The Old Paludians Association is strongly committed to the privacy of OUR information. All of us – including committee members – involved with the Association face the same issues in respect of our data and we are fully committed to protecting your personal information, being transparent about what data we hold and giving you control over how we use it. The purpose of this Privacy Policy is to give you a clear explanation about how we use the information we collect from you at the Old Paludians Association website https://oldpaludians.org.

About us

We are an unincorporated association of former pupils and staff of Slough Secondary School and successor schools Slough High School for Girls, Slough Grammar School for Boys, Upton Grammar School, Slough Grammar School and Upton Court Grammar School. Contact details for the Old Paludians Association may be found by navigating to the contact page of the website; https://oldpaludians.org/contact/

How do we collect personal information?

We only collect your information when you provide it to us either in the process of becoming a life member of the Association or by providing it to us for the purpose of maintaining contact. We also maintain an archive of historical materials which may contain information about you which is deemed to be in the historical record.

We collect personal information when you:

1. Join as a member
2. Provide your information to us so we may maintain contact.
3. Register for an Old Paludians Association event and provide information so we may maintain contact.

Given the nature of the Old Paludians Assocation there is no need to, and nor do we, “harvest” personal details through routine transactions for future use.

What information do we collect from you?

We only collect the information that’s necessary to carry on our functions, communicate developments and to keep you informed. We routinely collect the following information in the registration and booking process: 1) Prefix and name 2) Previous names (if any) 3) Address 4) Years at school 5) Contact phone number(s) We may also request – on a voluntary basis – to assist us in facilitating networking between Old Paludians; 6) Date of birth, 7) Post school study 8) Post school career If a former member of staff we may request; 9) Years at school 10) Subjects taught. Any correspondence between the Association and members may be kept as a matter of record. We do NOT share your (our) information with third parties except as may be required by the operation of law. Where we have materials in our archive relating to the history or current activities of the school or old Paludians we may display them on the website https://oldpaludians.org or on social media. In the future,  we may use social media plugins from the following service providers (and possibly others) who are based both inside and outside the EU: Facebook, WhatsApp and Twitter. Such plugins may allow you to register with us using your social media account. You will be made aware when this is happening that by providing your social media account details you are authorizing that third party to share certain information about you with us.;

Why do we collect this information, and what do we do with it?

The main reason we collect information is to provide a service you have requested, to keep you up to date with news and events, to personalise your communications, or to contact you if we need to obtain or provide additional information. We use your information for the purposes listed below on the basis of your previously provided consent or where we need to comply with a legal or regulatory obligation in the following ways:

1. To communicate with you via email or post on general Association business.
2. To comply with any legal obligations.

Where is your information? We’re committed to protecting your personal information. We adopt robust and appropriate technologies and policies to protect it from unauthorised access and improper use. Access to personal information is limited to those who need to use it. We do not use any services which hold your (our) data outside of the EEA.

How long do we keep your data?

We keep your information only for as long as is reasonably necessary for the purposes set out in this Privacy Policy and to fulfil our legal obligations. We will not keep more information than we need.

Is personal information shared with any third parties?

No, however…….it may be possible that in the course of interacting with The Old Paludians Association there is also the need to interact with a third party service provider (payment processing is a good example of this).  At any point where your personal data may be passed to a service provider you will have the opportunity to review what information is passed and for what purpose.

How can you manage your personal information?

You can access and amend the personal information that we hold for you, or request that we stop contacting you at any time. Or you can contact us by emailing, or writing using our contact details set out at the top of this Privacy Policy. You have certain rights in respect of the information that we hold about you, including:

• the right to be informed of the ways in which we use your information, as we seek to do in this Privacy Policy;
• the right to ask us not to process your personal data for marketing purposes;
• the right to request that we correct or rectify any information that we hold about you which is out of date or incorrect;
• in addition to your right to lodge a complaint about us to the UK Information Commissioner’s Office (https://ico.org.uk/), you can lodge a complaint with the relevant authority in your country of work or residence;
• the right to withdraw your consent for our use of your information in reliance of your consent (refer to “Why do we collect this information, and what do we do with it?”   above to see when we are relying on your consent), which you can do by contacting us using any of the information at the top of this Privacy Policy;
• the right to receive a copy of any information we hold about you in connection with the performance of our contract with you or on the basis of your consent (or request that we transfer this to another service provider) in a structured, commonly-used, machine readable format, in certain circumstances; and
• the right to ask us to limit or cease processing or erase information we hold about you in certain circumstances.

How to exercise your rights

• You may exercise your rights above by contacting us using the details at the top of this Privacy Policy and we will comply with your requests unless we have a lawful reason not to do so.
• Every email we send to you will include details on how to change your communications preferences or unsubscribe from future communications.

Please note that we may need to retain certain information for our own record-keeping and research purposes. Such information may be a matter of record – such as your name and dates of school attendance and will not be used for any other purpose.

Changes to this Privacy Policy and your duty to inform us of changes

We may make changes to this Privacy Policy from time to time. We will post any changes to our site, or notify you of any material changes by e-mail. It is important that the personal data we hold about you is accurate and current. Please keep us informed if your personal data changes during your relationship with us by contacting us via the contact details at the top of this Privacy Policy.

What data breach procedures we have in place

We monitor the security of your (our) data regularly. In the event of a data breach we shall endeavour to secure the data immediately and inform users affected promptly. Appropriate authorities will be notified as necessary. The type of data we store is not usually considered to be capable of presenting a high risk of “adversely affecting individuals’ rights and freedoms” however. This Privacy Policy was updated on 24th May 2018. The following paragraphs refer to privacy in respect of website functions not currently live – including comments and forums.

Comments

When visitors leave comments on the site we collect the data shown in the comments form, and also the visitor’s IP address and browser user agent string to help spam detection. An anonymised string created from your email address (also called a hash) may be provided to the Gravatar service to see if you are using it. The Gravatar service privacy policy is available here: https://automattic.com/privacy/. After approval of your comment, your profile picture is visible to the public in the context of your comment.

Media

If you upload images to the website, you should avoid uploading images with embedded location data (EXIF GPS) included. Visitors to the website can download and extract any location data from images on the website.

Cookies

If you leave a comment on our site you may opt-in to saving your name, email address and website in cookies. These are for your convenience so that you do not have to fill in your details again when you leave another comment. These cookies will last for one year. If you have an account and you log in to this site, we will set a temporary cookie to determine if your browser accepts cookies. This cookie contains no personal data and is discarded when you close your browser. When you log in, we will also set up several cookies to save your login information and your screen display choices. Login cookies last for two days, and screen options cookies last for a year. If you select “Remember Me”, your login will persist for two weeks. If you log out of your account, the login cookies will be removed. If you edit or publish an article, an additional cookie will be saved in your browser. This cookie includes no personal data and simply indicates the post ID of the article you just edited. It expires after 1 day.

Embedded content from other websites

Articles on this site may include embedded content (e.g. videos, images, articles, etc.). Embedded content from other websites behaves in the exact same way as if the visitor has visited the other website. These websites may collect data about you, use cookies, embed additional third-party tracking, and monitor your interaction with that embedded content, including tracing your interaction with the embedded content if you have an account and are logged in to that website.

How long we retain your data

If you leave a comment, the comment and its metadata are retained indefinitely. This is so we can recognise and approve any follow-up comments automatically instead of holding them in a moderation queue. For users that register on our website (if any), we also store the personal information they provide in their user profile. All users can see, edit, or delete their personal information at any time (except they cannot change their username). Website administrators can also see and edit that information.

What rights you have over your data

If you have an account on this site, or have left comments, you can request to receive an exported file of the personal data we hold about you, including any data you have provided to us. You can also request that we erase any personal data we hold about you. This does not include any data we are obliged to keep for administrative, legal, or security purposes.

Where we send your data

Visitor comments may be checked through an automated spam detection service. This Privacy Policy was updated on 24th May 2018.

Title

The title of the Association shall be the Old Paludians Association

Purpose of the Association

The purpose of the Association shall be to:

• organise Annual Reunions of former pupils and past and present staff of Slough Secondary School, Slough Grammar School for Boys, Slough High School for Girls, Upton Grammar School, Slough Grammar School and Upton Court Grammar School
• produce an Annual Newsletter for Members giving news of Members.
• support Members trying to contact former school-friends.
• maintain a website for the benefit of Members and prospective Members.
• raise funds to cover the running costs of the Association.
• raise funds towards the cost of Speech Day Prizes for the School and for the School Library, or any such gift as may be appropriate in consultation with the School Principal.

The Association shall be non-political and non-sectarian.

Membership

Membership shall be open to former pupils and present and past staff of Slough Secondary School, Slough Grammar School, Slough High School, Upton Grammar School, Slough Grammar School and Upton Court Grammar School.
Membership shall be by Life Membership only. Former Pupils will be asked to make a one-off payment for the Life Membership subscription current at the time of their joining. Honorary Life Membership shall be open to all present and past members of the Staff.
All members shall have equal voting rights.

Officers

The Principal of Upton Court Grammar School shall hold the honorary post of President of the Association.
The Committee shall consist of the Chairman, Secretary, Treasurer, Webmaster, Newsletter Editor and six other elected members. All committee members must be Members of the Association. Seven Members shall constitute a quorum at a Committee Meeting.
The Committee shall organise a joint Annual General Meeting (AGM) and Reunion to be held in March or April of each year. Members shall be notified either by post or e-mail. Thirty members shall constitute a quorum at an AGM.
The Committee shall be elected annually at the AGM, but may co-opt up to two members during the year.
The Secretary shall maintain minutes for the AGM and for Committee Meetings. The Secretary shall present the AGM Minutes at the subsequent AGM.
The Treasurer shall maintain a bank or building society account on behalf of the Association. The Treasurer shall maintain accounting records for each financial year, which will run from 1st January to 31st December.
The Accounts shall be examined by a Financial Examiner who is not a member of the Committee and who is appointed annually at the AGM.
The Treasurer shall present the Examined Accounts in written form at the AGM.
The Newsletter Editor shall prepare an annual newsletter for distribution in March or April of each year. The Newsletter will be distributed to Members by hand, post or e-mail.
The Webmaster shall maintain the website ( www.oldpaludians.org ).

Changes to the Constitution

Alterations to the Constitution may be made only by a resolution at the AGM passed by a majority of seventy-five per cent of those members present and voting. Members shall be notified of any alterations at least one month in advance of the AGM.

Changes to the Membership Subscription

Any changes to the Life Membership subscription shall be agreed at the AGM by a simple majority of those present and voting. Members shall be notified of any proposed alteration at least one month in advance of the AGM.

Dissolution of the Association

The Association may be dissolved only by a resolution at the AGM passed by a majority of seventy-five per cent of those members present and voting.
At such time as the Old Paludians Association ceases to function:

• all outstanding debts shall be paid, the accounts closed and all residual monies donated to Slough Grammar School specifically for the purchase of additional books or other items for the School Library.
• all record books and properties shall be passed to the archivist at the School or to the County Archivist.

The above Constitution was formally adopted by the AGM at Reunion 2003.

Potential Changes

Where the Committee is discussing changes to the Constitution for presentation to the Membership at the next AGM, such potential changes will be recorded below for information only. These changes will have no effect until and unless formally approved by the AGM with the appropriate majority.

No changes foreseen, as at 26 May 2004
Updated for school name change 2 July 2015

CONSTITUTION

Updated: 21st March 2020

1. Name

The name of the association shall be The Old Paludians Association.

Further references to “the Association” shall be intended to represent The Old Paludians Association.

2. Aims

The purpose of the Association shall be to bring together the community of, and foster development among, the current and former students, staff, and friends of:

• Upton Court Grammar School (UCGS, 2013–present)
• Slough Grammar School (SGS, 1993–2013)
• Upton Grammar School (UGS, 1982–93)
• Slough High School for Girls (SHSG, 1936–82)
• Slough Grammar School for Boys (SGSB, 1936–82)
• Slough Secondary School (SSS, 1912–36)

Further references to “the School” shall be intended to represent all iterations of schools past and present connected to UCGS as it is known today.

The Association shall realise its mission by:

• Supporting projects that enhance the School as a heritage institution and preserve the community around the School, including providing support to the careers programme.
• Organising class and school reunions and similar events celebrating the School, its students, staff, and alumni.
• Communicating with members for the purposes of keeping them informed about the current activities of the School and providing a means for them to communicate with each other.
• Maintaining an archive of content reflecting the history and the legacy of the School.
• Ensuring ongoing engagement with the School by representing alumni at school events, awarding prizes in their honour, and other projects.
• Raising and managing funds to further the purposes of the Association and support its activities.

3. Membership

Becoming a member

To be a member a person must be or have been a student or member of staff at the School.

Life membership shall be automatically conferred upon students once they have left the School and registered with the Association. Staff shall become life members as soon as they begin working at the School. Any other individual having a substantial interest in the School and making contributions to support the aims of the Association may be granted honorary life membership by the Committee.

Membership fees may be applied, changed, or removed by the Committee as appropriate to best support achieving the aims of the Association. Any such changes must be ratified at the next AGM in order to take effect.

All members shall have equal voting rights.

A membership database shall be kept on record by the Committee in compliance with all relevant data protection legislation and the Association’s data policy.

Ceasing to be a member

Any member who wishes to withdraw from the Association may do so at any time by giving notice to the Committee, at which time they will cease to be a member.

Any behaviour considered offensive to or undermining of the future of the Association will not be permitted and the Committee reserves the right to suspend membership of any member against whom a complaint is made and upheld. Individuals concerned shall have a right to be heard by the Committee, accompanied by up to one other person, before a final decision is made by majority vote of the Committee.

4. Equal Opportunities

The Association will not discriminate on the grounds of gender, race, colour, ethnic or national origin, sexual orientation, disability, religious or political belief, marital status or age.

5. Officers and Committee

Operation of the Association shall be managed by a Committee led by the Chair in which the voting rights of the membership shall be vested. The duty of the Committee shall be to support the aims of the organisation, to adopt its bylaws, to elect officers, and to undertake actions to carry out the mission of the Association.

Candidates for Chair may be nominated at any time for inclusion in an election at the AGM. Other members of the Committee shall be members who express an interest in volunteering to support the running of the Association.

Under normal circumstances the Committee shall consist of at least the Chair and 4 other members. The Committee may co-opt others to fill any unfilled positions or create new positions at its discretion.

Other roles may be taken on by individuals or shared between members of the Committee. By mutual agreement, the Committee shall ensure roles and responsibilities taken on shall include at least the following:

• Chair, who shall call meetings, facilitate discussion, and manage the work of the Committee acting as the figurehead of the Association
• Membership Secretary, who shall manage members data and organise communications between the Committee and members
• Secretary, who shall take minutes and manage administrative matters
• Treasurer, who shall be responsible for maintaining all financial accounts
• Webmaster, who shall be responsible for maintaining the website and related IT matters.

In the absence of a Committee member to take a named role, including that of Chair, the responsibilities of the position may be divided between the remaining members of the Committee and executed as they see fit until the role can be filled in the usual manner.

Members of the Committee shall remain in post until they choose to stand down or are asked to resign by a majority of the Committee. Motions to propose or remove members of the Committee may also be made at the AGM and passed by a majority vote which must also include a majority of Committee members present.

The current Headteacher of the School shall hold the post of Honorary President of the Association.

6. Meetings

Annual General Meetings (AGMs)

An AGM must be held within 15 months of the previous AGM.

All members will be notified at least 3 weeks before the date of the meeting with details of the venue, date, and time.

Nominations for the Committee may be made to the Committee before the meeting, or at the meeting.

The quorum for the AGM will be 10% of the membership or a minimum of 10 members present, whichever is the lower number.

At the AGM the Chair will lead discussion, take votes, and present on behalf of the Committee:

• a report of the work of the Association over the year;
• the accounts of the Association for the previous year;
• any other matters and proposals relevant to members.

Extraordinary General Meetings (EGMs)

The Committee will call an EGM at the request of the majority of the committee or at least 10 other members producing a formal petition to the Chair stating the reason for their request.

The meeting will take place within 28 days of the request.

All members will be given at least 2 weeks’ notice of such a meeting, with details of the venue, date, time, and agenda.

The quorum for the EGM will be 10% of the membership or 10 members, whichever is the lower number.

Committee Meetings (CMs)

The Chair may call CMs and is expected to do so several times a year. Committee members must receive notice of CMs at least 7 days before the meeting.

The quorum for CMs is 3 members of Committee.

CMs will be open to any member of the Association wishing to attend, who may speak but not vote.

7. Rules of Procedure for Meetings

All questions that arise at any meeting will be discussed openly and the meeting will seek to find consensus where possible.

If a consensus cannot be reached a vote will be taken and a decision will be made by a simple majority of members present. If the number of votes cast on each side is equal, the Chair shall have an additional deciding vote to break the tie.

8. Finances

Accounts will be maintained on behalf of the Association as agreed by the Committee. At least 3 signatories shall be nominated by the Committee.  The signatories must not be related nor members of the same household.

Records of income and expenditure will be maintained by the Treasurer and an updated financial statement given at each meeting.

All money raised by or on behalf of the Association is only to be used to further the aims of the organisation, as specified in the constitution.

9. Amendments to the Constitution

Amendments to the constitution may be made at any time.

In order to do so, a proposal of the amended constitution must be given to the Committee in writing by any member. The proposed constitution must then be posted to the website for 28 days and communicated to members by email or letter as appropriate so that members may raise questions or make comments. A vote must then be scheduled for the next AGM or an EGM or postal/electronic vote may be called to ratify the change.

Any proposal to amend the constitution will require assent from a majority of those present and eligible to vote at an AGM or EGM for the changes to be adopted or from a majority of postal and electronic votes returned where the committee deem a postal/electronic vote appropriate.

10. Dissolution

If a meeting, by simple majority, decides that it is necessary to close the organisation it may call an EGM or a postal/electronic vote to do so. The sole business of this meeting will be to dissolve the Association.

If agreed by a majority, all outstanding debts shall be paid, and the accounts closed. Any residual monies, records, and properties shall be transferred to the School for the benefit of students and alumni.