Privacy Statement and Community Guidelines

Privacy notice

The TEP Alumni Network is a professional network of highly skilled teachers who are graduates of the Teaching Excellence Program at the Victorian Academy of Teaching and Leadership (Academy).

Through the network, teachers engage in self-directed learning, collegiate reflection, and collaboration with the purpose of enhancing their knowledge and practice for the benefit of their students, school communities and the teaching profession.

The Academy values and is committed to protecting your privacy.

The Academy handles your personal information in accordance with the Privacy and Data Protection Act 2014 (Vic), Public Records Act 1973 (Vic) and other applicable legislation. The Academy collects your information in accordance with the Academy’s collection notice.

The primary purpose of the Academy and the Department of Education (the department) collecting your personal information is to enable individuals to:

• sign up to the TEP Alumni Network
• engage with and contribute to the TEP Alumni Network 
• connect with fellow graduates and the Academy
• evaluate the TEP Alumni Network.

Collection by third party software vendors

The Academy uses software by third parties, including those referred to in the Academy’s Privacy Policy. Additionally, to facilitate your application and involvement in the TEP Alumni Network, we use the community building platform Circle. For further information on how these third-party software vendors handle your personal information, please review their privacy policies. The information we/you disclose to some of our third-party vendors may travel outside Victoria.

Third party software vendors may alter how they collect and handle personal information at any time.

Please note that Circle has no control over the content or privacy policies of third-party websites that you may link to from the Services or their advertisers. If you visit a linked website, be aware that the third party operating any such website may have access to any information you submit via that website. 

Circle’s Third-Party Privacy Policies:  

• Zapier’s Privacy Policy 
• X's (formerly Twitter) Privacy Policy 
• Meta’s Privacy Policy (Facebook and Instagram) 
• LinkedIn’s Privacy Policy

Individuals have a right to request access to, and correct, their personal information held by the Academy. Most requests to access and/or correct information held by the Academy are processed in accordance with the Freedom of Information Act 1982 (VIC). You can request access and correction of your personal information by contacting teaching.excellence.program@education.vic.gov.au.

Protecting your privacy

To create your account in the TEP Alumni Network, you will be required to provide your email and set up a password.  

As part of setting up your profile in the Network, you have the option to provide your:

• full name
• headline
• bio/description
• location
• time zone
• website
• social media URLs (Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram)

You will also have the option to select if:

• your email is visible to others
• your profile is visible in the TEP Alumni Network directory
• you would like to prevent members from messaging you.

Protect your own privacy by not posting any personal information or photos that you wouldn’t want to be seen by the public. Please refrain from sharing sensitive personal information.

Protecting the privacy of other users

Please do not share your log in details, invite people who are not TEP graduates, or share the personal information of others in the Network. 

If you use the Alumni Network to share photos or videos, please ensure you have the consent of any individuals who may be featured.  You must not share pictures or videos of students without parental consent. You must not capture any pictures of students without parental consent and pictured must be de-identified.

Photographs, videos, and audio recordings of individuals are considered personal information, and as such are protected by privacy law in the same way as other personal information. They may also be protected by copyright law.

Please refer and ensure you adhere to your relevant school’s privacy policy. For government schools, please follow the following policies:

• Privacy and Information Sharing: Policy | education.vic.gov.au
• Photographing, Filming and Recording Students: Policy | education.vic.gov.au

Community Guidelines

The TEP Alumni Network has been created to offer TEP graduates a space where you can share best practices, learn, collaborate, and connect with one another. As a community, it is a shared responsibility to keep this space safe, welcoming, inclusive, and empowering. 

As a member of the TEP Alumni Network you are agreeing to abide by the community guidelines listed below. For those seen to be in violation of these guidelines, platform access will be removed.

Social Media Standards

The Academy administers this space to enable connection and collaboration amongst TEP graduates.   

In using this space, you will be consistent with the standards of professional conduct, personal conduct and professional competence expected of you by colleagues and the community, as outlined in any relevant codes of conducts, or local school or Department policies including Part 11 of Ministerial Order 1038 (Conduct and Duties), the Code of Conduct for Victorian Public Sector Employees, the school’s Child Safety Code of Conduct and the Victorian Teaching Profession’s Codes of Conduct and Ethics. 

The Academy reserves the right to remove membership to any member that is deemed to have contravened the standards outlined in the relevant codes.  

Act with positive intent

Treat each member and each contribution with the utmost kindness and respect. Each idea, share, and contribution should come from a place of positive intent and should add value to those receiving it.  

There will be a zero tolerance to:

• discrimination or inciting hatred based on race, religion, gender, nationality, ability, or sexuality or other personal characteristics
• name calling, shaming, or bullying  
• violence of any kind  
• posting any misleading, deceptive, false, defamatory, or libellous content.  
• conducting any illegal activity  

Anyone can report a post that is in breach of the guidelines. The Academy will review the report and take the appropriate actions and reserves the right to remove posts or delete accounts if they breach the community guidelines.

Content

The Academy welcomes ideas, resources, insights, questions if they are clear, useful, informative, and relevant to the alumni community. If you share content created by someone else, please attribute their work by appropriately citing sources. When you share journal articles, book, or videos - share the link to the original source.

Do not post or share content that is:  

• party-political in nature 
• spam or unrelated to the pursuit of excellence in teaching
• linked to unaffiliated commercial products

Spotted a post that's not following the guidelines? 

Anyone can report a post by hovering over the three dots and clicking "Report". The Academy reserves the right to remove posts or delete accounts if they infringe of the community guidelines. 

Disclaimer: 

While the administrators and moderators of the TEP Alumni Network will attempt to remove or edit any generally objectionable material as quickly as possible, you acknowledge that all posts made in this platform express the views and opinions of the author and not the administrators, moderators, or the Academy. You agree, through your use of this platform, that you will not use the Alumni Network to promote a commercial business, interest or group without written approval from the Academy. You agree that the Academy reserves the right to remove, edit, move or close any topic at any time should they see fit.