EPS Newsletter #2 – 8th February 2023

Our school collects, uses, discloses and stores student and parent personal information for standard school functions or where
permitted by law, as stated in the Schools’ Privacy Policy.
Please take time to read our school’s collection notice, found below.
We ask parents to also review the guidance we provide on how we use Google Workspace for Education safely at the school and
what parents can do to further protect their child’s information. If after reviewing the guidance, you have any questions or concerns regarding your child using [Microsoft 365/Google Workspace for Education], please contact the school.
For more information about privacy, refer to: Schools’ Privacy Policy — information for parents.
Privacy Collection Notice
Information for students, parents and carers
The Department of Education (the department) values your privacy and is committed to protecting the personal and health information that schools collect.
All school staff must comply with Victorian privacy law and the Schools’ Privacy Policy. This notice explains how the department,
including Victorian government schools (schools), handles personal and health information. On occasion, specific consent will be
sought for the collection and use of information, for example, for a student to receive a health service. Our schools are also required by legislation, such as the Education and Training Reform Act 2006, to collect some of this information.
Throughout this notice, ‘staff’ includes principals, teachers, student support service officers, youth workers, social workers, nurses
and any other allied health practitioners, and all other employees, contractors, volunteers and service providers of the school and
the department.
On enrolment, and during the ordinary course of a student’s attendance at a school, schools will collect information about students and their families for the following purposes:
* educating students
* supporting students’ social and emotional wellbeing, and health
* fulfilling legal obligations, including duty of care, anti-discrimination law and occupational health and safety law
* communicating and engaging with parents
* student administration
* school management
* supporting policy in relation to student education and wellbeing.
If this information is not collected, schools may be unable to provide optimal education or support to students or fulfil legal obligations.
For example, our schools rely on parents to provide health information about any medical condition or disability that their child
has, medication their child may take while at school, any known allergies and contact details of their child’s doctor. If parents do
not provide all relevant health information, this may put their child’s health at risk.
Our schools also require current, relevant information about all parents and carers so that schools can take account of safety concerns that affect their children. Parents should provide schools with copies of all current parenting plans and court orders about or
that affect their children and provide updated copies when they change.
When parents enrol their child in primary school, they will be asked to provide personal and health information in several ways,
including via the Enrolment Form, the School Entrance Health Questionnaire (SEHQ) and the Early Childhood Intervention Service
(ECIS) Transition Form.

The Enrolment Form is used to collect information that is essential for the purposes listed above, and requests information
such as:

• Emergency contacts – Individuals parents nominate for a school to contact during an emergency. Parents should ensure that
  their nominated emergency contact agrees to their contact details being provided to the school and that they understand their
  details may be disclosed by the department if lawful, e.g. in the case of emergency communications relating to bush fires or floods.
• Student background information – Information about country of birth, Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander origin, language
  spoken at home and parent occupation. This information enables the department to allocate appropriate resources to schools. The
  department also uses this information to plan for future educational needs in Victoria and shares some information with the Commonwealth government to monitor, plan and allocate resources.
• Immunisation status – This assists schools to manage health risks and legal obligations. The department may also provide this
  information to the Department of Health and Department of Families, Fairness and Housing to assess immunisation rates in Victoria, but not in a way which identifies students.

Visa status – This is required to process a student’s enrolment.
All schools may use departmental systems and online tools such as apps and other software to effectively collect and manage information about students and families for the purposes listed above.
When schools use these online tools, they take steps to ensure that student information is secure. If parents or carers have any
concerns about the use of these online tools, please contact the school.
School staff will only share student and family information with other school staff who need to know to enable them to educate or
support the student as described above. Information will only be shared outside the school (and outside the department) as required or authorised by law, including where sharing is required to meet duty of care, anti-discrimination, occupational health and
safety, and child wellbeing and safety obligations. The information collected will not be disclosed beyond the school and department without parent consent unless such disclosure is lawful.
When a student transfers to another school (including Catholic, independent and interstate), personal and/or health information
about that student may be transferred to the next school. Transferring this information is in the best interests of the student and
assists the next school to provide the best possible education and support to the student. For further detail about how and what
level of information is provided to the next school, refer to the: Enrolment: Student transfers between schools
Schools only provide school reports and ordinary school communications to students, parents, carers or others who have a legal
right to that information. Requests for access to other student information or by others must be made by lodging a Freedom of
Information (FOI) application.
To update student or family information, parents should contact their school.
For more information about how schools and the department collect and manage personal and health information, or
how to access personal and health information held by a school about you or your child, refer to the: Schools’ Privacy
Policy