This notice is to help you understand how and why we collect your personal information and what we do with that information.  It also explains the decisions that you can make about your own information.

We are giving you this notice because you are mature enough to make decisions about your personal information.

If you have any questions about this notice please talk to our Privacy Officer, Mr Denis Lundie (privacy@forest.org.uk).

What is ‘personal information’?

Personal information is information that the School collects about you.  This includes information such as your name, date of birth and address as well as things like exam results, medical details and behaviour records.  The School may also record your religion or ethnic group.  CCTV, photos and video recordings of you are also personal information.

How and why does the School collect personal information?

Admissions forms that were filled in when you joined the school give us lots of personal information.  Your old school also gives us information about you.  We get information from you, your teachers and other pupils.  Sometimes we get information from your doctors and other professionals where we need this to look after you.

We collect this information to help the School run properly, safely and to let others know what we do here.  Here are some examples:

  • We need to tell all your teachers if you are allergic to something or might need extra help with some tasks.
  • We use CCTV to make sure the School site is safe for you and others.  CCTV is not used in private areas such as changing rooms. In exceptional circumstances, we may use CCTV to assist locating items that have been reported lost.
  • We may need to report some of your information to the government.  For example, we may need to tell the local authority that you attend the School or let them know if we have any concerns about your welfare.
  • Depending on where you will go when you leave us we may need to provide your information to other schools, colleges and universities or potential employers.  For example, we may share information about your exam results and provide references.
  • When you take public examinations (e.g. GCSEs) we will need to share information about you with examination boards.
  • We may need to share information with the police or our legal advisers if something goes wrong or to help with an inquiry.  For example, if one of your classmates is injured at School or if there is a burglary.
  • We may share some information with our insurance company to make sure that we have the insurance cover that we need.
  • We may share your academic and (where fair) your behaviour records with your parents or education guardian so they can support your schooling.

We will only share your information with other people and organisations when we have a good reason to do so.

We will monitor your use of email, the internet and mobile electronic devices e.g. iPads, smartphones and laptops.  If you would like more information about this you can read the Responsible Use of Information and Technology policy or speak to Mr Lundie.

We may use photographs or videos of you for the School’s website and social media sites or prospectus to show prospective pupils what we do here as well as for teaching purposes.  We use photographs of you for your school and bus badges, and in our school systems for school trips for your safety.

We publish our public exam results, sports fixtures and other news on the website and put articles and photographs in the local news to tell people about what we have been doing.

We may keep information about you for a very long time or even indefinitely if we need this for historical, research or statistical purposes.  For example, if we consider the information might be useful if someone wanted to write a book about the School.

We will keep details of your address when you leave so we can send you the Old Foresters NewsLetter and find out how you are getting on.  We may also pass your details onto the alumni organisation.

What do we do with your personal information?

The Director of Information and Technology is the person responsible at our School for managing how we look after personal information and deciding how it is shared.

Like other organisations we need to keep your information safe, up to date, only use it for what we said we would, destroy it when we no longer need it and most importantly – treat the information we get fairly.

In exceptional circumstances we may keep your information for a longer time than usual or share it more widely than we would normally.

What decisions can you make about your information?

If information is incorrect you can ask us to correct it.

If you would like us to change or update the information we hold about you please speak to your tutor. You can also ask what information we hold about you.

If you would prefer that we keep certain information confidential then please speak to your tutor or the E-safety Officer.

Further information and guidance

This notice is to explain how we look after personal information.

If you have any questions you can ask your tutor, the Head of E-Learning or the Director of Information and Technology about how it works in our School.  Alternatively, you can ask your parents to speak to us on your behalf if you prefer.