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Publications

Privacy Policy

This Privacy Policy sets out how the College manages personal information provided to or collected by it.

This privacy policy applies to all personal information collected by us, or submitted to us, whether offline or online, including personal information collected or submitted through our website and any mobile sites, applications and other interactive features, through our official social media pages that we control as well as through HTML-formatted email messages that we send to you.

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:

  • pupils and parents and/or guardians ('Parents') before, during and after the course of a pupil'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 school 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 School 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 School 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 or pupils, face-to-face meetings and interviews, emails and telephone calls.  On occasions people other than Parents and pupils 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.

Pupils and Parents:  In relation to personal information of pupils and Parents, the College's primary purpose of collection is to enable the College to provide schooling to pupils enrolled at the College, exercise its duty of care, and perform necessary associated administrative activities, which will enable pupils to take part in all the activities of the School.  This includes satisfying the needs of Parents, the needs of the pupil and the needs of the College throughout the whole period the pupil is enrolled at the School.

The purposes for which the College uses personal information of pupils and Parents include:

  • to keep Parents informed about matters related to their child's schooling, through correspondence, newsletters and magazines;
  • day-to-day administration of the School;
  • looking after pupils' educational, social and medical wellbeing;
  • seeking donations and marketing for the School; and
  • to satisfy the School's legal obligations and allow the School to discharge its duty of care.

In some cases where the College requests personal information about a pupil or Parent, if the information requested is not provided, the College may not be able to enrol or continue the enrolment of the pupil or permit the pupil 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 School in its functions or conduct associated activities, such as [alumni associations], to enable the School 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 pupils and staff thrive.  Personal information held by the College may be disclosed to organisations that assist in the College's fundraising, for example, the School's Foundation or alumni organisation or, on occasions, external fundraising organisations.

Parents, staff, contractors and other members of the wider College community may from time to time receive fundraising information.  School 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 School 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 School, 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 School;
  • recipients of School publications, such as newsletters and magazines;
  • pupils' parents or guardians;
  • anyone you authorise the School 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 School 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 School 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 School 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 pupils' and Parents' personal information and the privacy of individuals.

The College has in place steps to protect the personal information the School 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 School holds about them and to advise the College of any perceived inaccuracy.  Pupils will generally be able to access and update their personal information through their Parents, but older pupils 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 pupils

The College respects every Parent's 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 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 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 pupil.

The College may, at its discretion, on the request of a pupil grant that pupil access to information held by the College 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 warrant it.

Residents in the European Economic Area

If you are a resident in the European Economic Area, you have the following rights in relation to your personal information (where applicable):

(a) Access. You have the right to request a copy of the personal information we are processing about you. For your own privacy and security, at our discretion we may require you to prove your identity before providing the requested information.
(b) Rectification. You have the right to have incomplete or inaccurate personal information that we process about you rectified.
(c) Deletion. You have the right to request that we delete personal information that we process about you, except we are not obliged to do so if we need to retain such data in order to comply with a legal obligation or to establish, exercise or defend legal claims.
(d) Restriction. You have the right to restrict our processing of your personal information where you believe such data to be inaccurate; our processing is unlawful; or that we no longer need to process such data for a particular purpose unless we are not able to delete the data due to a legal or other obligation or because you do not wish for us to delete it.
(e) Portability. You have the right to obtain personal information we hold about you, in a structured, electronic format, and to transmit such data to another data controller, where this is (a) personal information which you have provided to us, and (b) if we are processing that data on the basis of your consent or to perform a contract with you.
(f) Objection. Where the legal justification for our processing of your personal information is our legitimate interest, you have the right to object to such processing on grounds relating to your particular situation. We will abide by your request unless we have compelling legitimate grounds for the processing which override your interests and rights, or if we need to continue to process the data for the establishment, exercise or defence of a legal claim.

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 School 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.