process personal data outside of the UK and the EEA, we will take appropriate measures to ensure that your personal data is not used for their own purposes, is adequately protected in a manner which is consistent with this privacy notice, and in accordance with applicable laws. Those measures include:

in the case of US based service providers, entering into European Commission approved standard contractual arrangements with them, or ensuring they have signed up to the EU-US Privacy Shield (see further https://www.privacyshield.gov/welcome); or

in the case of service providers based in other countries outside the UK or EEA, ensuring that they are based in countries which have been deemed, by the European Commission, to be adequate, or entering into European Commission approved standard contractual arrangements with them.

The school will retain personal data securely and only in line with how long it is necessary to keep for a legitimate and lawful reason. Typically, the legal recommendation for how long to keep ordinary staff and pupil personnel files is up to 7 years following departure from the school. However, incident reports and safeguarding files will need to be kept much longer, in accordance with specific legal requirements. For example, all public bodies and non-state institutions have been directed by the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse (IICSA) to retain, indefinitely, all files and records of potential relevancy to the inquiry.

If you have any specific queries about how our retention policy is applied, or wish to request that personal data that you no longer believe to be relevant is considered for erasure, please contact the Information Systems Manager, Senior Responsible Individual, by email, or by post at Data Protection Compliance Manager, St Swithun’s School, Alresford Road, Winchester, Hampshire, SO21 1HA. However, please bear in mind that the school will often have lawful and necessary reasons to hold on to some personal data even following such request.  

A limited and reasonable amount of information will be kept for archiving purposes, for example; and even where you have requested we no longer keep in touch with you, we will need to keep a record of the fact in order to fulfil your wishes (called a "suppression record").

For more information on the retention periods the school applies to its records please see our Data Retention Policy.

The school will use the contact details of parents, alumnae and other members of the school community to keep them updated about the activities of the school, or alumnae and parent events of interest, including by sending updates and newsletters, by email and by post. Unless the relevant individual objects, the school will also:

•     Share personal data about parents and/or alumnae, as appropriate, with organisations set up to help establish and maintain relationships with the school community, such as the Senior and Junior School Parent Teacher Associations and Old Girls Association;
•     Should you wish to limit or object to any such use, or would like further information about them, please contact us:
  •         For current parents please contact the Head of Marketing by email, or by post at Head of Marketing, St Swithun’s School, Alresford Road, Winchester, Hampshire, SO21 1HA.
  •         For alumnae please contact the OGA Manager by email, or by post at OGA Manager, St Swithun’s School, Alresford Road, Winchester, Hampshire, SO21 1HA.

The Bramston Bursary Foundation is purely charitable and relies entirely on fundraising to provide for the school’s bursaries, future capital projects, and other philanthropic initiatives which benefit the school community and its students.  We undertake in-house research using publicly available information from third party sources such as Companies House, company websites, professional networks such as LinkedIn, political and property registers and news archives to identify individuals who may be willing to support.  We sometimes engage the services of a trusted external specialist or organisation from time to time, to assist us in analysing our data and/or conduct research using publicly available sources to identify prospective donors. This research helps us to understand more about you as an individual so we can focus conversations about fundraising in the most relevant way. We aim to provide you with an experience as a donor or prospective donor which is appropriate to you.

You always have the right to withdraw consent, where given, or otherwise object to direct marketing or fundraising. However, the school is nonetheless likely to retain some of your details (not least to ensure that no more communications are sent to that particular address, email or telephone number).

If you would prefer us not to use your data in this way, please email us.

Rights of access, etc.

Individuals have various rights under Data Protection Law to access and understand personal data about them held by the school, and in some cases ask for it to be erased or amended or have it transferred to others, or for the school to stop processing it – but subject to certain exemptions and limitations.

Any individual wishing to access or amend their personal data, or wishing it to be transferred to another person or organisation, or who has some other objection to how their personal data is used, should put their request in writing to Data Protection Compliance Manager, St Swithun’s School, Alresford Road, Winchester, Hampshire, SO21 1HA or by emailing us at dataprotection@stswithuns.com.

The school will endeavour to respond to any such written requests as soon as is reasonably practicable and in any event within statutory time-limits (which is one month in the case of requests for access to information).

The school will be better able to respond quickly to smaller, targeted requests for information. If the request for information is manifestly excessive or similar to previous requests, the school may ask you to reconsider the scope of your request.

Requests that cannot be fulfilled

You should be aware that the right of access is limited to your own personal data, and certain data is exempt from the right of access. This will include information which identifies other individuals (and parents need to be aware this may include their own children, in certain limited situations – please see further below), or information which is subject to legal privilege (for example legal advice given to or sought by the school, or documents prepared in connection with a legal action).

The school is also not required to disclose any pupil examination scripts (or other information consisting solely of pupil test answers), provide examination or other test marks ahead of any ordinary publication, nor share any confidential reference given by the school itself for the purposes of the education, training or employment of any individual.

You may have heard of the right to erasure, more commonly known as the "right to be forgotten". This is where a data subject has the right to request for information held, about them, by the school to be deleted. However, the right is not absolute and only applies in certain circumstances. We will sometimes have compelling reasons to refuse specific requests to amend, delete or stop processing your (or your child's) personal data: for example, a legal requirement, or where it falls within a legitimate interest identified in this Privacy Notice. All such requests will be considered on their own merits.

Pupil requests

Pupils can make subject access requests for their own personal data, provided that, in the reasonable opinion of the school, they have sufficient maturity to understand the request they are making (see section Whose Rights? below). A pupil of any age may ask a parent or other representative to make a subject access request on his/her behalf.

Indeed, while a person with parental responsibility will generally be entitled to make a subject access request on behalf of younger pupils, the law still considers the information in question to be the child’s: for older pupils, the parent making the request may need to evidence their child's authority for the specific request.

Pupils at St Swithun’s School aged 13 and above are generally assumed to have this level of maturity, although this will depend on both the child and the personal data requested, including any relevant circumstances at home. Slightly younger children may however be sufficiently mature to have a say in this decision, depending on the child and the circumstances.

Parental requests, etc.

It should be clearly understood that the rules on subject access are not the sole basis on which information requests are handled. Parents may not have a statutory right to information, but they and others will often have a legitimate interest or expectation in receiving certain information about pupils without their consent. The school may consider there are lawful grounds for sharing with or without reference to that pupil.

Parents will in general receive educational and pastoral updates about their children, in accordance with the Parent Contract. Where parents are separated, the school will in most cases aim to provide the same information to each person with parental responsibility, but may need to factor in all the circumstances including the express wishes of the child.

All information requests from, on behalf of, or concerning pupils – whether made under subject access or simply as an incidental request – will therefore be considered on a case by case basis.

Consent

Where the school is relying on consent as a means to process personal data, any person may withdraw this consent at any time (subject to similar age considerations as above). Examples where we do rely on consent are: e.g. certain types of uses of images, certain types of fundraising and marketing activity. Please be aware however that the school may not be relying on consent but have another lawful reason to process the personal data in question even without your consent.

That reason will usually have been asserted under this Privacy Notice, or may otherwise exist under some form of contract or agreement with the individual (e.g. an employment or parent contract, or because a purchase of goods, services or membership of an organisation such as an alumnae or parents' association has been requested).

Whose rights?

The rights under Data Protection Law belong to the individual to whom the data relates. However, the school will often rely on parental authority or notice for the necessary ways it processes personal data relating to pupils – for example, under the parent contract, or via a form. Parents and pupils should be aware that this is not necessarily the same as the school relying on strict consent (see section on Consent above).

Where consent is required, it may in some cases be necessary or appropriate – given the nature of the processing in question, and the pupil's age and understanding – to seek the pupil's consent. Parents should be aware that in such situations they may not be consulted, depending on the interests of the child, the parents’ rights in law or under their contract, and all the circumstances.

In general, the school will assume that pupils’ consent is not required for ordinary disclosure of their personal data to their parents, e.g. for the purposes of keeping parents informed about the pupil's activities, progress and behaviour, and in the interests of the pupil's welfare. That is unless, in the school's opinion, there is a good reason to do otherwise.

However, where a pupil seeks to raise concerns confidentially with a member of staff and expressly withholds their agreement to their personal data being disclosed to their parents, the school may be under an obligation to maintain confidentiality unless, in the school's opinion, there is a good reason to do otherwise; for example, where the school believes disclosure will be in the best interests of the pupil or other pupils, or if required by law.

Pupils are required to respect the personal data and privacy of others, and to comply with the school's Pupil IT Code of Conduct policy and the school rules. Staff are under professional duties to do the same covered under the relevant staff policy for example the Staff IT Terms & Conditions, Electronic Information and Communication Systems and the Data Protection policies.

The school will endeavour to ensure that all personal data held in relation to an individual is as up to date and accurate as possible.  Individuals must please notify the school via the main office or parent portal of any significant changes to important information, such as contact details, held about them.

An individual has the right to request that any out-of-date, irrelevant or inaccurate or information about them is erased or corrected (subject to certain exemptions and limitations under Data Protection Law): please see above for details of why the school may need to process your data, of who you may contact if you disagree.

The school will take appropriate technical and organisational steps to ensure the security of personal data about individuals, including policies around use of technology and devices, and access to school systems. All staff and school council members will be made aware of this policy and their duties under Data Protection Law and receive relevant training.