privacy notice

Cottesmore School is committed to protecting and respecting your privacy.

This privacy statement 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.

It only relates to how we use information which is collected when you visit our website. 

For information about how the School uses personal information in other contexts please use the links below to our full Privacy Notices.

Please follow this link to read our 'School Community - Privacy Notice'

Please follow this link to read our 'Cottesmore School - Privacy Notice for Staff' 

Please follow this link to read our 'Data Protection Policy'

Reviewed by TFR, July 2021

To be reviewed, July 2022

What do we mean by "personal information"?

Personal information is information about you and/or your child from which you/your child can be identified.  If information has been anonymised it is not personal information.  For example, your name and contact details. 

What personal information is collected by us through the website?

We collect and process the following personal information about you in connection with your use of our website:

Information you give us:  This is information about you that you give us by filling in forms on our website.  It includes information you provide when you register to use our website, subscribe to a service and when you report a problem with our website.  The information you give us may include your:

• Name
• Address
• Email address
• Phone number

Information we collect about you:  With regard to each of your visits to our website we may automatically collect the following information:

• Technical information, including the Internet protocol (IP) address used to connect your computer to the Internet, your login information, browser type and version, time zone setting, browser plug-in types and versions and operating system and platform 
• Information about your visit, including the full Uniform Resource Locators (URL), clickstream to, through and from our site (including date and time), services you viewed or searched for, page response times, download errors, length of visits to certain pages, page interaction information (such as scrolling, clicks, and mouse-overs), methods used to browse away from the page  and any phone number used to call us.

Cookies:  Our website uses cookies to distinguish you from other users of our website.  This helps us to provide you with a good experience when you browse our website and also allows us to improve our website.

Required information:  we indicate on our website forms what information is mandatory.  If you do not provide this mandatory information then we may not be able to provide the services you have requested.

 Why do we use your personal information?

We use information held about you in the following ways:

Information you give to us:  we will use this information to:

• Carry out our obligations arising from any contracts entered into between you and us and to provide you with the information and services that you request from us
• Notify you about changes to our service
• Ensure that content from our website is presented in the most effective manner for you and for your computer

Information we collect about you;  we will use this information:

• To administer our site and for internal operations, including troubleshooting, data analysis, testing, research, statistical and survey purposes
• To improve our site to ensure that content is presented in the most effective manner for you and for your computer
• As part of our efforts to keep our website safe and secure.

Where we store your personal data

All information you provide to us is stored on our secure servers.  Where we have given you (or where you have chosen) a password which enables you to access certain parts of our site, you are responsible for keeping this password confidential.  We ask you not to share this password with anyone.

Unfortunately, the transmission of information via the internet is not completely secure.  Although we will do our best to protect your personal data, we cannot guarantee the security of your data transmitted to our site; any transmission is at your own risk.  Once we have received your information, we will use strict procedures and security features to try to prevent unauthorised access. 

 

Sharing personal data with third parties

We may occasionally share your personal information:

• With local authorities, the Independent Schools Inspectorate, the Department for Education, the Police or our legal advisers where, for example, we have any safeguarding concerns
• With our insurance company, for example, where there is a serious incident at the School

For how long do we keep your information?

We keep your information for as long as we need to in order to provide services to you and educate and look after your child.  We will keep some information after your child has left the School, for example, so that we can find out what happened if you make a complaint.

In exceptional circumstances we may keep your information for a longer time than usual but we would only do so if we had a good reason and only if we are allowed to do so under data protection law.

Our legal grounds for using your information

Where we have a contract with you we are allowed to use information about you where this is necessary so that we can carry out our obligations under that contract.  We are also entitled to use your information in order to take steps you have requested prior to entering into the contract.

Unless this would be unfair to you, we have a legitimate interest in using your information in order to improve and maintain our website and make it available to you.

Occasionally, we may need to use your information in connection with legal disputes or where we have a legal obligation to share your information.

We may use your information to perform tasks in the public interest, such as facilitating the efficient operation of the School and ensuring that we comply with all of our legal obligations.

What decisions can you make about your information?

From May 2018 data protection legislation gives you a number of rights regarding your information.  Some of these are new rights whilst others build on your existing rights.  Your rights are as follows:

• Rectification: if information is incorrect you can ask us to correct it.
• Access: you can also ask what information we hold about you and be provided with a copy. This is commonly known as making a subject access request.  We will also give you extra information, such as why we use this information about you, where it came from and what types of people we have sent it to.
• Deletion: you can ask us to delete the information that we hold about you in certain circumstances.  For example, where we no longer need the information.
• Portability: you can request the transfer of your information to you or to a third party in a format that can be read by computer.  This applies where (a) the information has been provided by you; (b) the basis that we are relying on to process your information is consent or contract; and (c) the information is being processed by us on computer.
• Restriction: our use of information about you may be restricted in some cases.  For example, if you tell us that the information is inaccurate we can only use it for limited purposes while we check its accuracy.
• Object: you may object to us using your information where:

We are using it for direct marketing purposes;

• The legal basis on which we are relying is either legitimate interests or performance of a task carried out in the public interest; or
• We are using it for historical or scientific research purposes or archiving purposes.  For example, we may keep photographs of you at a School event for historical reasons.

This privacy statement is to explain how we use your personal information collected when you visit our website.  The Privacy and Compliance Officer is the person responsible at the School for managing how we look after personal information and deciding how it is shared.

Please speak to the Privacy and Compliance Officer if:

• You object to us using your information for marketing purposes e.g. to send you information about School events.  We will stop using your information for marketing purposes if you tell us not to.
• You would like us to update the information we hold about you.
• You would prefer that certain information is kept confidential.

If you consider that we have not acted properly when using your personal information you can contact the Information Commissioner's Office - ico.org.uk.

How to get in touch

• Call us on: 01293 520648
• Email: [email protected]
• Write to:  The Privacy and Compliance Officer, Cottesmore School, Buchan Hill, Pease Pottage, West Sussex RH11 9AU 

Information we may collect from you

We may collect and process the following data about you:

• Information that you provide by filling in forms on our Site. 
• If you contact us, we may keep a record of that correspondence.
• Details of your visits to our Site and the resources that you access.

IP addresses

We may collect information about your computer, including where available your IP address, operating system and browser type, for system administration. This is statistical data about our users' browsing actions and patterns, and does not identify any individual.

Cookies

For the same reason, we may obtain information about your general internet usage by using a cookie file which is stored on your browser or the hard drive of your computer. Cookies contain information that is transferred to your computer hard drive. They help us to improve our Site and to deliver a better and more personalised service.

If you register with us or if you continue to use our Site, you agree to our use of cookies.

On 26 May 2012, new rules about cookies on websites came into force. The Site uses Google Analytics, a web analytics service provided by Google, Inc. (‘Google’). Google Analytics uses cookies to help us analyse how users use the Site. The information generated by the cookie about a user’s use of the Site (including your IP address) will be transmitted to and stored by Google on servers in the United States. Google will use this information for the purpose of evaluating the user’s use of the Web Site, compiling reports on Site activity for web site operators and providing other services relating to web site activity and internet usage. Google may also transfer this information to third parties where required to do so by law, or where such third parties process the information on Google’s behalf. Google will not associate a user’s IP address with any other data held by Google. Users may refuse the use of cookies (as above). By using the Site, the User consents to the processing of data about that user by Google in the manner and for the purposes set out above.