CARGILFIELD SCHOOL’S PRIVACY NOTICE
WHO WE ARE
Cargilfield School (“the School”, “we”, “our”, “us”) is a company limited by guarantee (registration number SC025080) and a registered charity (registration number SC005757) located at 45 Gamekeeper’s Road, Edinburgh EH4 6HU. The objects of the School are to provide, in Scotland, the United Kingdom or elsewhere, education for boys and girls of all age groups, whether on a boarding or day school basis, to provide all appropriate educational, sporting and residential facilities for this purpose; and to promote education generally. The Board of Governors of the School takes collective responsibility for the decisions made in name of the School. However, the Headmaster of the School has day-to-day responsibility for the management and operation of the School and the care of the pupils at the School.
The School is a data controller in terms of Data Protection Law (this means, from 25 May 2018, the EU General Data Protection Regulation 2016/679, the Data Protection Act 2018 and any other legislation enacted that relates to data protection) (“Data Protection Law”). This means that the School determines the purposes for which, and the means by which, the personal data of living individuals is processed. The Friends of Cargilfield Association, as a body associated with the School, is also covered by this Privacy Notice. References in this Privacy Notice to the School include the Friends of Cargilfield Association.
Personal data means any data that relates to a living individual who can be identified directly from that data, or indirectly from that data combined with other information available to the School as a data controller. It does not include data where the identity has been removed completely (such as anonymous data). There are some ‘special categories’ of more sensitive personal data which require a higher level of protection under Data Protection Law.
WHAT THIS PRIVACY NOTICE IS FOR
This Privacy Notice is intended to provide information about how the school will use (or "process") personal data about individuals including: its staff; its current, past and prospective pupils; and their parents, carers or guardians (referred to in this policy as "parents"). Collectively, we refer to these individuals in the Privacy Notice as the School’s community.
This information is provided because Data Protection Law gives individuals rights to understand how their data is used. Staff, parents and pupils are all encouraged to read this Privacy Notice and understand the school’s obligations to its entire community. [However, the school has a separate Data Protection Policy and Privacy Notice applicable to its employees and other staff.]
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;
· any policies or notices applicable to staff concerning the handling of personal data;
· the school's policy on taking, storing and using images of children;
· the school’s CCTV and/or biometrics policy;
· the school’s retention of records policy;
· the school's safeguarding, pastoral, or health and safety policies, including as to how concerns or incidents are recorded; and
· the school's IT policies, including its Acceptable Use policy, Social Media policy, eSafety policy, WiFi policy, Remote Working policy and Bring Your Own Device policy.
Anyone who works for, or acts on behalf of, the school (including staff, volunteers, governors and service providers) will be subject to suitable training and/or policies commensurate with their role.
RESPONSIBILITY FOR DATA PROTECTION
WHY THE SCHOOL NEEDS TO PROCESS PERSONAL DATA
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.
The school expects that the following uses will fall within that category of its (or its community’s) “legitimate interests”:
· To monitor (as appropriate) use of the school's IT and communications systems in accordance with the school's IT: acceptable use policy;
In addition, the school will on occasion need to process special category personal data (concerning health, ethnicity or religion) 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:
TYPES OF PERSONAL DATA PROCESSED BY THE SCHOOL
This will include by way of example:
· names, addresses, telephone numbers, e-mail addresses and other contact details;
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); or collected from publicly available resources
WHO HAS ACCESS TO PERSONAL DATA AND WHO THE SCHOOL SHARES IT WITH
Processing by third parties. 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). However, some functions are outsourced including. payroll, accounting and IT. In accordance with Data Protection Law, this type of external data processing is always subject to contractual assurances that personal data will be kept securely and used only in accordance with the school’s specific directions.
Data sharing. Occasionally, the school – including its governing board – will need to share personal information relating to its community of staff, pupils and parents with third parties, such as:
If you are a parent and a member of the Friends of Cargilfield (FoC), the school may share your contact details with the FoC. FoC will be a separate data controller and the school is not responsible for the FoC’s processing of personal data.
ACCESS TO, AND SHARING OF, SENSITIVE DATA
Particularly strict rules of access apply in the context of “special category” data, most notably:
Medical data. The school needs to process such information to comply with statutory duties and to keep pupils and others safe, but the school will ensure only authorised staff can access information on a need-to-know basis. This may include wider dissemination if needed for school trips or for catering purposes. Express consent will be sought where appropriate.
However, a certain amount of any SEND 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.
Safeguarding data. Staff, pupils and parents are reminded that the school is under duties imposed by law and statutory guidance 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, low-level concerns records kept about adults and in some cases referrals to relevant authorities such as the Children’s Services, CAMHS or the police.
Whenever a child leaves the school to join another school or college, his or her child protection file is promptly provided to the new organisation, along with any other information which the school’s Designated Safeguarding Lead considers material to the ongoing care needs of any pupil. Where appropriate, the School will consult with parents as to how these needs are best served, but ultimately the decision as to what information is necessary to share with the new school or college is a safeguarding question that must be reserved to the school. The School will retain a copy of the child protection file in accordance with its retention policy for material related to safeguarding matters.
For further information about this, please view the School’s Safeguarding Policies.
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 safeguarding files will need to be kept much longer, in accordance with specific legal requirements.
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 Bursar at [email protected]. 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").
KEEPING IN TOUCH AND SUPPORTING THE SCHOOL
The school 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:
YOUR RIGHTS
Individuals (both pupils and parents) have various rights under Data Protection Law to access and understand their own personal data held and processed by the school, and in some cases ask for it to be erased or amended, or to have it transferred elsewhere, or for the school to stop processing it – but subject to certain exemptions and limitations.
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 generally one month, but actually fulfilling more complex or multiple requests, e.g. those involving third party information, may take 1-2 months longer).
The school will be better able to respond quickly to smaller, targeted requests for information made during term time. If the request for information is manifestly excessive or similar to previous requests, the school may ask you to reconsider[, or require a reasonable fee for the administrative costs of complying with the request, or in certain cases refuse the request (but only where Data Protection Law allows it, and in accordance with relevant regulatory guidance).
If you consider that the personal data we hold on you is inaccurate, please let us know. However, the school will not necessarily delete or amend views, opinions, notes or records purely on the request of an individual who disputes the account, although we may keep a record of all parties’ viewpoints.
You should be aware that GDPR rights (including the right of access) are limited to your own personal data, and certain data is exempt. 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, or where a duty of confidence is owed by a legal adviser).
The school is also not required to disclose any pupil examination scripts (or other information consisting solely of pupil test answers, potentially including in mock exam scripts or other types of exams / tests used to assess performance – although markers’ comments may still be disclosable if they constitute pupil personal data). The school is also not required to provide examination or other test marksahead of their ordinary publication date, nor share any confidential reference held by the school that was (or will be) given for the purposes of the education, training, appointment 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 proportionate legitimate interest identified in this Privacy Notice. Generally, if the school still considers the processing of the personal data to be reasonably necessary, it is entitled to continue. All such requests will be considered on their own merits.
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. 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. Requests not considered in the child’s best interests may sometimes be refused.
Pupils aged 12 or 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.
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, court orders, or pastoral issues.
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.
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). 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).
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 Bursar 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 governors 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 Bursar using the following contact details [email protected].
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 / grievance] procedure and should also notify the Bursar. 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.
November 2023