Privacy Policy
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POLICY AND SCOPE
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Policy William Clarke College is committed to ensuring that all personal, sensitive and health information it collects from parents, students and staff is kept securely and only divulged to people in compliance with the relevant legislation. |
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Purpose This policy sets out how the College uses and manages personal information provided to or collected by it and how the College will comply with the requirements of the relevant legislation.
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Relevant Legislation Privacy Act 1988 Health Records and Information Privacy Act 2002 The Privacy Amendment (Enhancing Privacy Protection Act) 2012 The Australian Privacy Principles.
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Scope This statement is intended to be made available to students, parents, prospective parents, job applicants, staff, volunteers and others including past students, contractors, visitors and others that come in contact with the College.
The Policy details how we protect privacy and how we comply with the requirements of the Privacy Act, the 13 Australian Privacy Principles.
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Definitions
Collects: the acquisition of personal information for inclusion in a record or generally available publication
Consent means express consent of implied consent.
Employee record: a record of personal information relating to the employment of the employee.
Generally available publication: a magazine, book, article, newspaper or other publication that is, or will be, generally available to members of the public whether or not it is published in print, electronically or in any other form and whether or not it is available on the payment of a fee. Health information: information or opinion about the health or a disability of an individual or an individual’s expressed wishes about the future provision of health services to him or her or a health service provided to an individual that is also personal information.
Personal information: information or an opinion (including information or an opinion forming part of a database and whether or not recorded in a material form) about an individual whose identity is apparent or can reasonably be ascertained from the information or opinion.
Record: includes a document or an electronic or other device but does not include a generally available publication or anything kept in a library, art gallery or museum for the purposes of reference, study or exhibition.
Sensitive information: information or an opinion about an individual’s racial or ethnic origin; political opinions; membership of organisations; religious beliefs or affiliations; philosophical beliefs; sexual orientation; criminal record that is also their personal or health information.
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PROCEDURE
What kinds of personal information does the College collect and how is it collected?
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The type of information William Clarke College collects and holds includes (but is not limited to) personal information, including sensitive information about
Personal information that has been provided: the College will generally collect personal information held about an individual by ways of forms filled out by parents and students, face-to-face meetings and interviews, emails and telephone calls. On occasion people other than parents and students may provide personal information. Personal information provided by other people: the College may be provided with personal information about an individual from a third party, such as a medical practitioner or a reference from another school. Exception in relation to employee records: under the Privacy Act and the Health Records and Information Privacy Act 2002 (NSW), the Australian Privacy Principles do not apply to an employee record. As a result, this Privacy Policy does not apply to the College’s treatment of an employee record, where the treatment is directly related to a current or former employment relationship between the College and employee. How will the College use the personal information provided to it? William Clarke College will use personal information it collects for the primary purpose of the collection, and for such other secondary purposes that are related to the primary purpose of collection and reasonably expected, or to which purposes the provider has consented.
Pupils and Parents: in relation to the personal information of pupils and parents, the College’s primary purpose of collection is to enable the College to provide schooling for the pupil. This includes satisfying the needs of the parents, the needs of the student and the needs of the College throughout the whole period the student is enrolled at the College.
The purposes for which William Clarke College uses personal information of pupils and parents include:
In some cases where the College requests personal information about a pupil or parent, if the information requested is not obtained, it may not be able to enrol or continue the enrolment of the pupil. Job applicants, staff members and contractors: In relation to personal information of job applicants, staff members and contractors, William Clarke College's primary purpose of collection is to assess and (if successful) to engage the applicant, staff member or contractor, as the case may be. The purposes for which the College uses personal information of job applicants, staff members and contractors include
Volunteers: William Clarke College also obtains personal information about volunteers who assist in its functions or conduct associated activities, such as Reading and Mathematics groups or camps, to enable the College and the volunteers to work together.
Marketing and Fundraising: William Clarke College treats marketing and seeking donations for the future growth and development of the College as an important part of ensuring that it continues to provide a quality learning environment in which both pupils and staff thrive. Personal information held by William Clarke College may be disclosed to an organisation that assists in fundraising, for example, the foundation or alumni associations.
Who might William Clarke College disclose personal information to?
William Clarke College may disclose personal information, including sensitive information, held about an individual to
Sending information overseas: William Clarke College may disclose personal information about an individual to overseas recipients, for instance, when storing personal information with ‘cloud’ service providers which are situated outside Australia or to facilitate a school exchange or for the purpose of obtaining visas for overseas students.. However William Clarke College will not send personal information about an individual outside Australia without
How does William Clarke College treat sensitive information? In referring to ‘sensitive information’, the College means: information relating to a person’s racial or ethnic origin, political opinions, religion, trade union or other professional or trade association membership, philosophical beliefs, sexual orientation or practices or criminal record, that is also personal information; health information and biometric information about an individual. Sensitive information will be used and disclosed only for the purpose for which it was provided or a directly related secondary purpose, unless agreed otherwise, or the use or disclosure of the sensitive information is allowed by law.
Management and security of personal information. The College has in place steps to protect the personal information it holds from misuse, loss, unauthorised access, modification or disclosure by use of various methods including locked storage of paper records and pass worded access rights to computerised records.
Access and correction of personal information.
Checking personal information William Clarke College holds about you Under the Commonwealth Privacy Act, an individual has the right to obtain access to any personal information which William Clarke College holds about them and to advise William Clarke College of any perceived inaccuracy. There are some exceptions to this right set out in the Act. Pupils will generally have access to their personal information through their parents, but older pupils may seek access themselves.
A parent wishing to make a request to access any information the College holds about them or their child must contact the Headmaster in writing.
Consent and rights of access to the personal information of pupils. William Clarke College respects every parent's right to make decisions concerning their child's education.
Generally, William Clarke College will refer any requests for consent and notices in relation to the personal information of a pupil to the pupil's parents. The College will treat consent given by parents as consent given on behalf of the pupil, and notice to parents will act as notice given to the pupil.
Parents may seek access to personal information held by William Clarke College about them or their child by contacting the Headmaster. However, there will be occasions when access is denied. Such occasions would include where release of the information would have an unreasonable impact on the privacy of others, or where the release may result in a breach of the College’s duty of care to the pupil.
William Clarke College may, at its discretion, on the request of a pupil grant that pupil access to information held about them, or allow a pupil to give or withhold consent to the use of their personal information, independently of their parents. This would normally be done only when the maturity of the pupil and/or the pupil's personal circumstances so warranted.
Enquiries and complaints. If a parent, student or staff member would like further information about the way the College manages the personal information it holds, or wishes to complain that they believe the College has breached the Australian Privacy Principles then they should contact the Headmaster. The Headmaster will investigate the complaint and will notify the complainant of the Headmaster’s decision in relation to the complaint as soon as practicable after it has been made.
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Responsibilities
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Forms and Related Material
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