ROTHWELL EDUCATION

Privacy Policy

Last updated: September 2026

Rothwell Education is committed to protecting the privacy and security of the personal information entrusted to us.

This Privacy Policy explains what personal information we collect, why we collect it, how it is used and protected, and the rights you have in relation to your information.

It applies when you visit the Rothwell Education website, make an enquiry, engage Rothwell Education for tuition or educational consultancy, register an interest in a course, or otherwise communicate with us.

1. Who we are

Rothwell Education provides private tuition, home education support, educational consultancy and small-group courses from Edinburgh and online.

For the purposes of UK data protection law, Michael Rothwell, trading as Rothwell Education, is the data controller responsible for the personal information covered by this policy.

If you have any questions about this policy or how your personal information is handled, please contact:

Rothwell Education
New Town, Edinburgh
Email: hello@rothwelleducation.co.uk

2. Information we collect

The information we collect depends on how you interact with Rothwell Education and the services you use.

Contact and enquiry information

When you contact us, we may collect information such as:

• your name;
• email address;
• telephone or WhatsApp number;
• location and time zone;
• your preferred method of communication; and
• the contents of your enquiry and subsequent correspondence.

Pupil information

Where you enquire about or engage us to provide educational services for a child or young person, we may collect information including:

• the pupil's name and age;
• school and school year;
• curriculum, examination board and qualifications;
• subjects being studied;
• current and target grades;
• academic strengths and areas requiring support;
• target schools where relevant;
• interests and learning preferences;
• lesson availability and timetable information;
• attendance, homework and progress information; and
• information reasonably necessary to plan and provide tuition, home education or educational consultancy.

Where relevant to the support a pupil requires, a parent or guardian may also choose to provide information concerning a pupil's health, disability, special educational needs or other personal circumstances. We only seek and use this information where it is relevant and necessary to the educational services being provided.

Educational records

During an ongoing tuition or home-education arrangement, we may maintain records such as:

• lesson notes;
• academic plans;
• homework records;
• progress reports;
• assessment results;
• examination plans;
• timetables; and
• relevant correspondence with parents, guardians and pupils.

Payment and administrative information

Where you become a client, we may process information required for invoicing, payments, accounting and record-keeping.

We do not intend to store complete payment-card details ourselves where payments are processed through a third-party payment provider.

Website information

When you use our website, certain technical information may be processed as part of the normal operation, delivery and security of the website. This may include information such as your IP address, browser and device type, and information contained in standard server or security logs.

3. How we collect information

We generally receive personal information directly from you, including when you:

• make an enquiry through the website;
• contact us by email, telephone or WhatsApp;
• arrange an introductory conversation;
• engage Rothwell Education for tuition or consultancy;
• provide information about a pupil;
• register an interest in a course;
• make a payment; or
• otherwise correspond with us.

We may also receive relevant information from a pupil's parent or guardian and, where appropriate and authorised, from a school, teacher or other person involved in the pupil's education.

Some technical information may be processed automatically when you use our website as part of its normal operation and security.

4. How we use your information

We may use personal information to:

• respond to enquiries;
• arrange introductory conversations and lessons;
• provide private tuition, home-education support, mentoring, courses and educational consultancy;
• understand a pupil's academic needs, circumstances and objectives;
• prepare lessons and educational plans;
• monitor and report on academic progress;
• communicate with parents, guardians and pupils;
• manage timetables, lesson changes and travel arrangements;
• provide school-entrance guidance and preparation;
• issue invoices and maintain financial records;
• administer and improve our services;
• operate, maintain and secure our website;
• deal with complaints or disputes;
• fulfil safeguarding responsibilities; and
• comply with legal, regulatory, tax and accounting obligations.

We will not use personal information for purposes that are incompatible with those for which it was collected unless permitted or required by law.

5. Our legal bases for using personal information

UK data protection law requires us to have a lawful basis for processing personal information.

Depending on the circumstances, we may rely on:

Contract — where processing is necessary to provide services you have requested or to take steps before entering into an agreement with you.

Legitimate interests — where processing is reasonably necessary to operate Rothwell Education, communicate with clients, administer and improve our services, maintain appropriate records or protect the business and its clients, provided those interests are not overridden by your rights.

Legal obligation — where we are required to process information to comply with the law.

Consent — where you have given us specific consent to process information for a particular purpose. Where we rely on consent, you may withdraw it at any time.

Vital interests — in exceptional circumstances where processing is necessary to protect someone's life or physical safety.

Where we process special-category personal data, such as relevant health or disability information, we will only do so where an additional lawful condition under data protection law applies. Depending on the circumstances, this may include explicit consent or another condition permitted by law.

6. Children's information

Much of Rothwell Education's work involves children and young people, and we recognise the particular importance of protecting their personal information.

We aim to collect only the information reasonably necessary to provide appropriate educational support.

Where services are arranged by a parent or guardian, we will generally communicate with and obtain relevant information from that parent or guardian. As pupils become older and more independent, we may also communicate directly with them where appropriate.

Information about a pupil will not be used for unrelated marketing purposes.

We will take particular care with sensitive information concerning a child's health, disability, educational needs or personal circumstances.

7. Who we share information with

Rothwell Education does not sell or rent personal information.

We use a limited number of trusted third-party service providers to operate our website and business. These currently include:

• Google Workspace, for business email, documents, cloud storage and related administrative services;
• Cloudflare, for website hosting, delivery, security and related infrastructure;
• Sanity, for website content management; and
• FormSubmit, for forwarding website enquiries to our business email inbox.

These providers may process personal information on our behalf where necessary to provide their services. We take reasonable steps to use reputable providers and appropriate data-protection arrangements.

Where relevant to a pupil's education, we may also share information with a school, teacher, educational professional or other third party where a parent or guardian has authorised us to do so, or where another lawful basis applies.

We may disclose information where required by law, for safeguarding purposes, to protect someone's vital interests, or for the establishment, exercise or defence of legal claims.

We do not share personal information with third parties for their own direct-marketing purposes.

8. International transfers

Some of our technology providers, including Google, Cloudflare and Sanity, operate internationally and may process or store personal information outside the United Kingdom.

Where personal information is transferred outside the UK, we take reasonable steps to ensure that an appropriate safeguard or other lawful mechanism recognised under UK data protection law applies.

Rothwell Education also works with families internationally. Where you are based outside the UK, information may necessarily be transmitted between your country and the UK in order to communicate with you and provide the services you have requested.

9. How long we keep information

Website enquiries are processed by FormSubmit, which retains a submission archive for 30 days. Enquiries delivered to our business inbox are retained in accordance with the purposes and considerations below.

We keep personal information only for as long as reasonably necessary for the purposes for which it was collected, including the provision of educational services and compliance with legal, tax, accounting and safeguarding requirements.

Retention periods may vary according to the type of information and the circumstances in which it was collected.

When deciding how long information should be retained, we consider:

• why the information is held;
• whether it remains necessary to provide or document our services;
• its nature and sensitivity;
• any legal or regulatory requirements;
• safeguarding considerations; and
• the potential need to establish or defend legal claims.

Information that is no longer required will be securely deleted or anonymised where appropriate.

10. How we protect information

We take reasonable technical and organisational measures to protect personal information against accidental loss, misuse, unauthorised access, alteration or disclosure.

These measures may include:

• strong, unique passwords;
• multi-factor authentication;
• access controls;
• secure cloud services;
• encrypted connections;
• keeping devices and software appropriately secured; and
• limiting access to pupil information to those who genuinely need it.

Particular care is taken with information relating to children and with sensitive information.

No internet or electronic storage system can be guaranteed to be completely secure, but we take proportionate steps to reduce these risks.

If a personal-data breach occurs, we will assess it promptly and notify affected individuals and the Information Commissioner's Office where required by law.

11. Cookies

Our website may use cookies or similar technologies that are necessary for its operation, security or functionality.

A cookie is a small piece of information stored on your device when you visit a website.

We do not currently use cookies for advertising or behavioural marketing purposes.

If we introduce analytics, advertising or other non-essential cookies in future, we will update this Privacy Policy and, where required, obtain consent before those technologies are used.

You can control and delete cookies through your browser settings.

12. Third-party websites and services

Our website may contain links to third-party websites or services, including services such as WhatsApp.

Following one of these links may allow the relevant third party to process information about you according to its own privacy policy.

Rothwell Education is not responsible for the privacy practices of third-party websites and services. We recommend reviewing their privacy information where appropriate.

13. Your data protection rights

Depending on the circumstances, UK data protection law gives you rights including:

• Access — to ask for a copy of personal information we hold about you;
• Rectification — to ask us to correct inaccurate or incomplete information;
• Erasure — to ask us to delete personal information in certain circumstances;
• Restriction — to ask us to restrict how information is processed in certain circumstances;
• Objection — to object to certain uses of your information;
• Data portability — to receive certain information in a structured, commonly used and machine-readable format;
• Withdrawal of consent — where we rely on consent, to withdraw that consent at any time; and
• Complaint — to complain to the relevant data-protection regulator.

These rights are subject to certain legal conditions and exceptions.

To exercise your rights, please contact:

hello@rothwelleducation.co.uk

We may need to confirm your identity before responding to a request.

14. Complaints

If you have concerns about how Rothwell Education uses your personal information, please contact us first so that we can try to resolve the issue.

You also have the right to complain to the UK's data-protection regulator, the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO).

Information about raising a concern or making a complaint is available on the ICO's website.

15. Changes to this policy

We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time, including where our services, technology providers or legal obligations change.

The current version will be published on this page together with the date it was last updated.

16. Contact

For questions about this Privacy Policy, requests relating to your personal information or other privacy concerns, please contact:

Michael Rothwell
Rothwell Education
New Town, Edinburgh
hello@rothwelleducation.co.uk