Privacy Policy

Introduction

Private Sixth Form Colleges ("we", "our", or "us") is committed to protecting your privacy. This Privacy Policy explains how we collect, use, disclose, and safeguard your information when you visit our website.

Please read this privacy policy carefully. If you do not agree with the terms of this privacy policy, please do not access the site.

Information We Collect

Enquiry Form Data

When you submit an enquiry form to request information from a college, we collect the personal information you provide, which may include:

• Your name
• Email address
• Phone number
• The college(s) you are interested in
• Any additional information you choose to provide in your message

This information is collected solely to facilitate your enquiry and is shared with the relevant college(s) so they can respond to your request.

Analytics Data (With Your Consent)

If you accept cookies via our cookie consent banner, we use Google Analytics to collect anonymous information about how visitors use our website. This includes:

• Pages visited and time spent on each page
• How you arrived at our website (e.g., search engine, direct link)
• General geographic location (country/region level only)
• Device type, browser, and operating system

We have configured Google Analytics with IP anonymisation enabled, which means your full IP address is never stored. This data is used solely to understand how visitors use our website so we can improve it.

If you decline cookies, no analytics data will be collected about your visit.

Advertising Data (With Your Consent)

Our blog posts and guides carry advertising served by Google AdSense. These pages are the only part of our website that show ads: our college listings, comparison tool, location pages and enquiry forms are advertising free.

If you accept cookies, Google and its partners may set cookies or use similar technologies to select and measure the ads you see. This may include using your previous visits to this and other websites to show ads relevant to you, and measuring whether an ad was viewed or clicked.

If you decline cookies, the Google AdSense script is never loaded and no advertising cookies are set. You can read how Google uses data from sites that use its services at policies.google.com/technologies/partner-sites.

How We Use Your Information

We use the information we collect for the following purposes:

• Enquiry forms: To forward your enquiry to the relevant college(s) so they can contact you with information about their programmes
• Analytics: To understand how visitors use our website and improve user experience (only if you have accepted cookies)
• Advertising: To show and measure ads on our blog and guides, which helps fund the free content on this website (only if you have accepted cookies)
• Legal compliance: To comply with applicable laws and regulations

Sharing Your Information

We share your information only in the following limited circumstances:

• Colleges: When you submit an enquiry form, your contact details and message are shared with the college(s) you selected so they can respond to your request.
• Google Analytics: If you accept cookies, anonymous usage data is processed by Google. Google's privacy policy can be found at policies.google.com/privacy.
• Google AdSense: If you accept cookies, Google and its advertising partners process data to serve and measure ads on our blog and guides. This is governed by the same Google privacy policy linked above.

We will never sell your personal information to third parties.

Cookies and Your Choices

When you first visit our website, you will see a cookie consent banner asking whether you accept or decline cookies.

If You Accept Cookies

We will set a cookie to remember your preference and load Google Analytics. Google Analytics uses cookies to collect anonymous data about how you use our website. We have enabled IP anonymisation, which means your full IP address is never collected or stored.

On our blog posts and guides we will also load Google AdSense, which sets advertising cookies to select and measure the ads you see.

If You Decline Cookies

We will set a cookie only to remember that you declined (so we don't show you the banner again). Neither Google Analytics nor Google AdSense will be loaded, no analytics data will be collected about your visit, and no advertising cookies will be set.

Cookies We Use

• cookie_consent - Remembers your cookie preference (accepted or declined). Expires after 1 year.
• _ga, _gid - Google Analytics cookies (only set if you accept cookies). Used to distinguish users and sessions. _ga expires after 2 years, _gid expires after 24 hours.
• Google advertising cookies - Set by Google AdSense on our blog and guides only, and only if you accept cookies. Used to select ads, limit how often you see the same ad, and measure ad performance. Expiry is set by Google and varies by cookie.

Changing Your Cookie Preferences

You can change your cookie preferences at any time by clearing your browser's cookies for this website. The next time you visit, you will see the cookie consent banner again and can make a different choice.

Data Security

We implement appropriate technical and organisational measures to protect your personal data against unauthorised access, alteration, disclosure, or destruction. However, no method of transmission over the Internet or electronic storage is 100% secure.

Your Rights

Under UK data protection law, you have the right to:

• Access the personal data we hold about you
• Request correction of inaccurate data
• Request deletion of your data
• Object to processing of your data
• Request restriction of processing
• Request data portability
• Withdraw consent at any time

To exercise any of these rights, please contact us using the details below.

Third-Party Links

Our website may contain links to third-party websites. We are not responsible for the privacy practices of these external sites. We encourage you to read their privacy policies.

Children's Privacy

Our website is not intended for children under 13 years of age. We do not knowingly collect personal information from children under 13.

Changes to This Policy

We may update this privacy policy from time to time. We will notify you of any changes by posting the new privacy policy on this page and updating the "Last updated" date.

Contact Us

If you have any questions about this Privacy Policy, please contact us.