Methodist Ladies’ College (‘MLC’ or ‘the College’) collects personal information, including sensitive information about Students and Parents before and during the course of a Student’s enrolment at the College. This may be in writing, through technology systems or in the course of conversations. The primary purpose of collecting this information is to enable the College to gather information for the application process and to provide schooling to Students enrolled, exercise its duty of care, and perform necessary associated administrative activities which will enable Student to take part in all the activities of the College.
Some of the information collected is required to satisfy the College’s legal obligations, particularly to enable the College to discharge its duty of care.
Laws governing or relating to the operation of a school require certain information to be collected and disclosed. These include the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth), Education and Training Reform Act 2006 (Vic), Privacy and Data Protection Act 2014 (Vic) and Health Records Act 2001 (Vic). The College abides by all relevant legislative requirements in relation to the collection, use and dissemination of personal information.
Health information about Students is sensitive information within the terms of the Australian Privacy Principles (APPs) under the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth). The College may ask Applicants to provide medical reports about the Student from time to time. The College collects only the necessary health information to discharge its duty of care.
A Student’s enrolment or commencement at the College may be delayed or prevented if the College cannot collect certain personal information. This is particularly so where the information is relevant to the wellbeing, health and safety of the Student, other Students and/or staff.
The College may disclose personal and sensitive information for educational, administrative and support purposes, including to: • other schools and teachers at those schools; • government departments (including for policy and funding purposes); • medical practitioners; • people providing educational, support and health services to the College, including specialist visiting teachers, coaches, volunteers, and counsellors; • providers of learning and assessment tools; • assessment and educational authorities, including the Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority (ACARA) and NAPLAN Test Administration Authorities (who will disclose it to the entity that manages the online platform for NAPLAN); • people providing administrative and financial services to the College; • anyone the Applicant authorises the College to disclose information to; • anyone to whom the College is required or authorised to disclose the information to by law, including child protection laws; and • anyone who is entitled to receive that information as an Information Sharing Entity pursuant to the Child Information Sharing Scheme or the Family Violence Information Sharing Scheme.
Personal information collected from Students is regularly disclosed to their Parents, except as per these Terms and Conditions of Enrolment.
The College may use online or 'cloud' service providers to store personal information and to provide services to the College that involve the use of personal information, such as services relating to communication, education and assessment applications. Some limited personal information may also be provided to these service providers to enable them to authenticate users that access their services. This personal information may be stored on a cloud service provider’s server which may be outside Australia.
The College’s Privacy Policy, accessible on the College website, sets out how Parents or Students may seek access to and correction of their personal information which the College has collected and holds. However, access may be refused in certain circumstances such as where access would have an unreasonable impact on the privacy of others, where access may result in a breach of the College's duty of care to the Student, or where Students have provided information in confidence. Any refusal will be notified in writing with reasons where appropriate.
The College’s Privacy Policy also sets out how Applicants and Students can make a complaint about a breach of the APPs and how the complaint will be handled.
The College may engage in fundraising activities. Information received from Parents may be used to make an appeal to Applicants. It may also be disclosed to organisations that assist in MLC's fundraising activities solely for that purpose. The College will not disclose Parent’s personal information about Applicants, parents and Students to third parties for their own marketing purposes without prior consent.
On occasion the College publishes information such as academic and sporting achievements, Student activities and similar news in College newsletters and magazines, on the College intranet, website and social media. This may include photographs and videos of Student activities such as sporting events, school excursions and tours. The College will obtain permissions from the Student’s parent (and from the Student if appropriate) if MLC would like to include such photographs or videos or other identifying material in its promotional material or otherwise make this material available to the public such as on the internet.
Any Applicant providing the College with the personal information of others, such as doctors or emergency contacts, is encouraged to inform them that such disclosure is being made to the College and the reason why it has been disclosed.
