Personal Information Collection Statement (PICS)

Please take a moment to read the following Personal Information Collection Statement (PICS), which relates to the handling of personal data collected at any point by ESF and ESF’s Personal Data Handling & Data Privacy Policy.

1. From time to time it is necessary for students (or their parents/guardians) and staff members to supply the English Schools Foundation (“ESF”) or ESF Educational Services Ltd (“ESL”), with certain personal data for school administrative, academic, pastoral purposes and alumni activities.

2. Personal data of staff members, students and their parents/guardians will be handled by relevant ESF or ESL staff members and will be kept confidential. Such data will be kept by ESF indefinitely, however, if the data is no longer required for the purposes for which it was collected/used, the data may be destroyed.

3. Staff members’ experience and/or teaching qualifications may be made available to relevant ESF and ESL stakeholders at the discretion of the school’s Principal or Department Head. (For example, on school websites [including but not limited to social media sites] or announcements of appointments in newsletters or emails).

4. ESF or ESL may also disclose some of the data to third parties such as agencies (including the Hong Kong government), service providers and contractors (whether within or outside Hong Kong) appointed by ESF or ESL to undertake some of its academic, pastoral and administrative and alumni functions. This includes transferring data between ESF and ESL.

5. ESF or ESL may use personal data (such as name and contact details) to send communications that are relevant to parents and students, including but not limited to newsletters, programmes, courses, seminars, lectures, conferences, events and extra-curricular activities and clubs of ESF, ESL or selected third party service providers. ESF or ESL will provide an opportunity for data subjects to opt-in to receiving materials which may have a direct marketing component.

6. Apart from the parties listed above, ESF or ESL will not disclose any personal data to any external bodies or organisations unless:
   (a) such disclosure is expressly provided for under this Statement;
   (b) permitted to do so by the student or his/her parent/guardian; and/or
   (c) permitted or required by law.

7. Personal data may be stored in the ESF or ESL database systems and online portals and any such personal data provided will form part of the staff member or the student’s official records (as relevant) at ESF or ESL.

8. In schools where there are Parent Teacher Associations (PTA), ESF or ESL may provide such data to the relevant PTA for inclusion in the PTA directory and other PTA activities. If you do not wish your details to be included in the PTA directory, please inform the relevant ESF or ESL school accordingly.

9. ESF or ESL may place staff members’ and student’s photos, name or school work, activities and accomplishments in ESF or ESL publications, websites (including but not limited to social media sites) used by ESF or ESL for organisational purposes.

10. In supporting teaching, learning, and the documentation of student academic progress, ESF and ESL utilise digital learning platforms, portals, and portfolios (including, but not limited to, ESF Hub and the services within it provided by Toddle and Sentral), as well as school community focused publications such as newsletters and yearbooks. Photos, video recordings, audio, and digital student work created during collaborative, group, or extra-curricular school activities may display, feature, or tag multiple students.

11. ESF will use our best endeavours and may employ reasonable technical access controls to limit the ability for images of multiple students to be downloaded.

12. Notwithstanding this, authorised parents and legal guardians are granted access to view and download digital learning portfolio posts and associated media in which their child is tagged or featured. Access to images held on ESF platforms – and any ability to download said images – is granted in good faith and attention should be paid at all times to the rights of our students and staff to privacy. Where portfolio posts or materials contain images or media featuring other students involved in shared educational activities, parents are permitted to access and download such media solely for private, personal, and non-commercial family viewing.

13. Once downloaded or saved onto a personal device, media files reside outside the direct technical custody and control of ESF, ESL, and the platform provider. Parents and legal guardians are strictly prohibited from publishing, redistributing, broadcasting, or sharing any downloaded media featuring other students on social media, public online forums, messaging groups, or any unauthorised third-party channels.

14. Failure to provide the data requested may result in ESF or ESL being unable to proceed with the purpose for which such data was requested.

15. Data subjects may submit a signed, written request to the Principal of the relevant school to access or to correct personal data held by ESF or ESL. ESF or ESL shall levy a charge for accessing the information.