Privacy & Security Policies

The type of personal information, including sensitive information, that the College collects and holds, is that which is necessary or directly related to the College’s primary function of providing an education and associated activities, or in certain circumstances, a secondary associated function.

For future students and their parents this includes names, contact details and current or previous schooling records.

For current students this includes demographic information, parent/guardian names and contact details, medical information (including, but not limited to immunisation records, disabilities, allergies and absence notes), emergency contacts, current or previous schooling records, and any other information required for the educational, pastoral and health care of the child whilst at the College. 

For former students and families this includes name, address and contact details, and other information that may be provided unsolicited by the individual such as change of marital status or occupation.

For parents/guardians this includes names and contact details, occupation and educational qualifications as required by the Government to meet accountability requirements and to qualify for Government funding for the College. It may also include bank account details for College Fee payment. 

For staff members this includes names, address, contact details for themselves and spouse (emergency), mandatory registrations, medical information if necessary, for personal health and safety, tax file numbers and bank account details, salary, superannuation and leave details, complaint records and investigation reports, photographic material, CCTV information, email and internet browsing history.

For volunteers and contractors this includes names, contact and company details, mandatory registrations and, in some instances, bank account details. 

There will individuals who will visit the College periodically, from whom it will be necessary to collect personal information, and this would include names, contact details, and mandatory registrations as required.

The College will generally collect personal information held about an individual by way of forms (hard copy and/or digital) filled out by parents or students, staff members, job applicants and others, or by face-to-face meetings and interviews, telephone calls, email communications, the College’s website and portal, third party service providers. 

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, Government Agency, or a reference from another College. 

At times our website may provide external links to other websites. When you click on these links you are leaving our website and entering another which we do not control, and for which we are not responsible. We encourage you to review the online policies of these websites. Mailchimp and Catchmail are used for the purpose of sending electronic communications, for example College newsletters, Belltower newsletters, prizegiving invitations and Scots Collegians Association event emails. Some personal information including email addresses, name, addresses and connection to the College are stored on these platforms within the College’s private profiles. This allows the College to send the most relevant information to recipients. Precautions to ensure account safety are taken.

On occasions this may include:

• Any events where the College sells tickets through third party event platform Humanitix follow Humanitix’s privacy policies which can be viewed on their website.
• Forms provided through third party Digistorm for example; Recruitments events, scholarship applications, student application for enrolment and confirmation of acceptance forms. Digistorm’s privacy policies can be viewed at https://www.digistorm.com.au/legal/privacy-policy/
• Mailchimp’s privacy policy can be accessed here - https://mailchimp.com/legal/privacy/#3.  Privacy for contacts and Catchmail’s privacy policy can be accessed here – https://help.createsend.com/how-we-keep-your-data-private-and-secure.

Cookies and Tracking information are collected when you access the school web site. Cookies are very small text files saved to your computer, or device, which allows user navigation to be tracked around our website to collect and analyse this information. This information is non personally identifiable and might include your IP address, browser type or operating system, the domain name of which you linked to our site and your broad location by country. This information is only used to track your visitor behaviour on scotscollege.school.nz. This information cannot be used to identify you.

This information is used to help the College to better understand our website audience, improve the user’s experience and for targeted marketing to help advertising talk to the right people. 

If you would prefer not to use cookies, you can change your browser settings preferences to not accept cookies.

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; and health 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 the individual agrees otherwise, or the use or disclosure of the sensitive information is allowed by law.

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

The College holds personal information provided by individuals in one, or both, of two formats. The first is the format in which the information was provided, whether this be via a College form, an email, letter, College website/portal communication or a recorded phone message. The second format is within the College’s electronic data information management system, PCSchool and the SharePoint portal, Scot-E.

Hard copies of personal information are held on student or staff personal or medical files, or files created for specific information management purposes such as camp files, or Police Vetting files. These are secured in filing cabinets, within the HR Manager’s office that is locked each night and in a controlled access area. 

Access to personal information entered into PCSchool and Scot-E is controlled by password access and security levels assigned to each staff member. The level of access for each staff member is determined by their role within the College and their operational requirement to know specific personal information about an individual.

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

Students and Parents/Guardians
In relation to personal information of students and parents/guardians, the College's primary purpose of collection is to enable the College to provide schooling for the student enrolled at the College. This includes satisfying both the needs of parents/guardians and the needs of the student throughout the whole period the student is enrolled at the College.

The purposes for which the College uses personal information of students and parents/guardians include:

• to keep parents/guardians informed about matters related to their child's schooling, through correspondence, newsletters, magazines and the College’s website;
• day-to-day administration;
• looking after students' educational, social and medical wellbeing;
• seeking donations and marketing for the College;
• to satisfy the College's legal and legislative obligations and allow the College to discharge its duty of care.

In some cases, where the College requests personal information about a student or parent, if the information requested is not obtained, the College may not be able to enrol or continue the enrolment of the student or permit the student to participate in an activity.

Job applicants, staff members, and contractors
In relation to personal information of job applicants, staff members and contractors, the College's primary purpose of collection is to assess and (if successful) to engage the applicant, staff member or contractor.

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

• administering the individual's employment or contract, as the case may be;
• for insurance purposes;
• seeking funds and marketing for the College;
• to satisfy 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 to conduct associated activities (such as the Scots Collegians Association), 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 an organisation that assists in the College's fundraising, for example, the Scots Collegians Association or the Parents’ Association. 

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

The College may disclose personal information, including sensitive information, held about an individual to:

• another College for student transfers;
• in order to facilitate College exchanges, the College may disclose personal information about a student to an overseas recipient; the individual’s consent will be sought before so doing;
• government departments directly associated with educational services;
• medical practitioners, people providing services to the College, including specialist visiting teachers, College EOTC providers, sports coaches and volunteers;
• assessment and educational authorities, including NZQA, International Baccalaureate Organisation etc;
• anyone the individual or parent/guardian authorises the College to disclose information to; and
• anyone to whom the College is required or authorised to disclose information to be law, including child protection laws. 

However, personal details will not be sold to any third party at any stage.

Under the New Zealand Privacy Act Principles 6 & 7, an individual has the right to obtain access to any personal information, which the College holds, about them and to advise the College of any perceived inaccuracy. There are several exceptions to this right, as set out in NZ Privacy Principle 6, clause 6.3. Such exceptions 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. 

Parents may seek access to personal information held by the College about them or their child by contacting the Head of College in writing. Students will generally have access to their personal information either through the web portal of PCSchool or through their parents, but older students may seek access themselves. 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. This would normally be done only when the maturity of the student and/or the student's personal circumstances so warranted.

The College may require the individual to verify their identity and specify what information they require. The College may charge a fee to cover the cost of verifying the 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. 

Staff, past students, volunteers, and contractors may seek access to their personal information by contacting the Head of College in writing. Job applicants may seek access to their personal information by contacting the Human Resources Manager.

The College is required to respond to a request for access to personal information within 30 days of the request or within a reasonable period after the request is made.

The College may refuse, under certain circumstances, to give access to personal information as requested or to give access in the manner requested by the individual or, their parent/guardian if the individual is a student. If this occurs, the College must give the individual a written notice that states the reason for the refusal and the mechanisms available to the individual to complain about the refusal and any other related matter prescribed by the regulations.

If under NZ Privacy Principle 7 – Correction of personal information, the College believes that the personal information held is inaccurate, out-of-date, incomplete, irrelevant, or misleading or the individual requests the College to correct the information, the College must take such steps as reasonable in the circumstances to correct the information. 

The College endeavours to ensure that the personal information it holds is accurate, complete, up-to-date, and relevant. The College annually requests that individuals confirm or update critical personal information for current students and families via a Personal Information e-Form. In addition, If your child is currently enrolled at Scots College and you wish to update your personal details please contact helpdesk@scotscollege.school.nz. If you are a past student or friend of Scots College and wish to update your personal details, please contact collegians@scotscollege.school.nz. 

Staff and job applicants can contact the Human Resources Manager and contractors can contact the College Chief Financial Officer.  If you wish to exercise the above rights, please contact enquiries@scotscollege.school.nz. Your request should include details and purpose of your request and it will be forwarded on to the appropriate department for action. 

The College is required to respond to a request to correct personal information within 30 days of the request or within a reasonable period after the request is made. The College may ask for proof of identity before requested corrections are made.

The College may refuse, under certain circumstances, to correct personal information as requested by the individual or, their parent/guardian if the individual is a student. If this occurs, the College must give the individual a written notice that states the reason for the refusal and the mechanisms available to the individual to complain about the refusal and any other related matter prescribed by the regulations.

Many students travel overseas on exchanges, conferences, and service trips for which it is necessary to provide certain personal information. The College will not send personal information about an individual outside the country without:

• obtaining the consent of the individual (in some cases this consent will be implied); or
• otherwise complying with the NZ Privacy Principle 11 – Disclosure of personal information.

This requires the College to take such steps as are reasonable in the circumstances to ensure any overseas recipient of personal information does not breach the NZ Privacy Principles. The College accepts this requirement and will seek the prior consent of the individual or their parent/guardian, as appropriate, should a disclosure of personal information to an overseas recipient be required.

How an individual may complain about a breach of the New Zealand Privacy Principles that bind the College, and how the College will deal with such a complaint. 

Any complaint relating to the College’s compliance with the Privacy Principles must be addressed in writing directly to the Head of College. Such matters may include, but not be limited to, the College’s refusal to provide access to an individual’s personal information or refusal to correct an individual’s personal information.

If the subject of complaint remains unresolved to the individual’s satisfaction and the Head of College has been formally advised that the individual intends to take the issue to the College’s Board of Governors, the individual can write to the Chair of the Board to complain formally. The only exception would be in the case of the Head of College being the subject of complaint, in that circumstance alone, an individual could bypass the Head of College and write directly to the Board Chair. 

If the subject of complaint is still unresolved after discussion with the Board Chair, the individual must accept that their complaint has been heard and cannot be resolved, as they would wish it to be resolved by the College. 

If the individual is not satisfied with the outcome offered by the College, the individual may make a complaint to the New Zealand Privacy Commissioner (or an Ombudsman) under part 5 of the Privacy Act 2020.

Additional information on the NZ Privacy Principles and the Office of the NZ Privacy Commissioner is available at https://www.privacy.org.nz/