Privacy Notice & Cookies Policy

Big Fish Tutors is an educational tutoring service operating across four centres in London. We are the data controller responsible for your personal information.

Our centres are located at:

• Harrow: 32 Kenton Park Parade, Kenton Road, Harrow, Middlesex, HA3 8DN
• Edgware: 45 South Parade, Mollison Way, Edgware, Middlesex, HA8 5QL
• Wembley: 144 Ealing Road, First Floor, Wembley, Middlesex, HA0 4PY
• Pinner: 108 Marsh Road, Pinner, Middlesex, HA5 5NA

If you have any questions about this Privacy Notice or how we handle your personal data, please contact us at 07307629498 or visit our Contact page.

We collect and process the following categories of personal information:

Information you provide directly

• Parent or guardian name, telephone number and email address
• Child's name, date of birth, year group and school
• Academic information including current attainment levels and learning goals
• Any special educational needs, medical conditions or other information relevant to your child's tuition
• Payment and billing information
• Enquiry and correspondence records

Information we collect automatically

• Website usage data including pages visited, time spent on site and referring URLs
• Device and browser information
• IP address and approximate location data
• Cookie data (see our Cookies Policy below)

Information from third parties

• Referrals from existing students or parents
• Information from schools or educational professionals where you have given consent

We use the personal information we collect for the following purposes:

• Providing tuition services: To enrol your child, assign an appropriate tutor, plan lessons and track academic progress
• Communication: To send weekly parent feedback reports, term date reminders, invoices and important service updates
• Administration: To manage your account, process payments and maintain accurate records
• Safeguarding: To fulfil our duty of care obligations and maintain a safe learning environment for all children
• Improving our service: To analyse how our services are used and make improvements to our teaching methods and centres
• Marketing: With your consent, to send you information about new services, events or promotions that may be of interest
• Legal compliance: To comply with our legal and regulatory obligations

Under the UK General Data Protection Regulation (UK GDPR), we rely on the following legal bases to process your personal data:

• Contract performance: Processing necessary to deliver the tuition services you have enrolled in
• Legitimate interests: Processing for the purposes of running and improving our business, provided this does not override your rights and interests
• Legal obligation: Processing required to comply with applicable laws and regulations, including safeguarding duties
• Consent: Where you have given us explicit consent, for example to receive marketing communications. You may withdraw consent at any time by contacting us
• Vital interests: In exceptional circumstances, to protect the vital interests of a child in our care

Where we process special category data (such as information about a child's health or special educational needs), we do so on the basis of explicit consent or to protect vital interests.

We do not sell your personal data to third parties. We may share your information in the following limited circumstances:

• Tutors and staff: Our tutors and centre managers will have access to information relevant to your child's tuition
• Service providers: Trusted third-party providers who assist us in operating our business (such as payment processors, email platforms and cloud storage), who are contractually bound to protect your data
• Legal requirements: Where we are required to disclose information by law, court order or regulatory authority
• Safeguarding: Where we have a duty to share information with relevant authorities to protect the welfare of a child
• Business transfers: In the event of a merger, acquisition or sale of our business, your data may be transferred to the new owner under the same privacy protections

Any third parties with whom we share data are required to handle it in accordance with UK GDPR and our data processing agreements.

We retain personal data only for as long as necessary to fulfil the purposes for which it was collected, or as required by law. Our general retention periods are:

• Student and parent records: Retained for the duration of enrolment and for up to 7 years after the last date of tuition, in line with our legal and financial record-keeping obligations
• Financial and payment records: Retained for 7 years in accordance with HMRC requirements
• Enquiry records (non-enrolled): Retained for up to 12 months from the date of enquiry
• Marketing consent records: Retained until consent is withdrawn
• Website analytics data: Retained in aggregated, anonymised form

When data is no longer required, it is securely deleted or anonymised.

Under UK GDPR, you have the following rights in relation to your personal data:

• Right of access: You may request a copy of the personal data we hold about you or your child
• Right to rectification: You may ask us to correct any inaccurate or incomplete data
• Right to erasure: You may request that we delete your personal data in certain circumstances
• Right to restrict processing: You may ask us to limit how we use your data in certain circumstances
• Right to data portability: You may request a copy of your data in a structured, machine-readable format
• Right to object: You may object to processing based on legitimate interests or for direct marketing purposes
• Rights related to automated decision-making: We do not use automated decision-making or profiling that produces legal or similarly significant effects

To exercise any of these rights, please contact us using the details in the Contact Us section below. We will respond within one calendar month.

If you are not satisfied with how we handle your data, you have the right to lodge a complaint with the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) at ico.org.uk or by calling 0303 123 1113.

Our website uses cookies to improve your browsing experience and help us understand how visitors use our site. A cookie is a small text file placed on your device when you visit a website.

Types of cookies we use

• Strictly necessary cookies: Essential for the website to function correctly. These cannot be disabled
• Analytics cookies: Help us understand how visitors interact with our website by collecting anonymous usage data (e.g. pages visited, time on site). We use this information to improve our website
• Marketing cookies: Used to deliver relevant advertisements and track the effectiveness of our marketing campaigns. These are only set with your consent

Managing cookies

You can control and delete cookies through your browser settings. Please note that disabling certain cookies may affect the functionality of our website. For more information about managing cookies, visit aboutcookies.org.

We also use the Facebook Pixel to measure the effectiveness of our advertising. This may set cookies on your device. You can opt out of Facebook's use of cookies for advertising purposes via your Facebook Ad Settings.

We take the security of your personal data seriously and have implemented appropriate technical and organisational measures to protect it against unauthorised access, loss, destruction or alteration. These measures include:

• Secure, encrypted storage of digital records
• Access controls limiting data access to authorised staff only
• Regular staff training on data protection and safeguarding
• Secure disposal of physical records containing personal data
• Regular review of our security practices

In the event of a personal data breach that is likely to result in a risk to your rights and freedoms, we will notify the ICO within 72 hours and inform affected individuals without undue delay.

As a tutoring service for children, we take the privacy and safeguarding of minors extremely seriously. We collect information about children only with the explicit consent of a parent or guardian, and only to the extent necessary to provide our tuition services.

Children's personal data is treated with the highest level of care. We do not use children's data for marketing purposes, and we do not share it with third parties except as described in this notice or as required by our safeguarding obligations.

Parents and guardians may exercise data rights on behalf of their children by contacting us directly.

We may update this Privacy Notice and Cookies Policy from time to time to reflect changes in our practices, legal requirements or the services we offer. When we make significant changes, we will notify you by email or by posting a prominent notice on our website.

The date at the top of this page indicates when this policy was last reviewed. We encourage you to review this notice periodically.

Continued use of our services after any changes constitutes your acceptance of the updated policy.

If you have any questions, concerns or requests relating to this Privacy Notice or the way we handle your personal data, please contact us:

• By phone: 07307629498 (New Enquiries)
• By phone: 07495 901 511
• Online: Contact form
• In person: At any of our four centres in Harrow, Edgware, Wembley or Pinner

For staff data protection policies, please refer to the Data Protection Policies (Staff) documentation.