Student Privacy Notice

Welcome to the CATS Global Schools (CGS) Student Privacy Notice.

This Student Privacy Notice applies to CGS and all our subsidiary companies.

When we mention CGS or refer to “we”, “us” or “our” in this Student Privacy Notice then we are referring to the relevant company that is responsible for protecting your personal data. The relevant various CGS companies are:

Bright Scholar UK Holdings Limited

  • Bournemouth Collegiate School Limited (trading as Bournemouth Collegiate School and Bournemouth Collegiate Prep School)
  • St Michael’s School Limited (trading as St Michael’s School)
  • Bosworth Independent School Limited (trading as Bosworth Independent School)
 

CGS Administrative Services Limited

CATS Colleges Holdings Limited

  • Cambridge Education Technology (Shanghai) Co Ltd
  • CEG Hong Kong JV Ltd
 

CEG Colleges Limited

  • Cambridge Arts & Sciences Limited (trading as CATS Cambridge and CSVPA)
  • Worthgate School Limited (trading as The Worthgate School)
  • Guildhouse School Limited (trading as Guildhouse School, London)
 

Stafford House Companies Limited

  • Stafford House School of English Limited (trading as Stafford House International)
  • Stafford House Study Holidays Limited (trading as Stafford House Summer)
 

Cambridge Education Group Holdings Inc

  • CATS Academy Boston Inc
 

CGS respects your privacy and is committed to protecting your personal data.

What is this notice about?

This notice is all about your personal information.

You have a legal right to be informed about how we (CATS Global Schools “CGS”) use any personal information that we hold about you.

To comply with this, we have provided a ‘student privacy notice’ to you about how we collect, store, and use personal information about you.

You can contact Laura McDowell, our Data Protection Offer with any questions you may have.

Email address: dpo@catsglobalschools.com

Postal address: Suites 6-7 The Turvill Building, Old Swiss, 149 Cherry Hinton Road, Cambridge, CB1 7BX, UK

Your personal information means any information that could be used to identify you.

This information includes:

  • Your contact details – which may include your name, email address, telephone number, and address
  • Your date of birth
  • Gender
  • Your test results
  • Your attendance records
  • Your ethnic background
  • Your religion and religious beliefs
  • Any additional learning needs
  • Any medical conditions or concerns you have
  • Bank account and payment card details
  • Details of any behaviour issues or exclusions
  • Photographs and or Videos
  • CCTV images
  • Check if the course is right for your age and level of learning
  • Get in touch with you and your parent(s) or guardian(s) when we need to
  • Check how you’re doing in exams and work out whether you need any extra help
  • Track how well the school as a whole is performing
  • Look after your wellbeing
  • Improve the experience you receive
  • Check if you are allergic to any foods or cannot eat certain foods due to your religious beliefs
  • Help manage your accommodation or travel needs
  • Improve the quality of education you receive
  • Consult with you about different ideas and aspects of the education you receive
  • Identify where an external agency might be needed to help support you

Data protection law requires us to have a reason or justification, also known as a ‘lawful basis’, to use any of your personal information. We’ve identified the lawful bases we rely on in bold below.

Most often, we will use your information where:

  • We need to comply with the contract we have signed with you or your parent(s) / guardian(s) to provide you with an education – Contract.
  • We have a legal obligation to provide your information, such as for our fraud checks for payments – Legal Obligation.
  • We need to act quickly to protect your interests (or someone else’s interest), for example, if we need to give your information to a hospital or the police – Vital Interests.
  • You or your parent(s) / guardian(s) have given us your permission to use it in a certain way – Consent.
  • We have a legitimate interest to use your personal information in a way that you would reasonably expect – Legitimate Interest
 

Where we are relying on Consent to use your information, you or your parent(s) / guardian(s) have the right to withdraw this at any time. We will make this clear when we ask for permission, and explain how to go about withdrawing consent.

Your parent(s), guardian(s), or agency will have given us some of your personal information before you arrive. We may get information about you from other schools, the local council, and the government. You might also tell us about some other personal information whilst you are studying with us.

While in most cases you, or your parent(s) or guardian(s), must provide the personal information we need to collect, there are some occasions when you can choose whether or not to provide the information.

We will always tell you if it’s optional. If you must provide the information, we will explain what might happen if you don’t.

We will do our best to keep your personal information safe, as required by law. For example:

  • Your personal information can only be seen by people who work for us or have signed up to our terms to agree that they will keep your personal information safe.
  • If your personal information is included on a piece of paper (for example a form) then that piece of paper has to be kept in a locked cupboard when it isn’t being looked at. It is then disposed of in a confidential way when required.
  • If your personal information is stored on a computer then that computer has to be locked when it isn’t being used. All our computers or technical equipment is password protected.

Sometimes we do let other people see your personal information. For example:

  • Our local authorities (including social services and police) – to meet our safeguarding, safety, and exclusions obligations.
  • Accommodation providers – so that they can take care of you whilst you are staying with them.
  • The Department for Education– to comply with statutory requests for a census which forms part of the UKs national statistics.
  • Your parent(s) or guardian(s) – so they know how you are doing on the course and can support with your education.
  • Educators and examining bodies – to enable enrolment in exams, the issuing of certificates and transcripts of achievement.
  • Our regulators/accrediting bodies – to comply with our legal obligations to be inspected as a school.
  • Suppliers and service providers – to enable them to provide the service we have contracted them for.
  • Security providers – to ensure you are kept safe.
  • Health and social welfare organisations – to ensure you have access to appropriate health services and your wellbeing is catered for.
  • Professional advisers and consultants – to ensure you receive the benefit of external advice and guidance where appropriate.
  • Charities and voluntary organisations – for fundraising and enrichment purposes.
  • Police forces, courts, tribunals – to ensure you and other students are kept safe.
  • Professional bodies – to ensure standards are met with regard to various aspects of our provision and our staff performance & conduct.
 

If for any reason we need to share your information with an organisation that is based outside the UK or European Economic Area, we will protect your information by following the law.

We will keep personal information about you whilst you are a student at any of our schools.

We may also keep it after you have left the school, where we are required to by law.

We have a policy that tells us how long we must keep information about students. We will always destroy your information safely.

You have lots of rights about how your information is used and what information we must give to you about your information. These rights can be complicated and may not always be available to you, so if you have any questions about your information you can always contact, or ask a parent, guardian, or other adults to contact, CGS.

In summary, you can ask CGS to:

  • access your personal data (also known as a “subject access request”);
  • correct incomplete or inaccurate data we hold about you;
  • ask us to erase the personal data we hold about you;
  • ask us to restrict our handling of your personal data (only use it in a limited way);
  • ask us to transfer your personal data to a third party (such as to share with an agency);
  • object to how we are using your personal data (make a complaint); and
  • withdraw your consent to us handling your personal data.

We take any complaints about how we collect and use your information very seriously, so please let us know if you think we’ve done something wrong by contacting Laura McDowell (see Who should I contact if I have any questions?).

You or your parent or guardian can also contact the UK’s Information Commissioner’s Office .

You can contact the Information Commissioner’s Office in the following ways:

  • Report a concern online at www.ico.org.uk/concerns/
  • Call 0303 123 1113
  • Or write to: Information Commissioner’s Office, Wycliffe House, Water Lane, Wilmslow, Cheshire, SK9 5AF