Bridge Mills Galway Language Centre is a family-run adult English language school, established in 1987. Our school is located in a beautiful, renovated 18th century mill overlooking the River Corrib in the centre of Galway City, the cultural capital of the West Coast of Ireland.

In this friendly and vibrant atmosphere, you will study English with our team of experienced senior teachers. We have a wide range of courses, including:

• General English – Full-time & Part-time
• Cambridge Examination Preparation (all levels)
• TOEIC, TOEFL & IELTS Preparation
• English for Business & Professional Use
• English for Specialist Subjects
• Part-time Courses
• TEFL Teacher Training Courses

We can offer host family accommodation where you will live as a guest with an Irish family. Getting to know Irish culture and way of life will be an enriching part of your English language experience here in Galway.

Accreditations:

Our school is accredited by many different organisations including MEI, ACELS (Irish Department of Education), Quality English, Cambridge Examinations, ALTO and Eaquals.

Quality is an important aspect to everything we do and as a member of Eaquals our Quality is assured. We strive to do our best and meet the standards of quality set by Eaquals (https://www.eaquals.org)

EAQUALS – aims

• To improve the experience of language learners by developing quality standards for the teaching of modern languages
• To deliver accreditation against these standards for providers of language education
• To develop practical resources, and offer training and support for those working in the field of modern languages

Eaquals – Values

• To serve the interests of language learners worldwide
• To promote all languages and cultures
• To foster international cooperation and understanding
• To encourage personal and professional development
• To uphold openness and transparency
• To support fair dealing and professional service

GDPR Compliance Statement:

Introduction:

The EU General Data Protection Regulation (“GDPR”) comes into force across the European Union on 25th May 2018 and brings with it the most significant changes to data protection law in two decades. Based on privacy by design and taking a risk-based approach, the GDPR has been designed to meet the requirements of the digital age.

The 21st Century brings with it broader use of technology, new definitions of what constitutes personal data, and a vast increase in cross-border processing. The new Regulation aims to standardise data protection laws and processing across the EU; affording individuals stronger, more consistent rights to access and control their personal information.

Our Commitment:

We are committed to ensuring the security and protection of the personal information that we process, and to provide a compliant and consistent approach to data protection. We have always had a robust and effective data protection program in place which complies with existing law and abides by the data protection principles. .

We are dedicated to safeguarding the personal information under our remit and in developing a data protection regime that is effective, fit for purpose and demonstrates an understanding of, and appreciation for the new Regulation. Our preparation and objectives for GDPR compliance have been summarised in this statement and include the development and implementation of new data protection roles, policies, procedures, controls and measures to ensure maximum and ongoing compliance.

Preparing for the GDPR:

We already have a consistent level of data protection and security across our organisation –

• Information Audit – carrying out a company-wide information audit to identify and assess what personal information we hold, where it comes from, how and why it is processed and if and to whom it is disclosed.

• Policies & Procedures – data protection policies and procedures to meet the requirements and standards of the GDPR and any relevant data protection laws, including:

• Data Protection – our main policy and procedure document for data protection has been overhauled to meet the standards and requirements of the GDPR. Accountability and governance measures are being put in place to ensure that we understand and adequately disseminate and evidence our obligations and responsibilities; with a dedicated focus on privacy by design and the rights of individuals.
• Data Retention & Erasure – we are updating our retention policy and schedule to ensure that we meet the ‘data minimisation’ and ‘storage limitation’ principles and that personal information is stored, archived and destroyed compliantly and ethically. We are putting procedures in place to meet the new ‘Right to Erasure’ obligation and are aware of when this and other data subject’s rights apply; along with any exemptions, response timeframes and notification responsibilities.
•  Data Breaches – our breach procedures ensure that we have safeguards and measures in place to identify, assess, investigate and report any personal data breach at the earliest possible time. Our procedures are robust and have been disseminated to all employees, making them aware of the reporting lines and steps to follow.
• International Data Transfers & Third-Party Disclosures – where we transfer personal information outside the EU, we have robust procedures and safeguarding measures in place to secure and maintain the integrity of the data.
• Subject Access Request (SAR) – we move to accommodate the revised 30-day timeframe for providing the requested information and for making this provision free of charge.

• Legal Basis for Processing – we are reviewing all processing activities to identify the legal basis for processing and ensuring that each basis is appropriate for the activity it relates to.

• Privacy Notice/Policy – we are revising our Privacy Notice(s) to comply with the GDPR, ensuring that all individuals whose personal information we process have been informed of why we need it, how it is used, what their rights are, who the information is disclosed to and what safeguarding measures are in place to protect their information.
• Obtaining Consent – we are revising our consent mechanisms for obtaining personal data, ensuring that individuals understand what they are providing, why and how we use it and giving clear, defined ways to consent to us processing their information. We have developed stringent processes for recording consent, making sure that we can evidence an affirmative opt-in, along with time and date records; and an easy to see and access way to withdraw consent at any time.
• Processor Agreements – where we use any third-party to process personal information on our behalf (i.e. Payroll, Recruitment, Hosting etc), we operate due diligence procedures for ensuring that they (as well as we), meet and understand their/our GDPR obligations.

Data Subject Rights

In addition to the policies and procedures mentioned above that ensure individuals can enforce their data protection rights, we provide easy to access information of an individual’s right to access any personal information that we processes about them and to request information about: –
• What personal data we hold about them
• The purposes of the processing
• The categories of personal data concerned
• The recipients to whom the personal data has/will be disclosed
• How long we intend to store your personal data for
• If we did not collect the data directly from them, information about the source
• The right to have incomplete or inaccurate data about them corrected or completed and the process for requesting this
• The right to request erasure of personal data (where applicable) or to restrict processing in accordance with data protection laws, as well as to object to any direct marketing from us and to be informed about any automated decision-making that we use
• The right to lodge a complaint or seek judicial remedy and who to contact in such instances

Information Security & Technical and Organisational Measures

We take the privacy and security of individuals and their personal information very seriously and take every reasonable measure and precaution to protect and secure the personal data that we process. We have robust information security policies and procedures in place to protect personal information from unauthorised access, alteration, disclosure or destruction.

GDPR Roles and Employees

Patrick Creed is designated Data Protection Officer.

ELE CONFERENCE 2018

Following on from our 30th Birthday conference in 2017 Bridge Mills Galway Language Centre held another ELE conference event on 19 May 2018 at the Harbour Hotel Galway sponsored by National Geographic Learning.

Speakers:

John Hughes – ELT Author – National Geographic Learning

Make critical thinking an everyday part of your teacher toolkit

Thom Kiddle – Director Nile Training Norwich U.K.

Professional Development Through Student Progress

Jo Watson – Eaquals Sponsored Speaker

Providing feedback and Correction techniques

• Ciara Ni Eochaidh – ELE Teacher- Reflective Teaching – Raising Awareness
• Mairead O Connor – Teacher Trainer – Dealing with awkward classroom situations
• Cathy Peck – Managing Director Zoogle Training – Using critical incident frameworks to respond to intercultural challenges in the classroom

30th Birthday Celebrations  2017

This free one day training event helped celebrate 30 years of teaching and training. Our event was a training workshop for teachers which linked to CPD development for in service teachers or those in training. The event was free for all to attend in Galway and included Lunch, coffee breaks etc. hosted at the Radisson Hotel in Galway. All talks were in plenary with feedback / self-reflection sessions following each talk.

Details:

Conference registration sponsored by Cambridge English Language Assessment

Speakers:

• Jo Gakonga – Teacher / Teacher Trainer -Cambridge English Language Assessment
• Tim Goodier – Head of Academic Development -Eurocentres
• Carole Robinson – Senior Trainer – Norwich Institute for Language Education
• TEDtalks (Bridge Mills)- 3 x 15 minutes sessions Julie Cuttance Teacher trainer, Gary Gallagher Videographer, John Doherty Teacher – Bridge Mills Galway Language Centre

Morning Coffee break sponsored by Study and Protect by O’Driscoll O’Neil www.odon.ie

Transport discount for bus tickets booked to our event sponsored by GoBus. Log onto on to www.gobus.ie .

Emergency Numbers: 00353 86 167 8503