Privacy Policy

Sterling Academy (thesterlingacademy.com) is based in East London, United Kingdom. We decide how and why the personal information described here is used, so we are responsible for it. Contact us about privacy at info@thesterlingacademy.com.

We only collect what we need to teach your child and run your account:

• Enrollment form: your name, email and phone number; your child's name, age, school year and school; the subjects and times you're interested in; any message you add; and when you agreed to our terms.
• Contact form: your name, email, phone number if you give it, and your message.
• Your portal account: your name, email, phone number and role. Your password is handled by our sign-in provider and stored in a form we can't read.
• Your child's learning records: classes and schedules, attendance, progress updates, teacher notes, teaching plans, and files our teachers share.
• Fees: billing periods, amounts, discounts, payment status and, when you pay us, a screenshot of the payment that we keep as a record.
• Reviews you choose to share: your first name and initial, a line about who you are, what you wrote, a picture or video if you send one, and when and how you said we could show it.

We use this information to:

• reply to your enquiry and arrange your free demo class;
• match your child with a teacher and schedule classes;
• teach, record attendance and progress, and keep you informed through the parent portal;
• manage fees and payments;
• show a review on our website, but only one you have agreed to share; and
• keep the service secure and prevent spam and misuse.

The law requires us to have a reason for using your information. Ours are:

• To perform our agreement with you: setting up your account, teaching your child and managing fees, including the steps you ask for before you enroll, such as booking the free demo.
• Our legitimate interests: replying to enquiries, keeping the service secure, and preventing spam and misuse. We use your information this way only where it doesn't override your rights.
• Legal obligations: keeping financial records for tax.
• Your consent, where we ask for it, for example before recording a session or showing your review on our website. You can withdraw it at any time, and we will take your review down.

We collect information about children from their parent or guardian, and we don't knowingly collect it directly from children. Children don't have their own accounts. Only the people listed in the next section can see a child's records. Reviews on our website show a parent's first name and initial, never a child's name or picture.

• You: your own children's records, in the parent portal.
• Teachers: only the records of students they teach.
• Our administrators: all records, to run the academy.
• Anyone who visits our website: only a review you agreed to share, shown with your first name and initial.
• We don't sell your information or use it for advertising.

We use trusted providers to run the service. They process information only on our instructions:

• Supabase: database, sign-in and file storage (hosted in the EU, Ireland).
• Vercel: hosting for this website.
• Railway: hosting for our application server.
• Cloudflare Turnstile: the spam check on our contact form, which receives technical details such as your IP address and browser.
• Some of these providers may handle information outside the UK, including in the United States. Where they do, we make sure appropriate safeguards are in place, such as approved international transfer terms. Our team and teachers may also reach records from outside the UK; access stays limited by role and connections stay encrypted.

We use only the cookies needed to keep you signed in to the portal. We don't use advertising or analytics cookies.

We keep information only as long as we need it, and then delete it or make it anonymous:

• Enquiries and enrollment requests that don't lead to lessons: up to 12 months.
• Your account and your child's learning records: while your child is enrolled, and for 12 months afterwards in case you return or have a question.
• Fee and payment records: 6 years, because tax rules require us to keep them.
• A review you agreed to share: until you ask us to take it down, and the record of your permission for as long as the review is shown.

You can ask us for a copy of your information, to correct it, or to delete it, and you can object to or ask us to limit how we use it. Email us to make a request, and we'll reply within one month. Depending on where you live, you may have additional rights, and we'll help you use them.

If you're unhappy with how we've handled your information, please tell us first. You can also complain to the UK Information Commissioner's Office (ico.org.uk).

Access to records is limited by role, connections are encrypted, and files are stored privately and shared only through short-lived links.

The date at the top of this page shows when this policy last changed. We'll tell you about important changes.

For privacy questions or to make a request, email info@thesterlingacademy.com or call +44 7898 114515. For help with your parent portal account, email support@thesterlingacademy.com.