Smart School Councils Privacy Notice ⭐️

How we use, share and store your data at our charity Smart School Councils:

Visitors to our website
When someone visits www.smartschoolcouncils.org.uk  we use a third-party service, Google Analytics, to collect standard internet log information and details of visitor behaviour patterns. We do this to find out things such as the number of visitors to the various parts of the site. This information is only processed in a way which does not identify anyone. We do not make, and do not allow Google to make, any attempt to find out the identities of those visiting our website. If we do want to collect personally identifiable information through our website, we will be up front about this. We will make it clear when we collect personal information and will explain what we intend to do with it.

Use of cookies by Smart School Councils
Cookies are small text files that are placed on your computer by websites that you visit. They are widely used to make websites work efficiently as well as to provide information over the site. To manage your cookies, please visit http://www.aboutcookies.org.

To opt out of being tracked by Google Analytics across all websites visit http://tools.google.com/dlpage/gaoptout.

Sending resources and info pack
We use a third-party provider, ActiveCampaign, to deliver our free school council guide and other resources to users. We gather statistics around email opening and clicks using industry standard technologies to help us monitor and improve our resources. For more information, please see ActiveCampaign’s Privacy Policy.

Handling emails
We use a third-party provider, Front, to answer emails from teachers. This gathers statistics around email opening and clicks using industry standard technologies to help us monitor and improve our resources. For more information, please see Front’s Privacy Policy.

Our website
To create our website, we used two third-party services – WordPress and Squarespace. We use a standard WordPress service to collect anonymous information about users' activity on the site and Squarespace also collects standard information on users’ activity in order to improve our services.

Our website is hosted by our Outlandish using AmazonWebServices (AWS) in the EEA.

People who become members
For individuals who become members of Smart School Councils, we provide email support using ActiveCampaign.

We hold some data on our member’s schools, as well as usage statistics in order provide accurate support.

For members who use our Class Meeting Tool, we use an online tool built by our web partners Outlandish. This collects school data and some individual data in order to help track involvement in their Smart School Council. Schools are asked to sign the Data Sharing Agreement in order to use this service. 

No sensitive data is collected, and no names or class details are shared externally or published online.

People who make a complaint to us
When we receive a complaint from a person we make up a file containing the details of the complaint. This normally contains the identity of the complainant and any other individuals involved in the complaint.

We will only use the personal information we collect to process the complaint and to check on the level of service we provide. We do compile and publish statistics showing information like the number of complaints we receive, but not in a form which identifies anyone.

We usually have to disclose the complainant’s identity to whoever the complaint is about. This is inevitable where, for example, the accuracy of a person’s record is in dispute. If a complainant doesn’t want information identifying him or her to be disclosed, we will try to respect that. However, it may not be possible to handle a complaint on an anonymous basis.

We will keep personal information contained in complaint files in line with our retention policy. This means that information relating to a complaint will be retained for two years from closure. It will be retained in a secure environment and access to it will be restricted according to the ‘need to know’ principle.

Similarly, where enquiries are submitted to us we will only use the information supplied to us to deal with the enquiry and any subsequent issues and to check on the level of service we provide.

When we take enforcement action against someone, we may publish the identity of the defendant in our Annual Report or elsewhere. Usually we do not, identify any complainants unless the details have already been made public.

Your rights
Under the Data Protection Act 2018, you have rights as an individual which you can exercise in relation to the information we hold about you.

Complaints or queries
Smart School Councils tries 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.

This privacy notice was drafted with brevity and clarity in mind. It does not provide exhaustive detail of all aspects of our collection and use of personal information. However, we are happy to provide any additional information or explanation needed. Any requests for this should be sent to the address below.

If you want to make a complaint about the way we have processed your personal information, please write to us at the address at the bottom of the page.

Access to personal information
Smart School Councils tries to be as open as it can be in terms of giving people access to their personal information. Individuals can find out if we hold any personal information by making a ‘subject access request’ under the Data Protection Act 2018. If we do hold information about you we will:

give you a description of it;
tell you why we are holding it;
tell you who it could be disclosed to; and
let you have a copy of the information in an intelligible form.
To make a request to Smart School Councils for any personal information we may hold you need to put the request in writing to the address provided below.

If you agree, we will try to deal with your request informally, for example by providing you with the specific information you need over the telephone.

Disclosure of personal information
In many circumstances we will not disclose personal data without consent. However when we investigate a complaint, for example, we will need to share personal information with the organisation concerned and with other relevant bodies.

Links to other websites
This privacy notice does not cover the links within this site linking to other websites. We encourage you to read the privacy statements on the other websites you visit.

Changes to this privacy notice
We keep our privacy notice under annual review. This privacy notice was last updated on 3 February 2024.

How to contact us
If you want to request information about our privacy policy you contact us at Greg Sanderson, Smart School Councils, 86-90 Paul St, London EC2A 4NE, United Kingdom or hello@smartschoolcouncils.org.uk