Privacy Policy

This Collection Notice applies to schools administered by the Catholic Education Office of the Diocese of Townsville as well as the Catholic Education Office.

Collection Notice

Townsville Catholic Education (TCE) schools and the Townsville Catholic Education Office (TCEO) collect personal information, including sensitive information, about pupils and parents or guardians before and during the course of a pupil's enrolment. This may be in writing, through technology systems or in the course of conversations.

The primary purpose of collecting this information is to enable TCEO/schools to provide schooling to pupils enrolled at TCE schools, exercise their duty of care, and perform necessary associated administrative activities, which will enable pupils to take part in all the activities of the school. Some of the information collected is to satisfy legal obligations.

Laws governing or relating to the operation of schools and TCEO require certain information to be collected and disclosed. These include relevant Education Acts, Public Health and Child Protection laws. Health information about pupils is sensitive information within the terms of the Australian Privacy Principles (APPs) under the Privacy Act 1988. TCE schools may ask you to provide medical reports about pupils from time to time. Personal information collected from pupils is regularly disclosed to their parents or guardians.

A student's enrolment may be delayed or prevented if a school cannot collect certain personal information. This is particularly so where the information is relevant to the health and safety of the student, other students and/or staff.

TCEO and schools may disclose personal and sensitive information for educational, administrative and support purposes. This may include to:

• other schools and teachers at those schools, including a new school to facilitate the transfer of the student
• government departments
• TCEO, the Queensland Catholic Education Commission and National Catholic Education Commission, the Townsville Diocese and the local parish, other related church agencies/entities (e.g. Mary MacKillop Childcare NQ) and schools within other dioceses.
• medical practitioners
• people providing educational, support and health services to schools, including specialist visiting teachers, coaches, volunteers, counsellors and providers of learning and assessment tools
• providers of specialist advisory services and assistance to schools, including in the area of Human Resources, child protection and students with additional needs
• assessment and educational authorities, including the Australian Curriculum Assessment and Reporting Authority (ACARA), and NAPLAN Testing Administration Authorities (who will disclose it to the entity that manages the online platform for NAPLAN)
• agencies and organisations to whom we are required to disclose personal information for education and research purposes
• people and organisations providing administrative, technology and financial services to the organisation
• recipients of publications, such as newsletters and magazines
• pupils' parents/carers or guardians
• anyone you authorise the organisation to disclose information to
• anyone to whom we are required or authorised to disclose the information by law, including child protection laws.

If an enrolment application is made to two (or more) schools in the same diocese, the personal information provided during the application stage may be shared between the schools, and may include health information and is used for the purpose of considering and administering the enrolment of the student.

TCEO and schools use online or 'cloud' service providers to store personal information and to provide services to schools that involve the use of personal information. This information may be stored in the ‘cloud’ which may be situated outside Australia. Further details are contained in the Diocesan Education Council (DEC) Privacy Policy, accessible on the TCEO and schools’ websites.

The DEC Privacy Policy sets out how parents or pupils may seek access to and correction of their personal information which TCEO/schools have collected and hold. 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 TCEO/school duty of care to the pupil, or where pupils have provided information in confidence. Any refusal will be notified in writing with reasons if appropriate.

The DEC Privacy Policy also sets out how parents and pupils can make a complaint about a breach of the APPs and how the complaint will be handled.

TCE schools may engage in fundraising activities. Information received from you may be used to make an appeal to you. It may also be disclosed to organisations that assist in a school's fundraising activities solely for that purpose. TCEO and schools will not disclose your personal information to third parties for their own marketing purposes without your consent.

On occasion, information such as academic and sporting achievements, pupil activities and similar news is published in TCEO and school newsletters and magazines, intranet, social media pages, websites or otherwise shared with the Townsville Catholic Education/school community. This may include photographs and videos of pupil activities such as sporting events, concerts, masses, assemblies, school camps and school excursions. The school will obtain permissions from the pupil's parent or guardian (and from the student if appropriate) if the school would like to include such photographs, videos or other identifying material in promotional material or otherwise make this material available to the public such as on the internet.

A school may include pupils' and pupils' parents' contact details in a class list and school directory. If you provide TCEO/schools with the personal we encourage you to inform them that you are disclosing that information to the school and why.

More information

Contact us if you would like to know more about information privacy.

• Diocesan Education Council Privacy Policy
• Complaints about breaches of the Privacy Act
• Collection Notice for Job Applicants
• Collection Notice for Alumni

Copyright

The Townsville Catholic Education Office reserves all rights in relation to the copyright of any and all material on this site.

Except for educational use under the NEALS agreement and for any further dealings for the purpose of private study, research, criticism or review as permitted under the Commonwealth Copyright Act, no part may be reproduced or reused without the specific written permission of the Townsville Catholic Education Office.

If you wish to contact us regarding a Copyright matter, our contact details are:
director@tsv.catholic.edu.au

The Executive Director
Catholic Education Office 
PO Box 861
Aitkenvale Q 4814