Cookie Policy

Overview

In order to operate the Grantham College website, we may collect and store the personal information you submit to the College via this website. Please read the following privacy policy to understand how the College uses and protects the information that you provide via this website.

This system is provided and hosted by the College. By submitting your personal information, you are consenting to the College holding and using it in accordance with this policy. The policy is subject to change and any changes to it in the future will be notified on this page. By continuing to use this website you are agreeing to such changes. We recommend that you check the privacy policy each time you visit this site.

This website is known by a number of different names. These are grantham.ac.uk and www.grantham.ac.uk.

1. Information that we collect from you and your use of this website

1.1 Information you give us

When you visit this website you may be asked to provide certain information about yourself, including your name and contact details.

1.2 Automatic Information

We automatically receive and save certain types of information whenever you interact with this website. We use the information to monitor website traffic and to assist with the navigation and user experience of the website.

Information that we will automatically receive includes:

• Requested URL (Uniform Resource Locator)
• IP (Internet Protocol) address (this may or may not identify a specific computer)
• The domain name from which you access the internet
• Referring URL
• Software (browser/operating system) used to access the page
• Date and time pages were visited

1.3 Cookies

We use cookies on this website to collect standard internet log information and details of our visitors’ behaviour patterns. This is so we can obtain statistics on the number of visits and log popular parts of the site. This allows us to improve our web content and develop our website for future visitors.

We don’t use this information for anything other than our own analysis, we do not pass your cookie data to any third party providers.

We use cookies to:

1. Allow users to log in and use our resources including email, VLE and remote systems
2. Store a reference to form data that is stored on the web servers
3. Analyse user statistics.

2. How we use your information

We may use and analyse the information we collect so that we can manage and improve the services on the website. Demographic and statistical information about user behaviour may be collected and used to analyse the popularity and effectiveness of the website. Any disclosure of this information will be in aggregate form and will not identify individual users.

Grantham College also uses services from Google on this website to measure and analyse visitor information. For further information on these, please visit Google Analytics.

The College will not (nor will it allow any third party to) use the statistical analytics tools to track or to collect personally identifiable information of visitors to this website. The College will not associate any data gathered with any personally identifying information from any source as part of our use of the statistical analytics tools.

3. How we handle the data submitted by you

3.1 Student Privacy Notice

Grantham College is registered with the Information Commissioner and collects and processes information about current, past and potential future students for teaching, funding and administrative purposes. 

All such activity is governed by the Data Protection Act 1998 and from 25 May 2018 by the General Data Protection Regulations (GDPR) and any information about our students is held securely under accordance with these regulations. 

This privacy notice explains how Grantham College collects, uses and shares your personal data, and your rights in relation to the personal data we hold. For further information, please refer to our website for the Data Protection Policy.

The types of information we collect

We may collect the following types of personal data about you:

• your name, date of birth and contact information including parents and guardians.
• information relating to your education and employment history
• your photograph for your student ID card and for identification onsite
• your bank details, payment card information, direct debit information
• records relating to your work at Grantham College and details of examinations, results and progression
• information about your family or personal circumstances, and both academic and extracurricular interests
• sensitive personal data, such as ethnicity, religion, health, medical history and information about criminal convictions and offences
• minutes of meetings
• notes and email exchanges including disciplinary issues and outstanding debts
• information relating to your destination on completion of your course

How we use information about our students

Generally, the information we collect is processed as part of our public interest task of providing education to you.   Where that information is special category personal information (ie medical information) we will process because there is a substantial public interest for us to do so.  

The purposes for which we may use personal data (including sensitive personal data) we collect during a student’s association with us include:

• recruitment and admissions
• communicating with you
• giving access to college services such as access to the IT systems
• academic matters (ie. registration, assessment, attendance, managing progress, academic misconduct investigations, certification, etc )
• non-academic matters in support of our core services (ie Disability and Additional Learning Support, Wellbeing Service, student mentors and academic departments, safeguarding; etc)
• other administrative purposes (ie to ensure compliance with our regulatory and legal obligations; providing IT support etc)
• relevant government departments to whom the college has a statutory obligation to release information – including the Education Skills Funding Agency (ESFA), Higher Education Statistics Agency (HESA) and the Department for Education, Lincolnshire County Council. Further information is contained in the HESA Fair Processing Notices and ESFA Privacy Notice:
  • collection notices 
  • ESFA Privacy Notice 
  • student surveys including ESFA Surveys, Ofsted Surveys, National Student Survey (NSS)
  • processing course payments, college charges or paying bursary monies
  • current or potential providers of education or work experience for Grantham College students (including placement providers)
  • professional and statutory bodies

Promotional purposes

Grantham College will use photographs for promotional purposes. All students and staff are expected to assist with this. Students and staff have the right to request their photographs not be used for such purposes. Student consent will be sought for this and recorded for processing.  Students have the right to amend their consent at any time.

Grantham College has always and will always treat personal data with care and respect. It has never and will never use personal data for commercial purposes other than to promote its own courses as an educational provider.

Social Distancing and Lesson Recording

In order to comply with social distancing, some of our learning is now having to be delivered online.  Some lessons may be streamed or recorded from the classroom in order to ensure that all class members have access to all sessions.  Where possible we will try to ensure that students are not visible in the recordings, however, if you do not want to be in the recording please speak to your tutor who will ensure that you are seated accordingly.  If you are taking part in online learning via teams please ensure that your background is blurred or that you are seated in front of a plain wall or background.  If you do not want your image to be displayed please speak to your tutor before the team’s lesson. 

The basis for processing your information and how we use it

We may process your personal data because it is necessary for the following reasons:

• to perform our educational contractual duties
• to comply with our legal obligations, necessary for medical reasons or to protect another person’s vital interests.  For example, contacting a hospital in the case of a medical emergency, welfare officers, parents or guardians 
• to support our legal obligation to keep you safe whilst in college
• to ensure the appropriate use of college resources such as computer systems and networks which are monitored as a legitimate interest
• making or taking payments for courses, making decisions about training eligibility based on previous payment history

Sharing information with others

In general, we do not share information with third parties unless legally required to do so (such as our governing bodies ESFA, OfS, Ofsted, Department for Education, Lincolnshire County Council and our awarding bodies for registration and certification purposes).  

We may share your information in regards to attendance and academic progress with your parent/guardian in the interest of academic progress.  Where your employer has paid your fees or in the instance of an apprenticeship we may share similar information with them. 

We may share your information with the Local Authority (or your previous or future school or college students under 24 years of age) in the public interest of supporting your education and progression.  Where you are progressing to university we may share your academic information with them in the public interest of supporting your education and progression.

Where we are working with other provider agencies to deliver your education your information will be shared with them.  These include Lincolnshire County Council, for Community Learning provision, projects such as Building Better Opportunities, Support Skills for the Workforce, Specialist Industry Educator.  The Privacy Policies for this project will be available. 

We may share your information with third parties in the case of educational trips or visits or work experience placement (including medical information).  We may pass on your details to Debt Collection Agencies/Solicitors where you have unpaid debts with the college.

You have the right to request us to restrict our data processing or data sharing arrangements, for example, when you register with us, but you should carefully consider the possible impact of doing this.   For example, we may request academic references from previous schools or colleges to enable us to make a decision when you apply for a course.

We do not knowingly transfer your personal data outside of Europe except in circumstances of trips and visits where such information is necessary in order for you to travel.

How long your information is kept

Subject to any other notices that we may provide to you, we generally retain your personal data for a period of seven years after your association with us has come to an end. However, some information may be retained indefinitely by us in order to maintain your academic record for archiving purposes and for meeting our government obligations.

Grantham College does not store your personal data outside of Europe. 

Your rights

• to request us to correct the personal data we hold about you if it is incorrect
• to request us to erase your personal data
• to request us to restrict our data processing activities 
• to request from us the personal data we hold about you which you have provided to us
• to object, on grounds relating to your particular situation, to any of our particular processing activities where you feel this has a disproportionate impact on your rights
• to request us not to send you marketing communications

Please note that the above rights are not absolute, and we may be entitled to refuse requests where exceptions apply.

In signing your enrolment form with Grantham College, you have given us consent to process data.  Should you wish to amend this, please contact our Data Protection Officer.

3.2 Monitoring use of College systems

In order to protect the security and working of College network and computer systems, it may be necessary to monitor or log the use of these systems. If there are indications of abuse of systems or that individuals may be using systems in excess of their authority, files, messages and any or all uses of the systems may be intercepted, monitored, recorded, copied, audited, inspected and disclosed to authorised College and law enforcement personnel.

4. Links to external websites

This website may contain links to other websites that are outside the College’s control and are not covered by this privacy policy.

5. How to contact us

Should the information we hold about you be incorrect, you can change and update your personal information and you can have your information corrected by contacting us.

Where requested, we will provide you with a readable copy of the personal data which we keep about you, by contacting us at the address below. We may require proof of your identity before supplying you with this information to ensure confidentiality. We are entitled by law to charge a fee of £10 to meet our costs in providing you with details of the information we hold about you.

We allow you to challenge the data we hold about you and where appropriate you may have the data erased, rectified, amended or completed. For complaints or queries about the privacy policy or data protection queries generally please contact:

Grantham College
Stonebridge Rd 
Grantham 
Lincolnshire
NG31 9AP 

Email: enquiry@grantham.ac.uk