PRIVACY AND DATA PROTECTION 2022
This policy informs you of how any personal data we collect from you, or that you give to us, will be processed by us, and aims to be compliant with 2018 GDPR legislation.
Until 24 May 2018, the legislation in the UK is the Data Protection Act 1998 (DPA 1998). From 25 May 2018, this will be replaced by the EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), coupled with a new Data Protection Act that supplements the GDPR.
Please read the following carefully to understand our views and practices regarding your personal data and how we will treat it.
We keep certain information when you visit our website or apply to the school. We understand the importance of keeping your personal information secure and letting you know how we will use it.
The data controller is LanguageUK
9 St Georges Place
Canterbury
CT1 1UT
Tel number 0044 (0)1227455556
Registered in England and Wales.
Registered Company Number: 06150934
Data Protection Principles:
Under the GDPR, there are six principles. Personal data must be processed following these principles so that the data are:
- Processed fairly, lawfully, and transparently – and only if there is a valid ‘legal basis’s for doing so
- Processed only for specified, explicit and legitimate purposes
- Adequate, relevant, and limited
- Accurate (and rectified if inaccurate)
- Not kept for longer than necessary
- Processed securely – to preserve the confidentiality, integrity, and availability of the personal data
- We aim to follow those principles.
The personal data we collect from you.:
We may collect and process the following data about you, you may supply this personally or we may collect this information from anyone acting on your behalf, such as parents, government sponsors, educational agents or ETOs. We will ask you to consent to give us this information. Consent is the legal basis for us collecting this information. Before you start and during your relationship with us, we will collect, store, and process the following personal data:
- Information you provide by filling in our online application forms. This includes information provided at the time of registering to use our site, subscribing to newsletters, requesting information, or applying to study or work with us.
- Information that you provide by completing any paper application form or information request (including medical information) when applying to study or work with us. Including copies of written or printed documents you supply to support your application.
- Information you supply to using email, written correspondence or verbally.
- Dietary preferences or requirements
- Emergency contact information (names, phone numbers, email addresses)
- Medical information, which is relevant
- Special education needs information
- Information required for certificates, quality assurance purposes, safeguarding and accreditation compliance purposes, such as sessions attended, number of absences and absence reasons
- Bank information where required
- Liability and waiver forms for covid-19
- Tests it required
- Quarantine actions if required
- Information supplied by a third party and relevant to you such as your educational references, exam results, sponsorship details and English test results.
- If you contact us, we may keep a record of that correspondence.
- We may also ask you to complete surveys that we use for research purposes, although you do not have to respond to them.
- Details of your visits to our website including, but not limited to, traffic data, location data, weblogs, operating system, browser usage, the resources that you access and other communication data.
Permission to collect and store data of students under the age of 18 is obtained directly from the child’s parents or legal guardian through our parental consent form.
We will be guided by the following principles when processing data:
- We will only collect data for specific and specified purposes; we will make it clear at the point when we request your information, what we are collecting it for and how we are going to use it.
- We will not collect data beyond what is necessary to accomplish those purposes; we will minimise the amount of information we collect from you to what we need to deliver the services required.
- We will collect and use your personal information only if we have sensible business reasons for doing so, such as managing a booking or gathering necessary information about a new member of staff, ETO or homestay.
- We will not use data for purposes other than that for which the data was collected, except as stated, or with prior consent.
- We will seek to verify and/or update data periodically, and we will accept requests for amendments of personal data.
- We will apply high technical standards to make our processing of data secure.
- Except when stated, we will not store data in identifiable form longer than is necessary to accomplish its purpose, or as is required by law.
How we use this information:
We will use this personal data in the provision of our services, including for the necessary administration of a course booking.
Whilst most of the student information provided to us is mandatory, some of it is provided to us on a voluntary basis.
To comply with the General Data Protection Regulation, we will inform you whether you are required to provide certain student information to us or if you have a choice in this.
We will only use your personal data when the law allows us to. Most commonly, we will use your personal data in the following circumstances:
- To support student learning
- To adhere to safeguarding policies and procedures
- To monitor and report on student progress
- To provide appropriate pastoral care
- To assess the quality of our services
- To provide services to students and fulfil our contract with them
- To comply with the law regarding data sharing
- To be able to supply visa documentation where relevant
- To be able to contact you regarding your booking
- To be able to contact you while you are studying at LanguageUK
- To make sure you are studying on an age and level appropriate course
- To be able to access relevant medical data where relevant while you are staying with us
- To be able to contact your next of kin in case of emergency
Sharing
Your personal data will be treated as strictly confidential, and will be shared only with:
- Inspectorate bodies including The British Council and BAC
- Professional bodies of which LanguageUK is a member. These include English UK.
- UK Visas and Immigration upon request.
- Relevant staff at LanguageUK.
- Government Enforcement Agencies e.g., the Home Office; Immigration; the Health & Safety Executive, the Police safety Executive, the Police
- Educational Tour Organisers and Educational Agents who work with LanguageUK to send students to the school.
- Safeguard students and ensure their wellbeing (e.g., health or dental care)
- In the event of a medical emergency, we will disclose your data to the appropriate medical authorities.
- Enable the relevant authorities to monitor LanguageUK performance.
- Enable students to take part in examinations and to monitor their progress.
- Compile statistical information (usually on an anonymous basis).
- Host families/Self-Catering accommodation providers.
- LanguageUK residence provider
- Taxi/meet and greet companies who provide student airport transfer services.
- Photos of students taken at social programme events and at school are shared on the school’s social media sites, including Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.
We do not share information about our students with anyone without consent unless the law and our policies allow us to do so.
However, we are required to share student information for routine inspections by bodies such as The British Council, BAC or UK Visas, and Immigration. Information for safeguarding purposes when necessary, for example if there were a welfare issue that would require the police to be involved.
We share student information with professional bodies such as English UK to develop best practice within our industry.
How long we keep your information:
We will keep personal data only for as long as is necessary to fulfil the purposes for which we collected it, including for the purposes of satisfying any legal, accounting or reporting requirements. Normally, our retention period for personal data collected for this purpose is a minimum of 5 years after the end of the period that we are providing services or support.
We hold student data on a password protected database and CRM and on our network servers, which only necessary and approved members of the school staff have access to. After five years we will anonymise, any data held on the system relating to the student that could be used to personally identify them.
After this period, any student data held in folders on our system is manually deleted. After that, we keep records only of the dates of attendance and student nationality on our database to form the basis of figures for quality development planning within the school and figure analysis.
Where we store and use your Personal Data:
The data that we collect from you will be primarily stored on Fresh works and Demicks database, certain staff also have access to this data. We also keep some paper copies of information on site at the school. Information may also be shared between staff as appropriate and as necessary to meet the needs of our business and to deliver your education.
The school uses email and cloud storage with Outlook Microsoft, this information is not shared with anyone else.
The data may also be used to meet our regulatory, legal, inspection or compliance responsibilities. By submitting your personal data, you agree to this transfer, storage, or processing by LanguageUK. We will take all steps reasonably necessary to ensure that your data is treated securely and in accordance with this privacy policy.
Personal data will be used to provide you with our Marketing Information that you ask for, or that we think are relevant to the preferences that you may have given to us. We may analyse what areas of information are of interest to you so that we can better target the Information that we provide. We will only use your personal data when the law allows us to and with your consent to do so.
Our Homestay Providers
Before you start and during your relationship with us, we will collect, store, and process the following personal data:
- Full Name
- Address
- Contact telephone numbers
- Contact email address
- Bank details
- Passport number
- Contract
- Risk Assessments on your property
- Ages of all residents
- Driving Licence
- DBS
Sharing:
We only share with certain members of staff to fulfil their obligation to do their job.
To fulfil our l obligations, we will need to share your personal data with third parties outside of the school. Such as the following:
- Agents, Quality Standard Inspectorates e.g British Council; the BAC.
- Students and their parents
- Government Enforcement Agencies e.g., the Home Office; Immigration; the Health & Safety Executive, the Police
- DBS Checking Service
- Taxi & airport transfer providers
How long do we keep your information?
We will retain all your personal data for the duration of your contract and then for a further 2 years to enable us to meet our regulatory and legal obligations. After 2 years all records will be deleted.
Our Agents
Before you start and during your relationship with us, we will collect, store, and process the following personal data:
- Full Name
- Company Address
- Contact telephone numbers
- Contact email address
- Bank details
Sharing:
Members of staff that need your data to perform their job function.
Quality Standard Inspectorates e.g. British Council; The BAC.
Government Enforcement Agencies e.g., the Home Office; Immigration; the Health & Safety
How long do we keep your information?
Normally, our retention period for personal data collected for this purpose is a minimum of 5 years after the end of the period that we are providing services or support.
U18 Students
We collect personal information about students under the age of 18 to manage bookings and for safeguarding purposes. Permission is obtained directly from a legal adult guardian to collect this information through our Parental Consent Form.
We also gain consent from parents for the use of photos or video taken during their child’s stay at LanguageUK through the Parental Consent Form.
In addition, we may collect the following additional groups of data with respect to job applicants, employees or ex-employees, contractors, and temporary employees:
- Identity Data such as proof of your identity (e.g., passport, valid driving licence or birth certificate).
- Contact Data such as information about your marital status, next of kin, dependants, personal and emergency contacts details to be used in the event of an emergency.
- Recruitment Data such as details of your education, qualifications, occupation, work history, experience, referees, training and skills development, nationality, entitlement to work in the UK, criminal record (if your role requires this) and equal opportunities monitoring information.
- Employment Data such as the terms and conditions of your employment, salary or fee payments, benefits, work patterns, NI number, attendance, holidays, sickness, disciplinary or grievance issues, medical or health conditions, disabilities (for which LanguageUK needs to make reasonable adjustments), and information about your vehicle, driving licence, MOT, and insurance documents if you drive on company business.
- Performance Data such as performance reviews and ratings, performance development plans and related correspondence, and timesheet information.
- Activity Data such as the websites our employees visit while using company computer or company network, and the activity logs held within company systems and databases.
- Communications Data such as the emails you send or receive via the company email system.
Special categories personal data
The GDPR refers to sensitive personal data as ‘special categories of personal data’ The special categories specifically include genetic data, and biometric data were processed to uniquely identify an individual. Other examples include racial and ethnic origin, sexual orientation, health data, trade union membership, political opinions, religious or philosophical beliefs.
Third Parties
We require all third parties who are processing data on our behalf to respect the security of your personal data and to treat it in accordance with the law. We do not allow our data processors to use your personal data for their own purposes, and only permit them to process your personal data for specified purposes and in accordance with our instructions.
International Transfers
Where data is transferred outside of the EEA, we will take steps to ensure that appropriate measures and controls are in place to protect that data in accordance with relevant data protection laws and regulations. In each case, such transfers are made in accordance with the requirements of the General Data Protection Regulations or “GDPR”.
Cookies
Our website uses cookies, as almost all websites do, to help provide you with the best experience we can. Cookies are small text files stored on your computer or mobile device when you browse websites. Our cookies also provide us with aggregated information about how visitors interact with our website.
Our cookies help us:
- Make our website work as you would expect
- Improve the speed and security of our site
- Continuously improve the website for you
- Improve the quality of the information we provide you
We do not use cookies to collect any personally identifiable information about you (without your express permission), nor to pass any personally identifiable data to third parties. We do not pass personal data collected via cookies to advertising networks.
Permission to use cookies
If the settings on your browser are adjusted to accept cookies, we take this, and your continued use of our website, to mean that you are fine with this. Should you wish to remove or not use cookies from our site, you can learn how to do this below, however doing so will likely mean that our site will not work as you would expect.
Turning cookies off
You can usually switch most cookies off by adjusting your browser settings to stop it from accepting cookies. Doing so however will likely limit the functionality of our and a large proportion of other websites, as cookies are a standard part of most modern websites. To find out more about cookies, including how to see what cookies have been stored and how to manage and delete them, visit
https://www.allaboutcookies.org/
Links from our website
Our website may, from time to time, contain links to and from the websites of third parties that we permit to make such links. If you follow a link to any of these websites, please note that these websites have their own privacy policies and that we do not accept any responsibility or liability for these policies. We recommend that you check these policies before you submit any personal data to these websites.
Security:
LanguageUK understands its responsibilities in keeping all personal data safe. Any information stored on paper is either locked in a secure place or kept in an area constantly manned by a senior staff member. All electronically stored information is securely password-protected and/or securely encrypted, and access is restricted to only the relevant members of senior staff.
Where other staff members require access, only the essential, relevant information is disclosed.
Your rights
Right to be provided with certain information:
We must provide you with certain information at the time we collect your personal information, including how we use it and the legal basis for doing so, who we share it with, how long we intend to keep it, where we got the information from and your rights in relation to it. You find this information in this Privacy Policy.
Right to access information:
We must provide you with a copy of your information unless providing some or all of it would adversely affect the rights and freedoms of others, or the law allows us not to comply with your request. You can access your personal information by emailing us at [email protected]. We aim to provide you with your information within 30 days.
Right to correction:
You can ask us to correct any information which you believe is inaccurate. We will update your information as soon as we can. You may need to provide supporting evidence before we can deal with your request, e.g., a copy of your marriage certificate if you want to update your name.
Right to erasure (‘right to be forgotten’):
You can ask us to erase your personal information:
- if you think it is no longer necessary for us to hold your information.
- if you do not think we have any legitimate grounds for processing it.
- if you think we are using your personal information unlawfully; or
- if you think we should delete your personal information because the law requires us to do so.
Right to restrict processing:
You can ask us to stop using your personal information:
- if you think it is inaccurate.
- if you think it is illegal for us to use it.
- if you do not want us to destroy it because you need it for legal proceedings.
- if you have told we do not have a legitimate reason for using it and we are considering your request.
Notification obligation:
You can ask us to notify everyone to whom we have given your personal information whenever we amend, delete, or agree to restrict our use of it.
Right to object:
We may use your personal information to further our legitimate interests, e.g., we may use information about you to improve our marketing messages because we have a legitimate interest in making sure our students know about courses which could be of benefit to them. We will always give you a right to object whenever we intend to use your personal information for our legitimate interests.
Questions, comments, and requests regarding this privacy policy are welcomed and should be addressed to:
LanguageUK
9 St Georges Place
Canterbury
CT1 1UT
Tel number 0044 (0)1227455556
Our Representative service
United Kingdom Representative Office
Attention: Data Protection Officer
Telephone: +44 (0)203 880 8999
Gallery Teachers
103 – 105 Greenford Road,
London, HA1 3QF
United Kingdom
EEA / EU Representative Office
Attention: Data Protection Officer
Telephone: +39 064 520 0328
- Italy Office
Gallery Teachers
Via costa smeralda,
33 07021 – Arzachena-SS
Italy
- Spain Office
Gallery Teachers
Av. Arquitecto Gómez Cuesta, 16, piso 9-3, 38650
Arona, Santa Cruz de Tenerife
Spain
Making a complaint:
If you are unhappy with how we have handled your information you can refer your concerns to the Information Commissioner’s Office, the body that regulates the handling of personal information in the UK, at:
Information Commissioner’s Office
03031231113 or via email https://ico.org.uk/global/contact-us/email/ or at the Information Commissioner’s Office, Wycliffe House, Water Lane, Wilmslow, Cheshire, SK9 5AF, England.
Changes to our policy
Any changes we may make to our privacy policy in the future will be posted on this page and, where appropriate, notified to you by e-mail. Please check back frequently to see any updates or changes to our privacy policy.
Issued – October 2016
Reviewed – October 2017
Revised – October 2018
Reviewed -November 2019
Reviewed October 2020
Reviewed April 2021