Harkaway Hills College Privacy Policy:
This document outlines the College’s policy on how the College uses and manages personal information provided to or collected by it.
Harkaway Hills College, hereafter called the ‘College’ consists of:
Harkaway Hills College campus at 20 A’Beckett Rd, Narre Warren North, Victoria, 3804 and other venues related to activities undertaken by the College.
The College is bound by the National Privacy Principles contained in the Commonwealth Privacy Act.
The Privacy Principles contained in the Victorian Health Records Act may also bind health providers within the College.
The College may, from time to time, review and update this Privacy Policy to take account of new laws and technology, changes to College’s operations and practices and to make sure it remains appropriate to the changing College environment.
What kind of personal information does the College collect and how is it collected?
The type of information we collect and hold includes (but is not limited to) personal information, including sensitive information, about:
- Students and parents and/or guardians (‘Parents’) before, during and after the course of a student’s enrolment at the College
- Job applicants, staff members, volunteers and contractors
- Other people who come into 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 students, face-to-face meetings and interviews, and telephone calls. On occasions people other than Parents 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 College.
Exception in relation to employee records: Under the Privacy Act the National 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 collected 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, or to which you have consented.
In approaching the issue of privacy, Harkaway Hills College considers that the underlying arrangement between the College and Parents is contractual. Parents are engaging the College to provide schooling for their child on the terms agreed by the parties. The College’s authority over the student derives from the contract with the Parents and its duties at law.
Students and Parents: In relation to personal information of students and Parents, the College’s primary purpose of collection is to enable the College to provide schooling for the student. This includes satisfying both the needs of Parents 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 include:
- To keep Parents informed about matters related to their child’s schooling, through correspondence, including reports, newsletters and magazines
- Day-to-day administration
- Looking after students’ educational, social, emotional and medical well-being
- Seeking donations and marketing for the College
- To satisfy the College’s legal obligations and allow it 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, we may not be able to enrol or continue the enrolment of the student or allow the student to participate in the related 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, as the case may be.
The purposes for which the College uses personal information of job applicants, staff members and contractors include:
- In 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 conduct associated activities 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 be 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 College’s Fundraising Foundation or OWCA.
Parents, 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?
The College may disclose personal information, including sensitive information, held about an individual to:
- Another school
- Government departments
- Medical practitioners
- People providing services to the College, including specialist visiting teachers and sports coaches
- Recipients of College publications, like newsletters and magazines
- College’s legal representatives and/or financial collection agency in the event of payment default or legal proceedings
- Parents and anyone to whom you authorise the College to disclose information
Sending information overseas:
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)
- Otherwise complying with the National Privacy Principles
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, sexual preferences or criminal record, 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 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 is 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, loss, unauthorised access, modification or disclosure by use of various methods including locked storage of paper records and pass worded access rights to computerized records.
Updating personal information
The College endeavours to ensure that the personal information it holds is accurate, complete and up-to-date. A person may seek to update their personal information held by the College by contacting the Head’s Assistant of the College at any time. The National Privacy Principles require the College not to store personal information longer than necessary. You have the right to check what personal information the College holds about you.
Under the Commonwealth Privacy Act, an individual has the right to obtain access to any personal information that the College holds about them and to advise the College of any perceived inaccuracy. There are some exceptions to this right set out in the Act. Students will generally have access to their personal information through their Parents. To make a request to access any information the College holds about you or your child, please contact the Campus Principal 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. It may take 30-45 days for the information to be made available.
Consent and rights of access to the personal information of students
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. The College will treat consent given by Parents as consent given on behalf of the student, and notice to Parents will act as notice given to the student. Parents may seek access to personal information held by the College about them or their child by contacting the Campus Principal. However, there will 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, or according to other exemptions stated in the Privacy or Health Acts.
The College may, at its discretion, 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.
COLLECTION NOTICE
The College collects personal information, including sensitive information about pupils and parents or guardians before and during the course of a student’s enrolment at the College. The primary purpose of collecting this information is to enable the College to provide schooling for your son/daughter. Some of the information we collect is to satisfy the College’s legal obligations, particularly to enable the College to discharge its duty of care. Certain laws governing or relating to the operation of schools require that certain information is collected. These include Public Health and Child Protection laws.
Health information about students is sensitive information within the terms of the National Privacy Principles under the Privacy Act. We ask you to provide medical reports about students from time to time. The College from time to time discloses personal and sensitive information to others for administrative and educational purposes. This includes to other schools, government departments, medical practitioners and people providing services to the College, including specialist visiting teachers, sports coaches, volunteers and contractors.
If we do not obtain the information referred to above we may not be able to enrol or continue the enrolment of your son/daughter, or allow him/her to participate in associated activities.
Personal information collected from students is regularly disclosed to their parents or guardians. On occasions information such as academic and sporting achievements, student activities and other news is published in College newsletters, magazines and on our website.
Parents may seek access to personal information collected about them and their son/daughter by submitting a written request to the relevant Head of School. Students may also seek access to personal information about them. However, there will be occasions when access is denied. Such occasions would include where access would have an unreasonable impact on the privacy of others, where access may result in a breach of the College’s duty of care to the student, or where students have provided information in confidence.
As you may know the College from time to time engages in fundraising activities. Information received from you may be used to make an appeal to you. (It may also be disclosed to organisations that assist in the College’s fundraising activities solely for that purpose.) We will not disclose your personal information to third parties for their own marketing purposes without your consent.
We may include your contact details in a class list, but will seek Parents’ permission at that stage.
The College updates its records annually. Student personal details plus contact details for both parents will be released to one parent for verification, unless the Campus Principal is directed otherwise.
If you provide the College with the personal information of others, such as doctors or emergency contacts, we encourage you to inform them that you are disclosing that information to the College and why, that they can access that information if they wish and that the College does not usually disclose the information to third parties.
Student records are archived to meet the needs for a range of possible future inquiries and for historical purposes. Other personal information is destroyed as per regulatory requirements.
