Privacy Policy

This Privacy Policy sets out how Emmanuel Anglican College (EAC) manages personal information provided to or collected by it.

This Privacy Policy applies to all personal information collected by, or submitted to the College, whether offline or online. This includes personal information collected or submitted through the EAC website and any mobile sites, applications and other interactive features, through the College’s official social media pages as well as through HTML-formatted email messages generated by the College.

The College is bound by the Australian Privacy Principles contained in the Commonwealth Privacy Act 1988.  In relation to health records, the College is also bound by the Health Privacy Principles which are contained in the Health Records and Information Privacy Act 2002 (NSW).

What kinds of personal information does the College collect and how does the College collect it?

The type of information the College collects and holds includes (but is not limited to) personal information, including health and other sensitive information, about:

• Students, parents and/or carers('Parents') before, during and after the course of a student's enrolment at the College, including:
  • name, contact details (including next of kin), date of birth, gender, language background, previous school and religion;
  • parents’ education, occupation and language background;
  • medical information (e.g. details of disability and/or allergies, absence notes, medical reports and names of doctors);
  • conduct and complaint records, or other behaviour notes, and College reports;
  • information about referrals to government welfare agencies;
  • counselling reports;
  • health fund details and Medicare number;
  • any court orders;
  • volunteering information; and
  • photos and videos at the College events;
• job applicants, staff members, volunteers and contractors, including:
  • name, contact details (including next of kin), date of birth, and religion;
  • information on job application;
  • professional development history;
  • salary and payment information, including superannuation details;
  • medical information (e.g. details of disability and/or allergies, and medical certificates);
  • complaint records and investigation reports;
  • leave details;
  • photos and videos at College events;
  • workplace surveillance information;
  • work emails and private emails (when using work email address) and Internet browsing history; and
• other people who come into contact with the College, including name and contact details and any other information necessary for the particular contact with the College.

Personal Information you provide: The College will generally collect personal information held about an individual by way of forms filled out by parents/carers or students, face-to-face meetings and interviews, emails and telephone calls.  On occasions people other than parents/carers and students provide personal information.

Personal Information provided by other people: In some circumstances the College may be provided with personal information about an individual from a third party, for example a report provided by a medical professional or a reference from another school.

Exception in relation to employee records: Under the Privacy Act and the Health Records Act, the Australian Privacy Principles and Health 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 you provide?

The College will use personal information it collects from you for the primary purpose of collection, and for such other secondary purposes that are related to the primary purpose of collection and reasonably expected by you, or to which you have consented.

Students and parents/carers:  In relation to personal information of students, and parents/carers, the College's primary purpose of collection is to enable the College to provide schooling to students enrolled at the College, exercise its duty of care, and perform necessary associated administrative activities, which will enable students to take part in all the activities of the College.  This includes satisfying the needs of parents/carers, 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 the College uses personal information of parents/carers and students include:

• to keep parents/carers informed about matters related to their child's schooling, through correspondence, newsletters and magazines;
• day-to-day administration of the College
• looking after students' educational, social and medical wellbeing;
• seeking donations and marketing for the College; and
• to satisfy the College’s legal obligations and allow the College to discharge its duty of care.
• In some cases where the College requests personal information about a student or parents/carers, if the information requested is not provided, the College may not be able to enrol or continue the enrolment of the student or permit the student to take part in a particular activity.

Job applicants and contractors: In relation to personal information of job applicants and contractors, the College's primary purpose of collection is to assess and (if successful) to engage the applicant or contractor, as the case may be.

The purposes for which the College uses personal information of job applicants and contractors include:

• administering the individual's employment or contract, as the case may be;
• for insurance purposes;
• seeking donations and marketing for the College; and
• satisfying the College's legal obligations, for example, in relation to child protection legislation.

Volunteers: The College also obtains personal information about volunteers who assist the College in its functions or conduct associated activities, such as [alumni associations], to enable the College and the volunteers to work together.

Marketing and fundraising:  The College treats marketing and seeking donations for the future growth and development of the College as an important part of ensuring that the College continues to provide a quality learning environment in which both students and staff thrive.  Personal information held by the College may be disclosed to organisations that assist in the College 's fundraising.

Parents/carers, staff, contractors and other members of the wider College community may from time to time receive fundraising information.  College publications, like newsletters and magazines, which include personal information, may be used for marketing purposes.

Who might the College disclose personal information to and store your information with?

 The College may disclose personal information, including sensitive information, held about an individual for educational, administrative and support purposes.  This may include to:

• other schools and teachers at those schools;
• government departments;
• medical practitioners;
• people providing educational, support and health services to the College, including specialist visiting teachers, [sports] coaches, volunteers, counsellors and providers of learning and assessment tools;
• assessment and educational authorities, including the Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority;
• people providing administrative and financial services to the College;
• recipients of the College publications, such as newsletters and magazines;
• students' parents/carers;
• anyone you authorise the College to disclose information to; and
• anyone to whom we are required or authorised to disclose the information to by law, including child protection laws.

Sending and storing information overseas: The College may disclose personal information about an individual to overseas recipients, for instance, to facilitate a school exchange.  However, the College will not send personal information about an individual outside Australia without:

• obtaining the consent of the individual (in some cases this consent will be implied); or
• otherwise complying with the Australian Privacy Principles or other applicable privacy legislation.

The College may use online or 'cloud' service providers to store personal information and to provide services to the College that involve the use of personal information, such as services relating to email, instant messaging and education and assessment applications. Some limited personal information may also be provided to these service providers to enable them to authenticate users that access their services.  This personal information may be stored in the 'cloud' which means that it may reside on a cloud service provider's servers which may be situated outside Australia.

How does the 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 you agree otherwise, or the use or disclosure of the sensitive information is allowed by law.

Management and security of personal information

The College's staff are required to respect the confidentiality of students' and Parents' personal information and the privacy of individuals.

The College has in place steps to protect the personal information the College holds from misuse, interference and loss, unauthorised access, modification or disclosure by use of various methods including locked storage of paper records and password access rights to computerised records.

All staff are required to password protect any electronic device on which they access the College’s database, email or any private information held by the College. Any potential breach of privacy is to be reported to the Business Manager immediately.

Access and correction of personal information

Under the Commonwealth Privacy Act and the Health Records Act, an individual has the right to seek and obtain access to any personal information which the College holds about them and to advise the College of any perceived inaccuracy.  Students will generally be able to access and update their personal information through their parents/carers, but older students may seek access and correction themselves.

There are some exceptions to these rights set out in the applicable legislation.

To make a request to access or to update any personal information the College holds about you or your child, please contact the College by telephone or in writing.  The College may require you to verify your identity and specify what information you require.  The College may charge a fee to cover the cost of verifying your application and locating, retrieving, reviewing and copying any material requested.  If the information sought is extensive, the College will advise the likely cost in advance. If we cannot provide you with access to that information, we will provide you with written notice explaining the reasons for refusal.

Consent and rights of access to the personal information of students

The College respects every parents/carers right to make decisions concerning their child's education.

Generally, the College will refer any requests for consent and notices in relation to the personal information of a student to the student's parents/carers.  The College will treat consent given by parents/carers as consent given on behalf of the student, and notice to parents/carers will act as notice given to the student.

Parents/carers may seek access to personal information held by the College about them or their child by contacting the College in writing.  However, there may 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 student.

The College may, at its discretion, on the request of a student grant that student access to information held by the College about them, or allow a student to give or withhold consent to the use of their personal information, independently of their parents/carers.  This would normally be done only when the maturity of the student and/or the student's personal circumstances warrant it.

Withdrawing Consent. If you have consented to our processing of your personal information, you have the right to withdraw your consent at any time, free of charge. This includes cases where you wish to opt out from marketing messages that you receive from us.

To make a request to exercise any of these rights in relation to your personal information, please email, call or write to us using the contact information listed on the College website at www.eac.nsw.edu.au.

Enquiries and complaints

If you would like further information about the way the College manages the personal information it holds, or wish to complain that you believe that the College has breached the Australian Privacy Principles please contact the Principal writing or by telephone.  The College will investigate any complaint and will notify you of the making of a decision in relation to your complaint as soon as is practicable after it has been made.