Privacy policy - Northampton High School

We use (or “process”) personal information in accordance with the law relating to data protection. The General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) outlines your rights in respect of this. The Girls’ Day School Trust of 10 Bressenden Place, London SW1E 5DH
is the Data Controller for the purpose of GDPR.

Personal information means any information relating to you, or information that when combined with other information identifies you.

Personal information includes your name, address, CCTV images and photographs and also includes online identifiers such as internet protocol (IP) addresses, or cookie identifiers.

How and why we collect and use personal information.

We collect and process information in a number of areas to promote the welfare of our students, help every girl fulfil her potential and manage our school effectively. We use personal data:

To safeguard and promote the welfare of our students
To support our students’ learning and help every student fulfil her potential
To support students with Special Educational Needs or Disability (SEND)
To communicate with our network of alumnae
To manage our schools effectively
For the employment and management of our staff
For development and fundraising

Parents provide information about themselves and students when completing GDST’s parent contract on entry to our schools, as well as related documents such as registration and health record forms. Personal information is also collected directly from students and parents by direct means such as meetings, discussions, school work and in general correspondence.

Whilst we collect most of our personal information from students and parents directly, in some cases personal data may be supplied to us by third parties, for example another school, a local authority, or other professionals.

Data Protection Officer

The GDST’s Data Protection Officer is Jon Vogel. You can contact him at dpo@wes.gdst.net or via our postal address. Please mark the envelope ‘Data Protection Officer’.

Safeguarding and promoting the welfare of our students

The safety and welfare of our students will always be our overriding concern.

We record and monitor information on student attendance and absence, and may record and process information about our students’ personal and social development in order to provide them with appropriate pastoral care.

We may share information in accordance with legal requirements and Government guidance, with third parties such as regulators, local authority children’s services, the courts or the police.

If a student leaves our school to attend another school, we may share information with that new school for safeguarding or welfare reasons in accordance with the statutory guidance “Keeping Children Safe in Education”.

Supporting our students’ learning and helping every student fulfil her potential

Assessing and monitoring academic potential and progress.

We record and process information that monitors and assesses student academic progress.

We may share this information with authorised third parties, such as the Centre for Evaluation and Learning at Durham University in order to access services that support the improvement of educational outcomes.

These include:

Baseline assessments that support educational tracking – giving measures of an individual’s potential and progress through school.
Diagnostic assessments that help inform teachers where interventions may be helpful to improve pupil outcomes.
Attitudinal questionnaires that help to give a deeper understanding of the learning environment as seen by children and young people.

We may share information with the Department for Education where there is a statutory basis for doing so.

Supporting children with Special Educational Needs or Disability (SEND)

A student may have special educational needs if she has a learning difficulty or disability which calls for special educational provision to be made for her.

We may record and share information with relevant professionals or agencies in order to assess whether a child has special educational needs, and to identify any provision that should be made available to support her learning

Managing our school effectively

While we collect most of our personal data from students and parents or guardians directly, in some cases personal data may be supplied to us by third parties as an important element of ensuring we can offer the very best education possible (for example another school, a local authority, or other professionals).

We use the personal information we collect to support the day-to-day management of our schools, this includes keeping class registers, organising and monitoring student activities, providing education services and providing information technology services.

Pupil applications

An application for a place at one of our schools may be made on behalf of a prospective pupil, ordinarily by a person with parental responsibility. We ask applicants to provide personal information about themselves and the child they are applying for. This includes name, date of birth, contact details, address, current and previous schools. We ask for this information so that we can process and assess the application against our admission criteria. This admission criteria may vary across our schools and further information on this can be found on individual school websites.

We also ask for information on nationality, ethnicity, languages spoken and any individual needs a student might have to ensure we make effective provision for them, and also to provide statistical information.

When we offer a place at one of our schools and this is accepted, we will ask for further information, including details of medical history and dietary needs.

This is so that we can provide appropriate health care to our student. We may share this information with authorised third parties if we believe this is necessary and in a child’s best interest, for example in the event of a medical emergency.

Financial information

We will ask for, and hold the details of those who will pay any fees due, and their bank account details. We may hold information about bankruptcy petitions and statutory demands.

Photographs

We may take photographs of students to identify them in our school records. We may also take photographs or record video during lessons, presentations or school trips where this supports delivery of our school curriculum.

Where we wish to take photographs of students and use these in school publications, for example a school magazine, prospectus or on the school’s social media we will only do this if we have a separate consent. Depending on the nature of the consent we are asking for, and the age and understanding of the student, we may ask for our students for their consent, or a parent, or both.

CCTV

We may use CCTV for safety and security reasons. CCTV is not used in private areas such as changing rooms or toilets and is not retained for longer than we consider necessary to fulfil this purpose.

Communicating with our network of alumnae

The GDST Alumnae Network is the largest organisation of its kind in the country and has over 70,000 members involved in a wide range of activities all over the world.

All GDST senior school graduates are invited to join our alumnae community, and members will receive regular email updates on the latest alumnae news and events.

Our alumnae are also invited to participate in networking groups, or to share their knowledge and experience within our schools.

For the employment and management of our staff

Contractual responsibilities

We record and process staff personal information in order to fulfil our contract of employment with our staff and to monitor our employment policies.

This information includes (but is not limited to) their name, address, date of birth, next of kin and emergency contact details, applications for employment, academic qualifications, registrations with professional bodies, ethnicity, salary information, bank account and pension details, relevant medical history and any individual needs including those relating to disability.

Statutory responsibilities

We collect, record and process some personal information to comply with our statutory responsibilities. This includes (but is not limited to) information relating to tax, National Insurance, statutory sick pay, statutory maternity and paternity pay, family leave, entitlement to work in the UK, proof of identity, Disclosure and Barring Service checks and criminal convictions.

Management responsibilities

We record information that enables us to support the personal development of our staff and to assess their performance. This includes personal development appraisals, performance monitoring, capability, grievance and disciplinary matters, absence and sickness monitoring.

Collection of data

Some data is collected directly from prospective or newly appointed staff. Other personal data is collected from third parties, such as references from former employers, medical information, or identity checks via an external identity checking service. We will only seek information from third parties with the applicant’s consent.

For development and fundraising

You can find out about how you can support the GDST and our fundraising programmes here.

We may use information you have provided to contact you on behalf of the GDST and its schools to update you with news and events and how you can support the exceptional education we provide.

We may undertake research to identify potential donors and use the information you have provided along with other sources of information to get a better understanding of who you are, so that fundraising communications can be best tailored to you, as well as your likely interests and concerns.

In doing so, we may use profiling techniques or use third party wealth screening companies to provide us with general information about you. Such information is compiled using publicly available data or information that you have already provided us.

We do this because it allows us to understand the background of our supporters and helps us make appropriate requests to individuals who may be able and willing to support our fundraising programmes.

As we continue our fundraising programmes we are committed to keeping your records as accurate and up-to-date as possible and we may engage a third party to carry out data cleansing, but only on terms that prevent them from using the information we provide for any other purpose.

You can change how you hear from our schools or opt out of your data being used for profiling and wealth screening techniques by contacting us.

We hold the data of our supporters securely and your personal information will not be sold or shared for fundraising or marketing purposes to any person or organisation outside the GDST, its schools or relevant alumnae associations.

Our legal basis for processing personal information

We process personal information where one of the following applies:

1. Legitimate interests

This means that the processing is necessary for legitimate interests pursued by the GDST, unless this would override your fundamental rights, taking into account your reasonable expectations. We rely on legitimate interests for many of the ways in which we process personal information, including providing educational services to our students and managing our schools effectively.

2. Necessary for a contract

We may need to process personal information in order to perform our obligations under contract, or to gather information prior to entering into a contract. For example, we need your name and contact details so that we can update you on a student’s progress, so that we can contact you if there is a concern, or so that we can process information about school fees. We also process the personal information of our staff as part of our contract of employment with them.

3. Legal obligation

We are under a duty to comply with a number of legal obligations and we will process personal information in connection with these. Legal obligations can relate to safeguarding, health and safety and statistical returns to the Government. Where necessary we may share personal information with other service providers, such as insurers and professional advisers.

4. Vital interests

We may process personal information if we believe this is necessary to protect an individual’s vital interests. This might include sharing allergy information with third party caterers, or other health information with medical professionals providing treatment.

5. Consent

Where none of these conditions apply and we still wish to process your personal information we will ask for your consent. Depending on the nature of the consent we are asking for, and the age and understanding of the student, we may ask for our students for their consent, or a parent, or both.

If we ask for consent, we will be clear about what we are asking to do with your personal information. Where we are relying on consent to process personal information you may withdraw your consent at any time. Please note that we may need to continue to process personal information under one of the other grounds set out above.

Our legal basis for processing special categories of personal data

Data protection legislation also refers to “special categories of personal data” which is more sensitive personal information needing a higher level of protection.

This includes data revealing racial or ethnic origin, trade union membership, and the processing of biometric data, data concerning health or data concerning a natural person’s sex life or sexual orientation.

We take extra care when processing this type of information and will only process this type of information when one of the following applies:

6. Data revealing racial or ethnic origin

We collect information on the ethnicity, first language, country of birth and nationality where we are under a statutory obligation to complete an annual school census and return to the Secretary of State for Education.

7. Trade union membership

Trade union representatives are entitled to reasonable paid time off to receive training and undertake certain trade union duties and activities (for example, as health and safety or union learning representatives). We record the names of our trade union reps so that we know who they are and ensure that we comply with employment law.

8. Biometric data

We may use fingerprint recognition systems to support cashless catering in canteens, or for door entry access. Where we do this we will obtain clear consent and we will provide an equal alternative option if a student or member of staff doesn’t wish to use a fingerprint recognition system.

9. Data concerning health

We record information on the health of our staff where this is necessary to fulfil our obligations under employment law, make adjustments to support them, calculate their entitlement to sick pay or to ensure the safety of students in their care.

We may record and process information on the health of our students in the following areas:

Safeguarding – it may be necessary for us to record information on the physical or mental health of our students and share this with health or social care professionals in order to ensure our students receive appropriate health or social care treatment.
Pastoral care – we may record information concerning the social, psychological or physical development of our students and this may include information concerning their health, in order to make provision for appropriate health or social care treatment.
Special Educational Needs and Disability (SEND) – when we record information on a student’s individual needs this may include information concerning their health. Where we do this it is in order to make provision for appropriate health or social care treatment.
Medical care – we record information on any pre-existing medical issues of our students and any medical episodes they experience at school. This is in order to make provision for appropriate health treatment.

In a medical emergency we may share information with other parties, such as ambulance staff or a hospital if we believe it is in an individual’s best interests and they are unable to provide this themselves.

10. Data concerning a person’s sex life or sexual orientation

We may record information on a student’s sex life or sexual orientation where this is necessary to provide appropriate safeguarding or pastoral care. We will do this where we believe it is necessary to make provision for appropriate health or social care treatment, protect a student from physical, mental or emotional harm, or protect their physical, mental or emotional wellbeing.

11. Consent

Where none of the above conditions apply and we still wish to process special categories of personal data we will ask for consent. If we ask for consent, we will be clear about what we are asking to do with any sensitive personal information, and the person providing consent may withdraw this at any time. Depending on the nature of the consent we are seeking, and the age and understanding of the child, we may ask our students for their consent, or a parent, or both.

How long do we keep personal information?

In line with the law, we keep information for as long as is necessary in order to carry out the services and activities listed above.

We retain some information after our students have left our schools, for example, student roll, public exam results, and safeguarding information. We may keep some limited information for a longer time if we believe this is appropriate for historical, research or statistical purposes.

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