Privacy Policy

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

• Students and parents and/or guardians (Parents) before, during and after the course of a student’s enrolment at the School;
• Job applicants, staff members, volunteers and contractors; and
• Other people who come into contact with the School

The School will generally collect personal information held about an individual by way of forms completed by Parents or students, face-to-face meetings and interviews, emails and telephone calls. On occasion, people other than Parents and students provide personal information.

In some circumstances, the School 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.

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 School’s treatment of an employee record, where the treatment is directly related to a current or former employment relationship between the School and employee.

The School 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.

In relation to personal information of students and Parents, the School’s primary purpose of collection is to enable the School to provide schooling for the student. This includes satisfying the needs of Parents, the needs of the student and the needs of the School throughout the whole period the student is enrolled at the School.

The purposes for which the School uses personal information of students 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 students’ 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 School requests personal information about a student or Parent, if the information requested is not provided, the School may not be able to enrol or continue the enrolment of the student or permit the student to take part in a particular activity.

In some cases where the School requests additional information about a student from Parents for such purposes as Scholarship or Bursary Applications, the contents of the successful application will then be consolidated with any existing information retained by the School. Unsuccessful applications will be disposed of via a secure method.

In relation to the personal information of job applicants, staff members and contractors, the School’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 School 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 donations and marketing for the School; and
• To satisfy the School’s legal obligations, for example, in relation to child protection legislation.

The School also obtains personal information about volunteers who assist the School in its functions or conduct associated activities, such as the Parents’ & Friends’ Association and the Alumni Association, to enable the School and the volunteers to work together.

The School treats marketing and seeking donations for the future growth and development of the School as an important part of ensuring that the School continues to provide a quality learning environment in which both students and staff thrive. Personal information held by the School may be disclosed to organisations that assist in the School’s fundraising, for example, the School’s Foundation, the Parents’ & Friends’ Association or Alumni organisations.

Parents, staff, contractors and other members of the wider School 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.

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

• Another school;
• Government departments;
• Medical practitioners;
• People providing services to the School, including specialist visiting teachers, counsellors and sports coaches;
• Recipients of School publications, such as newsletters and magazines;
• Parents;
• Anyone you authorise the School to disclose information to; and
• Anyone to whom we are required to disclose the information by law.

The School may disclose personal information about an individual to overseas recipients, for instance, to facilitate a school exchange, to meet the requirements of the School’s International Students’ Program, for purposes of translation or under the School’s obligations under the ESOS Act. 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 School may also store personal information in the ‘cloud’ which may mean that it resides on servers which are situated outside Australia.

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.

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

The School 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 right to computerised records.

Under the Commonwealth Privacy Act and the Health Records Act, an individual has the right to obtain access to any personal information which the School holds about them and to advise the School of any perceived inaccuracy. Students will generally be able to access and update their personal information through their Parents, 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 update any personal information the School holds about you or your child, please contact the Headmaster in writing. The School may require you to verify your identity and specify what information you require. The School 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 School 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.

Personal information of family members, such as telephone numbers, addresses, health records, next of kin and School reports are retained on the School’s database. This information may be accessed by the student via the Students’ Portal, and by the Parents via the Parents’ Portal. These portals are password protected and individual users can manage the privacy settings in the Portal to control who can see their personal information.

The School respects every Parent’s right to make decisions concerning their child’s education.

Generally, the School will refer any requests for consent and notices in relation to the personal information of a student to the student’s Parents. The School 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.

As mentioned above, Parents may seek access to personal information held by the School about them or their child by contacting the Headmaster. However, there will be occasions when access is denied. Such occasions would include where the 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 School’s duty of care to the student.

The School may, at its discretion, on the request of a student grant that student access to information held by the School 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.

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

The School 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.

1. The School collects personal information, including sensitive information about students and parents or guardians before and during the course of a student’s enrolment at the School. This may be in writing, or in the course of meetings, telephone conversations and the enrolment interview itself. The primary purpose of collecting this information is to enable the School to provide schooling to the students and to enable them to take part in all the activities of the School.
2. Some of the information we collect is to satisfy the School’s legal obligations, particularly to enable the School to provide education to the student, to enable them to take part in all the activities of the School and to enable the School to discharge its duty of care.
3. Laws governing or relating to the operation of a school require certain
   information to be collected and disclosed. These include relevant Education
   Acts, Public Health and Child Protection laws.
4. Health information about students is sensitive information within the terms of the Australian Privacy Principles under the Privacy Act. We may ask you to provide medical reports about pupils from time to time.
5. The School from time to time discloses personal and sensitive information
   to others for administrative and educational purposes, including to facilitate
   the transfer of a student to another school. This includes to other schools,
   government departments, medical practitioners, and people providing services
   to the School, including specialist visiting teachers, coaches (i.e. sport),
   volunteers, camp/excursion co-ordinators and counsellors.
6. Personal information collected from students is regularly disclosed to their parents or guardians.
7. The School may store personal information in the ‘cloud’ which may mean that it resides on servers which are situated outside Australia.
8. The School’s Privacy Policy sets out how parents or pupils may seek access to personal information collected 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 School’s duty of care to the student, or where pupils have provided information in confidence.
9. The School Privacy Policy also sets out how you may complain about a breach of privacy and how the School will deal with such a complaint.
10. As you may know, the School from time to time engages in fundraising activities. Information received from you may be used to make an appeal to you. We will not disclose your personal information to third parties for their own marketing purposes without your consent.
11. On occasions, information such as academic and sporting achievements, pupil activities and similar news is published in School newsletters, The Altiora magazine and the website. Photographs of student activities such as sporting events, school camps, excursions, achievements and class work may be taken for publication in School newsletters and magazines and on the website. The School will obtain written permission from the student’s parent or guardian at the point of enrolment and seek further permission if the use of the image is beyond the uses outlined in the original letter of permission.
12. If you provide the School 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 School and for what purpose, that they can access that information if they wish and that the School does not usually disclose this information to third parties.
13. The School may not be able to enrol a student if it does not collect some or all of the information it requests.

1. Graduating students become members of the Blue Mountains Grammar School Alumni Association. The School retains all students’ records in the School Archives. The School may collect personal information from members of our Alumni from time to time, with the primary purpose of maintaining contact with our past students and to keep Alumni members informed about other members.
2. The School retains the information referred to above to enable us to continue your membership of the Alumni Association.
3. As you know, from time to time we engage in fundraising activities. The
   information received from you may be used by The School to assist in its
   fundraising activities.
4. The School and/or the Alumni Association may publish details about you in The Altiora magazine. If you do not wish to appear in ex-students’ news, please make this known to the Registrar of the School.
5. The School’s Privacy Policy contains details of how you may seek access to
   personal information collected about you or how you may complain about a
   breach of the Australian Privacy Principles.
6. If you provide personal information to us about other people, we encourage you to inform them of the above matters.

1. In applying for this position you will be providing The School with Personal information.
2. If you provide us with personal information, for example, your name and address or information contained on your resume, we will collect the information in order to assess your application for employment. [In some instances, we may keep this information on file if your application is unsuccessful in case another position becomes available].
3. The School generally retains any employee applications for the period of one School term after an advertised position has been filled. All submissions from unsuccessful candidates are disposed of by a secure method. The submission
   from the successful applicant is consolidated with the Staff member’s
   employment file. The School’s Privacy Policy contains details of how you may
   complain about a breach or the Australian Privacy Principles or how you may
   seek access to personal information collected about you. However, there may be
   occasions when access is denied. Such occasions would include where access
   would have an unreasonable impact on the privacy of others.
4. The School will not disclose your personal information to a third party without your consent or for a lawful purpose under the Privacy Act.
5. If you provide us with personal information of others, we encourage you to inform them that you are disclosing that information to the School and why, that they can access that information if they wish and that the School does not usually disclose the information to third parties.

1. In applying to provide services to the School, you will be providing the School with personal information.
2. If you provide us with personal information, for example your name and address, email address and/or resume, we will collect the information in order to assess your application. The School may also make notes and prepare a confidential report in respect of your application.
3. You agree that we may store this information. After a period of inactivity, this information will be archived.
4. The School’s Privacy Policy sets out how you may seek access to your personal information and how you may complain about a breach of the Australian Privacy Principles.
5. We will not disclose this information to a third party without your consent or for a lawful purpose under the Privacy Act. On occasion, this information is disclosed to organisations such as Office of the Children’s Guardian.
6. We are required to verify that you have a Working with Children Check Clearance under Child Protection law. We may also collect personal information about you in accordance with these laws.
7. If you provide us with the personal information of others, we encourage you
   to inform them that you are disclosing that information to the School and why,
   that they can access that information if they wish and that the School does not
   usually disclose the information to third parties.