The Institute of Education Privacy Policy

(Past Students, Students, Prospective Students and related Parents/Guardians)
April 2022
v.3

1. Introduction
The Institute of Education (hereby referred to as “The Institute”, “school”, “we”, “our”, “us”) fully respects your right to privacy and actively seeks to preserve the privacy rights of those who share information with us. This includes respect for the protection of data collected and stored at the school and for the right of access to this data. This policy is informed by the General Data Protection Regulation (“GDPR”) and the Data Protection Act 2018, as amended. It applies to all current, prospective and former students and their parents/guardians.

The School is a “controller”. This means that we are responsible for deciding how we hold and use personal information about you. We are required under data protection legislation to notify you of the information contained in this privacy notice.

This notice applies to current, prospective and former students. This notice does not form part of any contract to provide services. We may update this notice at any time but if we do so, we will provide you with an updated copy of this notice as soon as reasonably practical.

It is important that you read and retain this notice, together with any other privacy notice we may provide on specific occasions when we are collecting or processing personal information about you, so that you are aware of how and why we are using such information and what your rights are under the data protection legislation.

2. The information we hold about you
When you are a student with the School, we collect and use your personal data. The personal data we collect may include but not limited to

Student records

  • Student name, address, contact details, date of birth
  • Parent/guardian name, address and contact details
  • Previous educational details
  • Previous attendance record
  • Previous disciplinary record
  • Previous academic records (including reports, references, assessments and other relevant records)
  • Relevant special requirements e.g. Medical or special educational needs
  • Junior Cycle or Leaving Certificate results
  • Passport photograph
  • Psychological or medical assessments
  • Any relevant exemptions
  • CCTV
  • Recording of classes

3. How is your information collected?
As a student, past student or prospective student, parent/guardian of the school personal data may be collected by us from a range of sources including the previous education providers, and directly during the application and registration process. During the course of your studies, additional information is added to your record. The school may share information between different internal departments or 3rd parties for operational reasons as is necessary and proportionate for the purposes intended.

3.0 Processing Principles
3.1 In order for the use of personal data to be lawful, it should be processed on the basis of a legal basis as set out under Articles 6 and 9 GDPR.

The Institute of Education will ensure that your data is processed fairly and lawfully in keeping with the principles of data protection and will process personal data under various legal bases depending on the purpose for which the data is collected.

  • Where the School is required to process personal data by law or for complying with employment law.
  • Where the processing of personal data is necessary for the formation of a contract with students and their parents.
  • Where the processing of personal data is related to the delivery of the school services, we may sometimes process personal data based on legitimate interests e.g. for the administration and delivery of classes and the use of support services.
  • In other instances, we may seek consent from the data subject.

The grounds for seeking, retaining and processing student records is as follows:

  • Facilitate the management and administration of Institute business
  • To comply with legislative or administrative requirements
  • To ensure that students meet the entry criteria and age requirements
  • To provide educational, emotional, and physical support to enable each student to reach their full potential
  • To enable parents/guardians to be contacted in the case of emergency or in the case of Institute closure
  • To provide the parent/guardian on information relating to their student’s attendance and educational progress
  • To celebrate Institute achievements, compile yearbooks, establish the Institute website, record Institute events and to keep a record of the history of the Institute
  • To provide information on other relevant courses that may assist the student
  • To ensure the safety and wellbeing of the student
  • To send on any information to the Department of Education, the National Council for Special Education, TUSLA or other bodies in compliance with the law and directions issued by government departments
  • To complete documentation, references, application forms as requested by the students or parents/guardians to third level institutions and/or prospective employers
  • To ensure delivery of course material is optimised for the student to improve educational experiences, particularly, providing students with the ability to review and revise specific aspects of the class experience.

Student data is kept in both manual form within a secure filing system, and on our Institute management system on computer files. The computer files and Institute management system require a username and password and our employees are required to maintain the confidentiality of any data to which they have access.

It is the responsibility of parents/guardians to inform the Institute of any change to their son or daughter’s data.

The Schools’ legitimate interest is the fundamental principal upon which we process student data. There is a balance of interest in terms of the data that is processed. This balance is based on;

  • Students have an existing or prior relationship with the School.
  • Students are informed of the data processing and understand how the data will be processed and used.
  • Students benefit from the processing of their data.
  • The data that is processed is limited.
  • Students may withdraw from the services at any time
  • Ensuring delivery of course material is optimised for the student to improve educational experiences, particularly, providing students with the ability to review and revise specific aspects of the class experience.

In addition to the school’s legitimate interest, your personal data may be processed where necessary to comply with a legal obligation to which the School is subject, where processing is necessary for the establishment, exercise or defence of legal claims.

We will only use your personal information for the purposes for which we collected it, unless we reasonably consider that we need to use it for another reason and that reason is compatible with the original purpose. If we need to use your personal information for an unrelated purpose, we will notify you and we will explain the legal basis which allows us to do so.

Please note that we may process your personal information without your knowledge or consent, in compliance with the above rules, where this is required or permitted by law.

Further information on what data we collect, why we collect it, how we use it, and the legal basis for same, please see our Data Protection Policy which is available upon request.

4. Who we share your information with
We may share your personal data with third parties, including other Government bodies/public authorities.

This includes public authorities such as the State Examinations Commission, the Department of Education and Skills, TUSLA, An Garda Síochána, HSE, the Department of Social Protection, the Revenue Commissioners, State Claims Agency etc.

The level of sharing and the nature of what is shared depend on various factors. The Government bodies/public authorities to which we transfer your personal data will use your personal data for their own purposes (including: to verify other information they already hold about you, etc.) and they may aggregate it with other information they already hold about you and your family. We may also share your personal data with other third parties including our insurance company and other service providers (including IT providers, security providers, legal advisors etc.), We are legally required to provide certain records relating to the progress of a student (under 18 years) in his/her education to the student’s parents/guardians, including results of examinations. For further information on who we share your data with, when and in what circumstances, and why please see our Data Protection Policy which is available upon request.

5. Use of photographs for yearbooks, social media, website, etc.
The Institute of Education regularly features photographs and videos depicting life in our school in its marketing and promotions. At the beginning of each academic year Full Time students receive a consent form to complete. This form is to be signed by the parent in the case where the student is under the age of 18 years. By signing and returning this form parents and students are granting consent for the student’s image and likeness to be featured in promotions for the school.

Periodically the Marketing Department arrange photoshoots and video recording sessions with students. These photos and videos are used to promote our full and part time school. Again parents / students (aged 18 and over) are requested to complete and return a consent form in order to participate in these photo shoots and video session.

6. Transferring your information outside of the EU
It may be necessary to transfer some of the information which you provide to us to countries outside the European Union (“EU”). By way of example, this may happen if any of our data processors’ servers are in a country outside of the EU. These countries may not have similar data protection laws to the EU. By submitting your personal data, you’re agreeing to this transfer, storing or processing. If we transfer your information outside of the EU in this way, we will take steps to ensure that appropriate security measures are taken with the aim of ensuring that your privacy rights continue to be protected as outlined in this Policy.

8. How long we hold your data
We keep your personal information for a length of time as per our Retention Policy i.e. For students, this generally means we will retain data for up to 7 years after a student has left the school. After this time, your data will be destroyed by confidential shredding or deletion from our School’s database.

However, in certain circumstances e.g. alumni we may retain your contact details for longer than the retention period outlined in The Institute retention schedule.

9. Rights of Access, Correction, Erasure and Restriction:
Under certain circumstances, by law you have the right to:

  1. Request access to your personal data.
  2. Request correction of the personal data we hold about you.
  3. Request erasure of your personal data.
  4. Request restriction of processing of your personal data.
  5. Request the transfer of your personal data to another party.
  6. Object to processing of your personal information where we are relying on a legitimate interest (or those of a third party).

If you want to review, verify, correct or request erasure of your personal information, object to the processing of your personal data, or request that we transfer a copy of your personal information to another party, please contact the DPO in writing.

It is important that the personal information we hold about you is accurate and current. Please keep us informed if your personal information changes during your working relationship with us.

10. Contact Details
If you have any concerns about how your personal data is processed by us, please bring your concerns to our attention using the contact details below:

DPO Officer
The Institute of Education
79-85 Lower Leeson Street
Dublin 2.

Email: gdpr@instituteofeducation.ie
Telephone: 01 6613511

You have the right to make a complaint at any time to the Data Protection Commission’s Office with
respect to data protection issues, or to seek a judicial remedy.

Data Protection Commission’s contact details:

Web: https://www.dataprotection.ie/

Post: Data Protection Commission
21 Fitzwilliam Square South
Dublin 2
D02 RD28
Ireland

The Institute of Education reserves the right to update or amend this policy at any time.