Interschool Music Festival Policies
Statement of Ethos and Function of the Interschools Music Festival
The Interschools Music Festival is a musical event for primary and secondary level students. Each year it takes place in Wesley College, Dublin over two days in early March. The festival exists, first & foremost, to give pupils the opportunity to perform, representing their schools within a musical forum. The competitions cover a range of musical genres including classical, rock and traditional. The festival provides a platform for young performers where they can gain confidence and experience in front of an encouraging and sympathetic audience. It aims to provide a musical experience that will enable each competitor to identify and to build on their strengths and talents. Standards are high and the festival provides a perfect testing ground for examinations, other feiseanna and public appearances.
Child Protection Policy
The Interschools Music Festival recognises that the protection of children is of paramount importance. All policies, practices and activities throughout the festival are designed to adhere to the principles of best practice in child protection and welfare. We endeavour to adopt safe practices to minimise the possibility of harm or accidents happening to children.
However, the Interschools Music Festival will not act “in loco parentis” in the care of minors. It is the responsibility of all parents/guardians/carers and teachers to care for their children/students at all times while attending the Festival.
Any issue of concern in regard to child welfare should be reported as a matter of priority to the festival committee, who will forward any matters of concern to the relevant authorities.
Supervision of minors
Festival staff cannot be responsible for the supervision or care of unaccompanied children and minors. Where parents, guardians and carers are not personally attending the festival with their children, this policy requires that they are satisfied that their children will be accompanied to the festival and adequately supervised by responsible adults acting on their behalf. The Interschools Music Festival takes all reasonable steps to ensure the safety of children and young people while attending the festival, however, festival personnel do not directly supervise public areas at all times. The safety of our patrons is important to us. We therefore request that parents/guardians/carers and teachers ensure that children or young people under their care are supervised at all times when using public areas such as toilets, café, lobby, stairs etc.
The Festival Code of Behaviour
The festival invites parents, guardians and teachers to join in partnership in order to maintain a safe environment for all competitors. We seek to make a positive statement about the kinds of behaviour which the Festival wishes to promote. It is our wish to create an environment where all students will feel happy and secure.
- It is expected that all competitors, at all times, will demonstrate their respect for other schools & pupils.
- The Wesley College environment should be kept in good order. Any form of behaviour which may result in damage to property or place others at risk through undue rowdiness, or as a result of thoughtless or dangerous actions, will not be accepted.
- All illegal substances, tobacco and alcohol, are banned on the Wesley College campus and its environs and will not be tolerated.
The festival committee reserves the right to contact the Gardaí or any other relevant state body to report illegal or inappropriate behaviour of any kind.
Photographs, Video/Audio Recording and Press Photography
Photos and recordings should not be taken during any competition performance.
We will be filming and photographing the Interschools Music Festival for our own promotional use. The photographs will be available on our Dropbox for your use after the festival. If you, or any participant under your care, should have any objections to being filmed or photographed in any way, you must let us know by email in advance, please to [email protected]
Festival Personnel
All festival committee staff are identifiable by a badge, bearing the name and logo of the Interschools Music Festival and their own name. Please inform your child to make contact with a staff member, should they have any enquiry or experience any difficulty
Approved by the Interschools Music Festival Committee
November 2023
Data Protection Policy
Introduction
The Interschools Music Festival fully respects your privacy and your rights to control your personal data. We are committed to strict adherence to the General Data Protection Regulations (GDPR). We will be clear about what we collect and why we collect it. This privacy statement explains the personal information we collect from you, either directly or indirectly, and how we will use it.
This Privacy Statement sets out how the Interschools Music Festival uses and processes any information that you provide to us. We respect your privacy and we are committed to protecting your personal information. Personal information is information that identifies you as an individual. This Privacy Statement explains how we collect, transfer, process, use and disclose your data and sets out our security practices.
Please read this Statement carefully to understand when you may provide personal information to us and how the Interschools Music Festival uses the personal information provided.
Why We Collect Your Personal Data
In order to administer the Music Festival we collect relevant information from you which will be used within the Interschools music Festival files. It is solely used for running the festival.
Types of personal data we may collect
Depending on your place within the Interschools Music Festival we take the following information:
Individual applicants registration;
Name
Email address
Phone number
Address
Schools registration;
School name
School Type
School address
Contact email
Contact name and phone number
On application;
Applicant (student) name and age
Schools name
Competition name
Adjudicators and Accompanists who are employed by the festival. Administrative details will be taken from them also which include the following;
Name
Email address
Contact phone number
Bank details for payment
Short biography that we will print out and display at the festival on the Adjudicator board.
Stewards
Name
Email address
Contact phone number
Year group (student stewards)
It should also be stated that we provide a photography service where photos are taken of a huge number of our competitors while competing during the festival. These pictures are offered to the competitors free of charge through a dropbox link for each competition. We also use these photos within our website, newsletter and posters. A small collection will also be kept for the festival archive.
Sharing your personal data with others
We do not and will not sell your data to third parties. We only disclose your information as authorised in this Statement. We may share your personal information with third parties who are also involved in the running of the music festival as outlined below.
Who we may share your data with & why
When you engage with us as a part of the Interschools Music Festival, whether that be as an Applicant, Adjudicator, Steward or any of the above listed, we may disclose your personal data with a third party who has a necessary relationship with the Interschools Music Festival allowing it to take place and run successfully.
For example, an accompanist will be given the names of a student he/she is to accompany. Another example is that a programme will be printed for the festival that will list the competitor names and school names for each competition.
We have strict organisational measures in place to protect your data when utilising third parties.
How we store and protect your data
Your data is stored and processed by committee members of the Interschools Music Festival, Wesley College, Dublin 16. We take security of your data and our responsibility to protect it very seriously.
The Interschools Music Festival uses a variety of technical, physical and organisational measures to protect your data. For example we utilise access control measures, secure servers, secure email platforms and encryption techniques.
How long we keep your personal data
All member registration details are held for as long as they are still in use. If a member’s data has been unused for over three years we will delete the registration and all information belonging to you in it. It is important for you to note that we use Paypal as a payment mechanism and they will hold your details and the details of each transaction for up to three years.
Basic data for schools and their music teachers is held to maintain a working contact list. This enables the festival to inform all potential school competitors about the upcoming events and any changes that are being made to the festival.
Steward’s data is retained for the duration of their involvement with the Music Festival. Once a steward ceases their involvement with the festival all their data is deleted from our system.
Data belonging to adjudicators and accompanists falls in to two categories.
1. A comprehensive list of names and contact details for reference purposes only of possible adjudicators and accompanists for future festivals.This is a working list and is held for the duration of the Interschools Music Festival.
2. Data belonging to an adjudicator or accompanist for specific use within the year of a festival they are to be involved in. This data is deleted annually after each festival.
Photographs are held within our files for up to three years after which they will be deleted unless an arrangement has been made to use them on the website on an ongoing basis.
Access to your data
All members have direct access to all the data we hold on them, on their homepage. This can be edited by you at any stage and printed out if wished. Should you wish the account to be deleted you will need to email us at [email protected]. You can ensure that the account has been deleted by endeavouring to log in.
All others (Accompanists, adjudicators and stewards) may contact a member of the festival committee also using the email above to gain access to their data or to request it’s deletion.
What are your rights?
In the event that you wish to complain about how we have handled your personal data please contact us at the email above. If you still believe that your personal data has not been handled appropriately according to the law, you can contact the Irish Data Protection Commissioner’s Office (www.dataprotection.ie) and file a complaint with them.
The Interschools Music Festival may modify or update this Statement when necessary. Please review it regularly. We will indicate when it was most recently updated.
Last Updated: 11/11/2022