Privacy and Cookies

Our aim at St Clare’s is to give you the smoothest and simplest experience while you browse our website. To continually enhance your experience we use cookies that store your preferences and give us data about what pages you visited, how much time you spent on our site etc. This helps us to improve your experience on our website. The cookies used do not store any information that is personal in nature and it is only analysed in an aggregated manner.

Information we collect

We may collect the following information:

• name
• contact information including email address
• demographic information such as postcode, preferences and interests
• other information relevant to customer surveys and/or offers

What we do with the information we gather

We require this information to understand your needs and provide you with a better service, and in particular for the following reasons:

• Internal record keeping.
• We may use the information to improve our services.
• We may periodically send promotional emails about our services.
• From time to time, we may also use your information to contact you for market research purposes.
• We may contact you by email.
• We may use the information to customise the website according to your interests.

Security

We are committed to ensuring that your information is secure. In order to prevent unauthorised access or disclosure, we have put in place suitable physical, electronic and managerial procedures to safeguard and secure the information we collect online.

Cookies

Please find below some more information regarding cookies and their use on our website:

What are Cookies?

A cookie is a simple text file that is stored on your computer or mobile device by a website’s server and only that server will be able to retrieve or read the contents of that cookie. Every cookie is unique to your particular web browser. It will contain some anonymous information such as a unique identifier and the site name and some digits and numbers.

How can you manage Cookies?

To enable cookies

If you’re not sure of the type and version of web browser you use to access the Internet:

For PCs: click on ‘Help’ at the top of your browser window and select the ‘About’ option

For Macs: with the browser window open, click on the Apple menu and select the ‘About’ option.

How to check Cookies are enabled for PCs

Google Chrome

1. Click on ‘Tools’ at the top of your browser window and select Options
2. Click the ‘Under the Hood’ tab, locate the ‘Privacy’ section, and select the ‘Content settings’ button
3. Now select ‘Allow local data to be set’

Microsoft Internet Explorer 6.0, 7.0, 8.0

1. Click on ‘Tools’ at the top of your browser window and select ‘Internet options’ , then click on the ‘Privacy’ tab
2. Ensure that your Privacy level is set to Medium or below, which will enable cookies in your browser
3. Settings above Medium will disable cookies

Mozilla Firefox

1. Click on ‘Tools’ at the top of your browser window and select Options
2. Then select the Privacy icon
3. Click on Cookies, then select ‘allow sites to set cookies’

Safari

1. Click on the Cog icon at the top of your browser window and select the ‘Preferences’ option
2. Click on ‘Security’, check the option that says ‘Block third-party and advertising cookies’
3. Click ‘Save’

How to check Cookies are enabled for Macs

Microsoft Internet Explorer 5.0 on OSX

1. Click on ‘Explorer’ at the top of your browser window and select ‘Preferences’ options
2. Scroll down until you see ‘Cookies’ under Receiving Files
3. Select the ‘Never Ask’ option

Safari on OSX

1. Click on ‘Safari’ at the top of your browser window and select the ‘Preferences’ option
2. Click on ‘Security’ then ‘Accept cookies’
3. Select the ‘Only from site you navigate to’

Mozilla and Netscape on OSX

1. Click on ‘Mozilla’ or ‘Netscape’ at the top of your browser window and select the ‘Preferences’ option
2. Scroll down until you see cookies under ‘Privacy & Security’
3. Select ‘Enable cookies for the originating web site only’

Opera

1. Click on ‘Menu’ at the top of your browser window and select ‘Settings’
2. Then select ‘Preferences’, select the ‘Advanced’ tab
3. Then select ‘Accept cookies’ option

All other browsers

Please consult your documentation or online help files.

How to disable Cookies:

All modern browsers allow you to change your cookie preferences. These are generally found in the options menu on the browser.

Further information about Cookies

If you’d like to learn more about cookies in general and how to manage them, visit www.aboutcookies.org (opens in a new window – please note that we can’t be responsible for the content of external websites).

Changes to this Policy

The above may change at any time. We will endeavour to notify you of any major changes but you may wish to check it each time you visit our website.

Privacy notice for parents

Introduction

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

If you have any questions about this notice please contact the Bursar.

What is personal data?

Personal data is information that identifies you as an individual.

This includes your contact details, next of kin and financial information.  We may also hold information such as your religion or ethnic group.  CCTV, photos and video recordings of you are also personal data.

How and why does the College collect personal data?

We obtain information about you from admissions forms and from your child’s previous school.  We may also get information from professionals such as doctors and from local authorities.

Information is also received by the College directly from you.  For example, you might email us with information about your marital status or provide us with documents such as court orders.

We collect this information to safeguard and promote the welfare of your child, promote the objects and interests of the College, facilitate the efficient operation of the College and ensure that all relevant legal obligations of the College are complied with.

Here are some examples:

• We may have information about any family circumstances which might affect your child’s welfare or happiness.
• We ask if any of your child’s immediate family members have special educational needs because in some cases these can be hereditary.  The College can then use this information to assist your child.
• We may need information about any court orders or criminal petitions which relate to you.
• We use CCTV to make sure the College site is safe.  CCTV is not used in private areas such as toilets.  
• We may keep details of your address when your child leaves the College so we can send you alumni publications or information and find out how your child is progressing.  We may also pass your details onto an alumni organisation.

Financial information

• We will process financial information about you in relation to the payment of fees.  In some cases we get information about you from third parties such as credit reference agencies or from your child’s previous school(s).
• We may hold information about bankruptcy petitions and statutory demands.
• We may search the files of any licensed credit reference agency in order to verify your identity.  This also allows us to assess your application for the award of a bursary or for credit in contemplation of an agreement for the deferment of fees.
  • The credit reference agency will keep a record of that search and details about your application.
  • This record will be seen by other organisations which make searches about you.
  • Failure to supply information may result in a refusal of an award or credit.

Sharing personal data with third parties

• In accordance with our legal obligations, we may share information with local authorities, children’s social care, the Independent Schools Inspectorate / Ofsted and the Department for Education, for example, where we have any safeguarding concerns.
• On occasion, we may need to share information with the police or our legal advisers.
•  If your child is not of British nationality we have to make sure that your child has the right to study in the UK.  We might have to provide information about you to UK Visas and Immigration to comply with our duties as a Tier 4 sponsor.
• We may share some information with our insurance company, for example, where there is a serious incident at the College.
• If you have unpaid fees while your child is at the College we may share information about this with other schools or educational establishments to which you intend to send your child.
• If your child leaves us to attend another school we may need to provide that school with information about you.  For example, details of family circumstances for safeguarding reasons.

What do we do with your personal information?

The Bursar is the person responsible at our College for managing how we look after personal data 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.

We only retain your information for as long as we need to.  The retention period depends on the type of information.  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 the Principal or one of the Vice-Principals.  We can also tell you what information we hold about you.
• If you would prefer that certain information is kept confidential then please speak to the Principal or one of the Vice-Principals.

Further information and guidance

This notice is to explain how we use your personal information.  If you have any questions please contact the  Bursar.