Last updated: 6 August 2026
1. Who we are
Quill Academy Ltd provides 11+ and GCSE tuition, educational assessments, pre-tests, events, school partnerships and related educational services.
Quill Academy Ltd is the data controller responsible for deciding how and why personal information is collected and used.
Quill Academy Ltd
Company number: 17328549
Registered office: 66 Paul Street, London, EC2A 4NA
Email: hello@quillacademy.co.uk
Telephone: 01422 756781
This policy applies to pupils, parents and carers, website visitors, newsletter subscribers, people making enquiries and representatives of schools or organisations working with us.
Data protection law requires organisations to explain why personal information is used, how long it is retained, who it may be shared with and what rights individuals have.
2. Personal information we collect
We only collect information that is relevant to the services we provide.
Parents and carers
We may collect:
Names, addresses and contact details
Emergency contact information
Communication preferences
Booking, payment and invoice information
Records of enquiries and correspondence
Complaints and feedback
Details of people authorised to collect or accompany a child
Pupils
We may collect:
Name and date of birth
School and year group
Educational background and support needs
Attendance records
Assessment results and academic progress
Homework, feedback and teaching records
Behavioural or pastoral information where relevant
Special educational needs or accessibility requirements
Relevant medical information, allergies and emergency instructions
Safeguarding and incident information
Photographs, recordings or testimonials where appropriate permission has been obtained
Website visitors and subscribers
We may collect:
Name and email address
Information submitted through our enquiry, registration or contact forms
Newsletter and marketing preferences
IP address, browser type and basic website activity
Cookie and privacy preferences
Information used to protect our website from spam, fraud or misuse
Schools and organisations
Where a school or organisation arranges services with us, we may receive relevant information about pupils, parents, staff members or safeguarding arrangements.
We ask schools and partner organisations to ensure that they are permitted to share information with us.
3. How we collect information
We may collect personal information:
Directly from parents, carers, pupils or school representatives
Through enquiry, registration, assessment and booking forms
Through our website and newsletter sign-up forms
During telephone calls, emails or face-to-face conversations
Through attendance registers, assessments and teaching records
From schools, venues, local authorities or safeguarding professionals where sharing is lawful and necessary
Through payment, communication, booking and learning platforms used to provide our services
4. Why we use personal information
We may use personal information to:
Respond to enquiries
Arrange assessments, pre-tests and introductory sessions
Register pupils and manage bookings
Deliver tuition and educational programmes
Plan lessons and provide appropriate support
Monitor attendance, progress and performance
Communicate with parents and carers
Process payments, invoices and refunds
Organise GCSE classes according to subject, year group and demand
Provide appropriate medical, accessibility or educational support
Safeguard pupils and respond to concerns
Manage incidents, complaints and feedback
Improve our teaching and services
Maintain the security of our website and systems
Meet legal, regulatory, insurance and accounting obligations
Send newsletters, educational resources, course announcements and relevant marketing where permitted
5. Our lawful bases
The lawful basis we rely on depends on why the information is being used.
Contract
We may process parent or carer information where this is necessary to:
Respond to a request before a booking is made
Register a pupil
Manage a booking or service agreement
Process payments and refunds
Deliver a service purchased by a parent or carer
Legitimate interests
We may process information where this is reasonably necessary to operate Quill Academy and provide effective educational services.
Our legitimate interests may include:
Delivering and improving tuition
Maintaining pupil records
Monitoring progress and attendance
Communicating with families
Organising classes
Protecting our business, staff and pupils
Preventing fraud or misuse
Maintaining secure systems
Establishing or defending legal claims
When relying on legitimate interests, we consider the effect on the individual and give particular weight to the rights and interests of children. Privacy information must identify the legitimate interests being pursued.
Legal obligation
We may process information where necessary to meet legal, financial, regulatory, safeguarding, employment or reporting obligations.
Consent
We may rely on consent for:
Newsletter subscriptions
Certain photographs, recordings and testimonials
Optional information
Some uses of medical or other sensitive information
Non-essential cookies and similar technologies
Consent can be withdrawn at any time. Withdrawal does not affect processing that took place before consent was withdrawn.
Vital interests
In a serious emergency, we may use or share information where this is necessary to protect someone’s life or physical safety.
6. Children’s information
Most of the pupil information we hold relates to children.
We take particular care when collecting, using and sharing children’s information. We aim to:
Collect only information that is genuinely needed
Explain its use clearly to parents, carers and pupils where appropriate
Keep it secure
Limit access to people who need it
Consider the child’s best interests when making decisions
Avoid using pupil information for inappropriate marketing
Current UK data protection law expressly requires organisations providing online services likely to be used by children to consider children’s needs when deciding how their information is used.
7. Medical, SEND and other sensitive information
Information about health, disability, ethnicity, religion and certain other matters may be classed as special-category information.
We only collect this information where it is relevant and necessary, for example to:
Protect a pupil’s health or safety
Manage allergies or medical conditions
Provide appropriate educational or accessibility support
Make reasonable adjustments
Respond to a safeguarding concern
Where special-category information is processed, we identify both an ordinary lawful basis and an appropriate additional condition. This may include explicit consent or processing necessary for safeguarding children and individuals at risk.
8. Safeguarding
Safeguarding information is handled carefully and is only available to people who need access to it.
We may share relevant information without consent where this is reasonably necessary to protect a child or another person, comply with the law or respond to a safeguarding concern.
Depending on the circumstances, information may be shared with:
A pupil’s school
The local authority
Children’s social care
The police
Health professionals
Safeguarding officers
The Local Authority Designated Officer
Ofsted or another relevant regulator
We will only share information that is relevant, necessary and proportionate to the concern.
9. Newsletters and marketing
Parents and carers may choose to receive Quill Academy communications containing:
Free 11+ advice and revision resources
Exam information and reminders
Course announcements
Pre-test dates
GCSE tuition information
Events and workshops
Occasional offers
We ordinarily rely on consent for newsletter subscriptions.
Where legally permitted, we may contact existing customers about similar Quill Academy services using the electronic-marketing soft opt-in. We will not rely on the soft opt-in merely because someone made a general enquiry or is a new contact. Every marketing email will provide a clear way to unsubscribe.
After someone unsubscribes, we may retain their email address on a suppression list so that they are not accidentally contacted again.
We do not knowingly send direct marketing to children.
10. Cookies and website technologies
Our website may use cookies and similar technologies to:
Provide essential website functions
Remember privacy choices
Protect forms from spam or misuse
Maintain website security
Understand how the website is used
Measure the effectiveness of our communications
Strictly necessary cookies and other technologies covered by a legal exception may operate without consent. Where consent is legally required for analytics, advertising or other non-essential technologies, they will not be activated until the visitor has made an appropriate choice.
Visitors must be given clear information about cookies and a meaningful choice where consent is required. Simply continuing to browse is not sufficient consent.
More information should be provided in our separate Cookie Policy.
11. Who we may share information with
We may share relevant personal information with:
Quill Academy teachers, tutors and authorised staff
Schools and education partners
Venues used to deliver our services
Payment and accounting providers
Website hosting and technical-support providers
Email and newsletter providers
Booking, communication and learning platforms
Assessment, examination and printing providers
Professional advisers, insurers and auditors
Safeguarding agencies and local authorities
Regulators, courts, police or legal authorities where required
Organisations processing information on our behalf must only use it for the agreed purpose and must protect it appropriately.
We do not sell personal information.
12. International transfers
Some technology, email, hosting, payment or cloud-service providers may process information outside the United Kingdom.
Where this happens, we will take reasonable steps to ensure that an appropriate legal safeguard is in place. This may include:
A UK adequacy regulation
The UK International Data Transfer Agreement
An approved UK addendum to standard contractual clauses
Another safeguard permitted by data protection law
13. How long we retain information
We do not keep personal information for longer than it is reasonably needed.
Our usual retention periods are:
General enquiries and inactive GCSE enquiries: normally 12 months after the last meaningful contact
Newsletter records: until the person unsubscribes or the information is no longer required
Suppression records: for as long as reasonably necessary to ensure an unsubscribed person is not contacted again
Pupil, parent, attendance and progress records: normally up to six years after the service ends
Medical and SEND information: reviewed when the service ends and deleted when it is no longer required, unless it forms part of a safeguarding, incident or legal record
Safeguarding and serious incident records: according to the nature of the concern and any applicable safeguarding, legal, regulatory or insurance requirements
Financial and accounting records: normally six years from the end of the financial year to which they relate
Photographs and recordings: until consent is withdrawn, the agreed use ends or they are no longer required
Website security information: according to the settings of the relevant system, normally no longer than 12 months unless required to investigate an incident
Complaints and legal claims: until the matter has been resolved and any relevant legal or insurance period has expired
The ICO requires organisations to establish suitable retention periods and avoid retaining identifiable personal information for longer than necessary. Limited companies must generally retain relevant accounting records for six years from the end of the financial year concerned.
Retention may be extended where information is needed for a safeguarding matter, complaint, regulatory investigation, legal claim, insurance requirement or other legal obligation.
14. Information security
We use reasonable technical and organisational measures to protect personal information.
These may include:
Password-protected systems
Restricted access
Secure cloud storage
Staff training
Confidentiality requirements
Secure disposal procedures
Appropriate agreements with service providers
Regular review of access and retention
No online system can be guaranteed to be completely secure, but we take proportionate steps to reduce the risk of loss, misuse or unauthorised access.
15. Your data-protection rights
Depending on the circumstances, individuals may have the right to:
Ask whether we hold their personal information
Receive a copy of their personal information
Correct inaccurate or incomplete information
Request deletion where applicable
Request restriction of processing
Object to certain uses of information
Receive certain information in a portable format
Withdraw consent
Object to direct marketing at any time
These rights are not absolute and may depend on the information, lawful basis and circumstances involved.
Children may exercise their own rights where they have sufficient understanding. A parent or carer may also make an appropriate request on behalf of a child.
Requests should be sent to:
Email: hello@quillacademy.co.uk
Telephone: 01422 756781
We may need to verify the requester’s identity or authority before releasing information. Data-protection rights requests must generally be answered without undue delay and within one month, although the period may be extended for complex requests.
16. Data-protection complaints
Anyone who believes that we have handled their personal information incorrectly can make a data-protection complaint by contacting:
Email: hello@quillacademy.co.uk
Postal address: Quill Academy Ltd, 66 Paul Street, London, EC2A 4NA
Please include:
Your name and contact details
A description of your concern
Relevant dates or correspondence
What you would like us to do
We will acknowledge a data-protection complaint within 30 days, investigate it appropriately, keep the complainant informed and communicate the outcome without undue delay.
Since 19 June 2026, organisations have been legally required to provide a clear way to make data-protection complaints and acknowledge them within 30 days.
17. Complaining to the ICO
We would appreciate the opportunity to address a concern first. However, individuals may also complain to the UK data-protection regulator:
Information Commissioner’s Office
Wycliffe House
Water Lane
Wilmslow
Cheshire
SK9 5AF
Telephone: 0303 123 1113
18. Automated decision-making
We do not currently make decisions about pupils or parents using solely automated processes that produce legal or similarly significant effects.
19. Changes to this policy
We may update this privacy policy when our services, systems or legal responsibilities change.