Oakwood School appreciates your visit to our website and for your interest in our school. We value the importance of protecting your privacy and personal data and therefore take the privacy of our website users very seriously. 

How we collect and use information

We use our best efforts to protect the privacy of the visitors to our website. We shall not ask you to supply any personal data as a condition of your use of our website. Where you have provided personal data, when contacting us, we only gather personal information such as first and last names, addresses, child’s details and email addresses, when voluntarily submitted by you. These details are stored securely at our school office.

Any information we collect is to help us:

  • Provide you with the best service possible
  • Ensure, as far as is practical, that our websites and applications are compatible with the browsers and operating systems used by most of our visitors
  • Enhance or improve user experience, our site, or Oakwood School services
  • Conduct school satisfaction surveys

And, if you allow us to, we may also send you:

  • Our weekly and termly newsletters and other information relating to our school which we think may be of interest to you
  • Invite you to provide feedback on the school

We may use tools such as Mail Chimp to track whether you open the emails we send you and which links you are clicking on to improve our future communications.

How we keep your information secure

Oakwood School ensures that all personal information supplied is held securely, in accordance with GDPR 2018.

  1. Our School Information System

Oakwood School uses a Management Information System provided by West Country Business Systems (WCBS). This allows access, only by our employees, to school and pupil-related data. The server is not directly exposed to the internet although staff can use a web portal to access it. User access is controlled by username and password.

  1. Our website

All the information you give us is protected by a secure server. SSL (Secure Sockets Layer) is the standard security technology for establishing an encrypted link between a web server and a browser. This link ensures that all data passed between the web server and browsers remain private and integral.

Whilst we do our best to ensure security, data transmission over the internet is inherently insecure, we cannot therefore guarantee the security of data sent over the internet.

Sharing of personal information

We do not share personal information with third parties outside of our agreement with WCBS.

In all cases, any use of your personal information by Oakwood School which has been instigated by us will comply with this policy and with data protection legislation. In every case, if you do not elect to receive such communications or if you elect to discontinue receiving them, then we will not send or will cease sending them to you.

Also, we reserve the right to use or disclose any information as needed to satisfy any law, regulation or legal request, to protect the integrity of the site, to fulfil your requests, or to cooperate in any law enforcement or regulatory investigation. Save for this, we do not sell, transfer or disclose personal information we have collected from you in connection with our school, to third parties outside of Oakwood School.

We may transfer the data that we collect from you to a destination outside the European Economic Area (EEA) eg. when we send out a newsletter. By submitting your personal data to us, you agree to this transfer, storing or processing. We will ensure that any transfer will be within the conditions of the GDPR and that adequate safeguards are in place.

Our website may, from time to time, contain links to external sites. Oakwood School is not responsible for the privacy policies or content of such sites and we recommend that you read the privacy policies on any external sites you use.

Individuals under 16

Users of the site who are aged 16 or under, must please obtain your parent/guardian's permission beforehand. Users without this consent are not allowed to provide us with personal information. We will make every effort to delete any details of such users where a parent or guardian has informed us that these details or applicable data as defined by law have been collected.

Email communications

If you have given us your email for purposes of communication or promotion, we will use your data to contact you and send promotional emails. You may revoke your consent to being contacted by email for promotional purposes at any time, by clicking on the 'unsubscribe' link or replying directly stating your wish to unsubscribe.

Your right to stop information being sent to you is separate from and does not affect your rights under applicable UK privacy and communications legislation.

Your rights

Under the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and the Data Protection Act 2018, you have a number of rights in regard to your personal information:

  • The right to be informed
  • The right of access
  • The right to rectification
  • The right to erasure
  • The right to restrict processing
  • The right to data portability
  • The right to object
  • Rights in relation to automated decision making and profiling

If you have provided consent for processing your personal information you have the right (in certain circumstances) to withdraw that consent at any time.

You can read more about your rights on the Information Commissioner's Office website ico.org.uk

How long we keep your information

Oakwood School will retain personal information for no longer than is necessary for the purpose it was obtained for to reduce the risk of it becoming inaccurate, out of date or irrelevant. We will securely delete any information that is no longer required.

Changes to our Privacy Policy

From time to time, it may be necessary for us to change this privacy policy, so we suggest that you check here periodically. Any changes will not be retrospectively applied and will not alter how we handle previously collected information.

Data controller

Oakwood School is the data controller for any information you provide unless otherwise stated. We are registered with the Information Commissioner's Office registration number Z8478983.

Complaints or queries

Oakwood School endeavours to meet the highest standards when collecting and using personal information. For this reason, we take any complaints we receive about this very seriously. We encourage people to bring it to our attention if they think that our collection or use of information is unfair, misleading or inappropriate. We would also welcome any suggestions for improving our procedures.

If you want to make a complaint about the way we have processed your personal information, you can contact us (see Contact details below).

If you are not satisfied with our response or believe we have not complied with the requirements of GDPR or the Data Protection Act, regarding your personal information, you have the right to lodge a complaint to the Information Commissioner's Office ico.org.uk

Contact details

Please let us know if the personal information we hold about you needs to be corrected or updated.

If you have any questions about our Privacy Policy, any queries about how we handle your information or would like to have any inaccuracies corrected, please contact us at office@oakwoodschool.co.uk

Ultimate responsibility for the handling of personal information at Oakwood School rests with Headteacher Clare Bradbury. Her contact details are as follows:

Clare Bradbury, head@oakwoodschool.co.uk 01243 575209

Or you can write to us at:
Oakwood Preparatory School, Chichester, West Sussex, PO18 9AN