High School of Dundee Privacy Notice

WHO WE ARE

We are the Corporation of the High School of Dundee. We are a registered charity in Scotland. Our registered number is SC011522 and our registered office is at Euclid Crescent, Dundee, DD1 1HU.  For the purposes of this Privacy Notice, we refer to ourselves as “the school”. 

Your privacy is important to us. This Privacy Notice is where we explain to you what personal information is collected by the school, how it is collected, how we may use that information, where we store it, how long we store it for, and how we protect it. We will also explain your rights in relation to your personal information.

This Privacy Notice also applies to all subsidiaries of the Corporation of the High School of Dundee. 

WHAT THIS PRIVACY NOTICE IS FOR

This policy is intended to provide information about how the school will use (or “process”) personal data about individuals including: its current, past and prospective pupils; and their parents, carers, or guardians (referred to in this policy as “parents”), users of the website, alumni and donors.

This information is provided because Data Protection Law gives individuals rights to understand how their data is used. Staff, Parents, Pupils, Alumni, Donors and Website Users are all encouraged to read this Privacy Notice and 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:

• the school’s Wellbeing and Child Protection Policy and Health and Safety Policy, including as to how concerns or incidents are recorded;
• the school’s CCTV policy;
• 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 Data Retention Policy; and
• the school’s IT policies, including its Acceptable Use Policy.

Anyone who works for, or acts on behalf of, the school (including staff, volunteers, directors and service providers should also be aware of and comply with this Privacy Notice and the school’s Data Protection Policy for Staff, which also provides further information about how personal data about those individuals will be used.

RESPONSIBILITY FOR DATA PROTECTION

• The School has appointed the Bursar as Data Compliance Officer, who will deal with requests and enquiries concerning the school’s uses of your personal data (see section on Your Rights below) and endeavour to ensure that all personal data is processed in compliance with this policy and current Data Protection Law. The Data Compliance Officer may be contacted through the school at its registered address, by telephone (01382 202921), or by email datacompliance@highschoolofdundee.org.uk

WHY THE SCHOOL NEEDS TO PROCESS PERSONAL DATA

The School needs to process a wide range of personal data to carry out its ordinary duties to Staff, Pupils and 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.

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

• 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 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 pupil selection (and to confirm the identity of prospective pupils and their parents);
• For the purposes of donor due diligence, and to confirm the identity of prospective donors and their background [and relevant interests];
• 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 IT: acceptable use policy;
• To make use of photographic images of pupils 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 CCTV policy;
• To carry out or cooperate with any school or external complaints, disciplinary or investigation process; and
• Where otherwise reasonably necessary for the school’s purposes, including to obtain appropriate professional advice and insurance for the school.
• We use various technologies on our website – www.highschoolofdundee.org.uk – to collect information that helps us improve your online experience. We refer to these technologies which include cookies, collectively as “cookies”. You can find out more about cookies and how our website uses them here.

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

• As part of any school or external complaints, disciplinary or investigation process that involves such data, for example if there are health or child wellbeing/protection elements;
• To provide spiritual education in the context of any religious beliefs;
• 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, child wellbeing and protection, 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 PVG checks, welfare, union membership or pension plans; or
• For legal and regulatory purposes (for example child protection, diversity monitoring and health and safety) and to comply with its legal obligations and duties of care.

TYPES OF PERSONAL DATA PROCESSED BY THE SCHOOL

This will include by way of example:

• personnel files, including in connection with academics, employment or safeguarding;
• bank details and other financial information, e.g. about parents who pay fees to the school and donors;
• titles, names, addresses, telephone numbers, e-mail addresses and other contact details;
• pupil/prospective pupil date of birth, nationality, current school details;
• past, present and prospective pupils’ academic, disciplinary, admissions and attendance records (including information about any special needs), and examination scripts and marks;
• where appropriate, information about individuals’ health and welfare, and contact details for their emergency contact;
• 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 occasionally 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);

HOW THE SCHOOL COLLECTS DATA

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).

WHO HAS ACCESS TO PERSONAL DATA AND WHO THE SCHOOL SHARES IT WITH

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

• government authorities (e.g. HMRC, Education Scotland, Care Inspectorate, Police or the Local Authority); 
• professional advisers (e.g. lawyers, insurers, PR advisers and accountants); and
• appropriate regulatory bodies e.g. Her Majesty’s Inspector of Education, the Office of the Scottish Charity Regulator or the Information Commissioner.

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; and
• pastoral or child protection/wellbeing files.

However, a certain amount of any Special Educational Needs 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 Getting It Right For Every Child) 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 child protection files, and in some cases referrals to relevant authorities such as the Police. For further information about this, please view the school’s Wellbeing and Child Protection Policy.

Some of the school’s processing activity is carried out on its behalf by third parties, such as IT systems, web developers, cloud storage providers or mailing houses. This is subject to contractual assurances that personal data will be kept securely and only in accordance with the school’s specific directions.

HOW LONG WE KEEP PERSONAL DATA

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 child wellbeing/protection files will need to be kept much longer, in accordance with specific legal requirements. In light of the Scottish Child Abuse Inquiry, all independent schools are aware of the emphasis currently being placed on long-term, lifetime, or even indefinite keeping of full records relating to incident reporting.  The School are extending this to include all personnel and pupil files.  This does not extinguish the School’s obligation to keep this data accurately and securely.

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 Data Compliance Officer. 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”).

Further information can be found in our Data Retention Policy (here).

KEEPING IN TOUCH AND SUPPORTING THE SCHOOL

The school or any relevant other organisation will use the contact details of parents, alumni and other members of the school community to keep them updated about the activities of the school, or alumni 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 alumni, as appropriate, with organisations set up to help establish and maintain relationships with the school community, such as the Old Boys’ Club, the Old Girls’ Club, the Former Pupil Association, the Friends of the High School of Dundee and the Parents Association;
• Contact parents and/or alumni (including via the organisations above) by post and email in order to promote and raise funds for the school and, where appropriate, other worthy causes;
• Should you wish to limit or object to any such use, or would like further information about them, please contact the Data Compliance Officer in writing. 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);
• We use National Change of Address services to identify contact details that are no longer correct. We may use third parties to carry out list checking on our behalf. We would only use third parties for which we have carried out a Data Privacy Impact Assessment exercise to ensure your data is secure;
• From time to time, the school will conduct telephone campaigns, with only those who have consented for the Office of Development to contact them via that method of communication.

YOUR RIGHTS

• 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 the Data Compliance Officer. 

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, or require a proportionate fee (but only where Data Protection Law allows it).

• 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 be forgotten”. However, 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 aged 12 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.

• 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.  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: certain types of uses of images, certain types of fundraising activity, the passing of pupil data on to a third party eg for a sporting competition entry . 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 alumni 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 at 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 IT – Acceptable Use Policy and the school rules. Staff are under professional duties to do the same covered under the relevant staff policy.

DATA ACCURACY AND SECURITY

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 relevant person 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 Directors will be made aware of this policy and their duties under Data Protection Law and receive relevant training. 

THIS POLICY

The school will update this Privacy Notice from time to time. Any substantial changes that affect your rights will be provided to you directly as far as is reasonably practicable.

QUERIES AND COMPLAINTS

Any comments or queries on this policy should be directed to the Data Compliance Officer through the school at its registered address, by telephone (01382 202921), or by email at datacompliance@highschoolofdundee.org.uk

If an individual believes that the school has not complied with this policy or acted otherwise than in accordance with Data Protection Law, they should utilise the school complaints procedure and should also notify the Data Compliance Officer. You can also make a referral to or lodge a complaint with the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO), although the ICO recommends that steps are taken to resolve the matter with the school before involving the regulator. 

You can also complain to the Information Commissioner’s Office in one of the following ways:

• Call: 0303 123 1113
• Report a concern online at https://ico.org.uk/concerns/
• Write to: Information Commissioner’s Office, Wycliffe House, Water Lane, Wilmslow, Cheshire, SK9 5AF