Privacy Policy

Verbier International School (hereinafter “VIS”) with its registered seat at Route de Verbier Staion, 88, Verbier, Switzerland complies as a data controller with the recognised standards of the General Data Protection Regulation EU 2016/679 (GDPR) in force as of May 25, 2018 and with the standards outlined in the Swiss Federal Act on Data Protection (the FADP) (hereafter referred to as ‘data protection legislation’).

We are committed to keeping personal information accurate, up-to-date, safe, secure and will not keep personal information longer than necessary. This privacy notice explains how we use personal information, whom we share it with, and how we protect privacy. This notice applies to all personal data collected for and on behalf of VIS. This notice pertains to information obtained in analogue (forms, documents, in writing) and through technological means such as information systems and email.

From time to time, we will make you aware of when we require additional personal information for processing through a separate specific privacy notice.

VIS collects personal information and sensitive (special) categories of personal information of students, parents, alumni, (former) employees and at times, third parties, to provide a safe and caring environment for educational and administrative purposes. We use the information you provide for purposes that are necessary by law, are required to undertake the performance of the contract into which you have entered, for legitimate interests that preserve your rights or based on your consent. We will always ensure we have a condition for processing personal and sensitive information.

We use the information you provide in the following ways:

to undertake and manage the school admissions and enrolment.
to provide a safe learning environment.
to comply with child protection requirements.
to support and enable the academic, pastoral and personal objectives of children, including the monitoring and reporting of progress.
to provide support and care for emotional and psychological wellbeing (pastoral and counselling).
to protect the health of the students and staff we serve. We may also use data provided to us by other health professionals to safeguard staff and students.
to provide a tailored learning environment and make evidence-based education decisions for the children we serve.
to enable the children we serve to continue or progress their education at other educational organisations.
for approved school trips or outside events participation.
to enable the development of a comprehensive picture of the workforce and how it is deployed.
to inform the development and implementation of recruitment and retention policies.
to support and develop our employees in the performance of their duties.
for financial planning to help in the future planning and resource investment purposes.
to meet our statutory reporting requirements to regulators and other authorities.
to help investigate any concerns or complaints you may have.
to answer any enquiries relating to programmes, camps, educational training or other activities supported by VIS.
to communicate with the VIS alumni and fundraising community (keeping contact information up to date, organising events, sending out invitations, sending out newsletters) giving the possibility of opting out at any time of any electronic communications sent out for this purpose.
to perform data analytics to understand trends in school or educational training enrolment, camps registration, mandatory task completion or for fundraising purposes.

We use the information you provide in the following ways:

We collect and use personal information to carry out the education services as prescribed above. We do so under lawful bases, as prescribed by data protection legislation. In some circumstances, we may be required to share personal data for legal, legitimate interest or other purposes. If we need to share your information, we will ensure, if required, that you are advised.

personal information (such as name, date of birth, unique number and address).
special categories of data or sensitive data (such as health or dietary restrictions, criminal record, relevant medical information, special educational needs information, behavioural information and psychological reports and assessments).
other relevant categories for the performance of our services (such as employee data for HR and employment management purposes including recruitment, assessment and appraisals information).
attendance information (such as sessions attended, number of absences and absence reasons).
logging and audit information from the use of IT systems and education technology apps, applications and cloud-based systems.
photographs and videos taken by staff and students throughout the school year to record and share everyday life at VIS. Your child may be identifiable in these images.
photographs taken for identification purposes e.g. access cards.
personal data which is freely accessible in the public domain about potential fundraising prospects or donors in order to secure the legitimate interests of financial support for VIS.
information for incident management: surveillance cameras video footage or location information for lost or stolen devices that have been reported.

VIS recognises that by efficiently managing its records, it will be able to comply with its legal and regulatory obligations and to contribute to the effective overall management of the institution. Records provide evidence for protecting the legal rights and interests of the school and provide evidence for demonstrating performance and accountability.

All pupil and staff records will be kept securely at all times. Paper and electronic records will have appropriate security measures in place. This security will ensure that confidentiality is maintained for pupil and staff records while enabling information to be shared lawfully and appropriately, being made accessible for those authorised to see it.

Pupil and staff records are disposed of in accordance with the secure disposal of records guidelines and schedules. Where documents have been identified as historically significant, they will be archived.

While we store and use your personal data, we will ensure the appropriate security of your personal data including protection against unauthorised or unlawful processing and accidental loss, destruction or damage, using appropriate technical or organisational measures. In addition, we limit access to such personal information to those employees, agents, contractors and other third parties who have a valid need to know that information.

For the purposes of IT, hosting and maintenance of all school information, including personal data, is located on servers within the school, or within hosted servers provided by our service providers. No third parties have access to your personal data unless there is a lawful basis that allows them to do so. Where the lawful basis allows and information is shared with third parties, we ensure they have the same or equivalent protections in place as we do. We cannot deliver our education services without processing the data we collect and share.

In following the principles of Article 32 – Security of Processing of the GDPR, we have in place proportionate technical and organisational measures to protect your personal information.

Whenever users submit personal information through VIS’s website (such as contact info or credit card info) via online forms, registration, or online purchase, upon submission that information is encrypted via the highest level of security available (SSL). Servers that store personally identifiable information are in a secure environment. Under no circumstances are credit card numbers permanently stored on our website servers.

More information on the technical and organisational measures taken to protect your personal information can be requested via the Data Protection Officer (contact details below).

The school uses data processors (3rd parties) to provide services which are of benefit to the data subjects. The school has contracts in place with all data processors which means they can only use your personal data as instructed by the school.

Example of data processors:

School Management Information Systems
Catering and transportation companies
College or university application systems
Gsuite for Education
Providers of information systems or services that are necessary for the School to deliver the administration, admissions, teaching and learning, pastoral development or child protection services, recruitment and staff payroll or for fundraising and alumni community management purposes.

The school may also share this data with various entities, but this will only be done if the school is satisfied that there is a lawful basis to share.

Examples of who we may share data with:

Schools, colleges or universities that the students attend after leaving us
Accreditation bodies
Education authorities
Government bodies If there is a legal or statutory obligation to share
Medical facilities if in the vital interests of students or individuals to share
Third parties for school trips/outings

VIS websites may contain links to external sites. This privacy notice does not cover how those organisations process personal information. Please be aware that we are not responsible for the privacy practices of such other sites, except those owned and maintained by VIS. We encourage our users to be aware when they leave our site(s) and to read the privacy statements of each and every website that collects personally identifiable information. This privacy statement applies solely to information collected by VIS.

Personal information may be transferred to organisations outside Switzerland for the purposes of student application for college or university. Various teaching and learning, management or administration applications are also used that are based outside Switzerland. Information on these and the protections afforded by these data processors can be requested from the Data Protection Officer (contact details below).

Under data protection legislation, everyone has the right to request access to information about them that we hold. To make a request for your personal information, contact the Data Protection Officer.

You also have certain additional rights to:

be informed of how we are processing your personal information – this privacy notice serves this purpose, get in touch if you have any questions;
have your data corrected if it is inaccurate or incomplete;
have your information erased (the right to be forgotten) in certain circumstances – e.g. where it is no longer needed by us for the purpose in which it was collected or you have withdrawn your consent;
restrict the use of your data in certain circumstances e.g. where you have told us the data is inaccurate and we are in the process of checking this. In such circumstances we will continue to store your data but will not process it further until we have checked and confirmed whether the data is inaccurate;
to object to the processing of your data in certain circumstances – e.g. you may object to the processing of your data for direct marketing purposes.
object to the processing of personal data that is likely to cause, or is causing, damage or distress.

If you have any concerns about the way we are collecting or using your personal data, you should raise your concern with us in the first instance. You can also directly contact the Supervisory Authority in Switzerland which is: Préposé Fédéral à la Protection des Données et à la Transparence (PFPDT), Feldeggweg 1, 3003 Berne.