This page explains how Stirling Tuition looks after your details. We have kept it as short and plain as we can. If anything is unclear, just email us and we will explain.
Part 1 covers this website, the free emails, booking a call with Sam and face-to-face tuition. Part 2 covers the parent portal (the online course), if you have a login.
Part 1: the website, the free emails, calls and tuition
The short version
- We ask for as little as we can: usually just your email address, and sometimes your first name and your child's first name and school year.
- We use it to send you what you asked for, to answer your questions and to run tuition.
- We never sell your details. We never publish children's names or results. Every email we send has a one-click unsubscribe.
Who we are
Stirling Tuition Ltd, a private limited company registered in Northern Ireland, company number NI648064.
- Registered office: 1b Balloo Way, Bangor, BT19 7QZ
- Registered with the Information Commissioner's Office, reference ZB196328
- Questions about your details: Sam Stirling, education@stirlingtuition.com
We are the data controller. In plain words: we decide what is kept and why, and we answer for it.
What we collect, and why
| When | What we keep | Why | Our lawful reason |
|---|---|---|---|
| You sign up for the free Daily SEAG or our emails (on a sign-up page, the P6 guide, or in answer to the question when you join our Facebook group) | Your email address; your first name if you give it; your child's school year and school if you give them; and which page or post you signed up from | To send you the Daily SEAG and the updates you asked for | Your consent. You can take it back at any time with the unsubscribe link |
| You book a free 15-minute call with Sam | Your name, email and phone number, and your child's first name and school year | To arrange the call, ring you, and know a little about your child before we talk | You asked us to: steps you ask us to take before any agreement |
| You send Sam a question (by email, message or a form on this site) | What you write, and how to reply to you | To answer you | Our legitimate interest in answering parents who get in touch |
| Your child comes to face-to-face tuition | Your name and contact details, your child's name and school year, what you have paid, and your invoices | To run the classes and keep proper accounts | Our contract with you; and the law, for tax records |
| You join the waiting list on our parents page | Your email address and what the form asks | To tell you when places open | Your consent |
| You visit this website | A count of visits and pages, with no cookies and nothing that identifies you | To see which pages help parents | Our legitimate interest in running a useful website |
Children
We collect information from parents, not from children. Where we hold a child's first name or school year, a parent gave it to us. We never publish a child's name or results, anywhere.
The results calculator at /results/ works entirely on your own device. The scores you type are never sent to us. It remembers the list of schools you chose, in your own browser, so it is there next time; clearing your browser's data for our site removes it. The "Help make this page better" button only opens your own email, if you choose to press it.
Marking answer sheets. When we mark answer sheets, a child is known only by a pupil number, never a name. The school keeps the list of names. Our marking server is in London. It deletes the scans, answers and marks as soon as the teacher downloads them, or after 2 hours at most, and keeps no backups. For our own pupils, the marked papers and scores are kept on Sam's computer for 12 months after the course ends.
Who else handles your details
We use a few companies to do this work for us. They may use your details only to do that work.
| Who | What for | Where |
|---|---|---|
| Mailchimp (Intuit) | Holds the email list and sends the Daily SEAG and our emails | United States. Mailchimp states that it complies with the EU-US Data Privacy Framework and its UK Extension (the UK-US "data bridge"). Mailchimp's page |
| Calendly | Takes your call booking | United States. Calendly states that UK details are covered by the Data Privacy Framework's UK Extension, with the standard contract clauses and the UK Addendum as a fall-back. Calendly's page |
| Our email inbox and the calendar for call bookings, and the waiting-list form on our parents page | United States and elsewhere. Google states that it complies with the EU-US Data Privacy Framework and its UK Extension, and uses standard contract clauses where those do not cover a transfer. Google's page | |
| Cloudflare | Delivers this website and counts visits without cookies | A US company with a worldwide network |
| Stripe | Takes card payments in our online course shop and for mock-test bookings. (Face-to-face classes are paid by bank transfer or cash, which do not go through Stripe.) | Ireland, with a US parent company |
| HostGator | Hosts this website. Like every web server, it keeps logs of visits (including internet addresses) for security | United States. HostGator is part of Newfold Digital, which states that UK details sent abroad are covered by the standard contract clauses or the UK's own equivalent contracts. Newfold's page Visitor logs are kept for up to 12 months. |
Facebook. Anything you post in our Facebook group or send through Facebook is also handled by Meta under its own privacy policy. We only copy your email address from Facebook if you write it in answer to the group's email question.
WhatsApp. If you message Sam on WhatsApp, your phone number and what you write are also handled by WhatsApp (part of Meta) under its own privacy policy. Sam uses them only to answer you and to help your child with their work. We never add you to a WhatsApp group, and we never use WhatsApp to send you marketing.
How long we keep it
- If you unsubscribe: we keep only your email address, on a "do not email" list, so you are never added again by mistake. Everything else is deleted within 30 days.
- If you haven't opened our emails for two years: we send you one email asking whether you still want them. If you don't reply, we take you off the list.
- Call bookings: deleted 12 months after the call, unless you go on to join us.
- Questions you send us: deleted 12 months after we answer, unless you go on to join us.
- Face-to-face tuition families: invoices and payment records are kept for six years, because company tax records must be. Everything else is deleted one year after your child leaves.
- If you ask us to delete your details, we do it within one month, apart from anything the law says we must keep. We will tell you what that is.
Your rights
You can ask us to:
- show you what we hold about you;
- correct anything that is wrong;
- delete it;
- stop using it, or object to how we use it;
- give you a copy to take elsewhere.
You can take back your consent to emails at any time, with the unsubscribe link at the bottom of every email.
Email us at the address above. We answer within one month, and usually much sooner. Asking is always free.
If you are not happy with how we have handled something, you can complain to the Information Commissioner's Office: ico.org.uk, 0303 123 1113. We would rather you told us first, so we can put it right.
Cookies
This website sets no advertising cookies and no tracking pixels. Our visit counts come from Cloudflare Web Analytics, which uses no cookies and does not identify you. When you book a call, you go to Calendly's own website, which has its own cookies and privacy notice.
Changes
If we change anything that matters, we will update this page and the date below. If it changes how we use details we already hold, we will email you first.
Part 1 was last updated on 30 October 2026.
Part 2: the parent portal
Privacy notice: the Stirling Tuition parent portal
This is how we look after your details and your child's. We have kept it as short and plain as we can. If anything is unclear, just email us and we will explain.
The short version
We ask for as little as we can. To use the parent portal we need your email address and your child's first name. We never ask for your child's surname, date of birth or school.
If you tick the box on the sign-up form, we also save the first answer your child picks on each Daily 10 question, because that is what builds their progress passport. If you don't tick it, nothing your child answers is saved and there is no passport. Everything else works the same.
We do not track you, and we do not advertise to anyone. We do not sell anything about you or your child, and we never will.
Who we are
Stirling Tuition Ltd, a private limited company registered in Northern Ireland, company number NI648064.
- Registered office: 1b Balloo Way, Bangor, BT19 7QZ, United Kingdom
- Email: education@stirlingtuition.com
- Registered with the Information Commissioner's Office, reference ZB196328
We are the data controller for everything described here. In plain words: we decide what is kept and why, and we answer for it.
What we keep about you
When you create a login
| What | Why |
|---|---|
| Your email address | It is your login, and it is where we send emails about your account and your payments |
| Your child's first name | So the portal can say whose lessons these are |
| Your password | Kept only as a scrambled "hash". We cannot read it, and neither can anyone who steals it |
When you subscribe
Payments are handled by Stripe. We never see, hold or store your card number. What comes back to us is Stripe's own reference for you, whether your subscription is active, unpaid or cancelled, and the dates those changed.
While you use the portal
- Which weeks you have ticked as done. That is your own record, kept for you. It is not a score.
- What your child has finished. When your child presses Finished on a Daily 10 day, presses Finish on the Friday Progress 10, or watches a part of a lesson to the end (or checks its have-a-go), we put a "✓ Done" beside it, so you can both see where you have got to. It records only that the thing was finished and when, never an answer or a score, so we keep it whether or not you ticked the box on the sign-up form. It is deleted with your account.
- Every email we send you: the address, the subject, the text, when it went and whether it bounced. We send you an email three days before every monthly payment, and we keep these so we can always show we did.
- Your passport choice: whether you ticked the box, when, and the exact words you were shown when you did.
Your child's answers
Only if you ticked the box on the sign-up form. The first time your child presses Check on a Daily 10 day, or presses Finish on the Friday Progress 10, we save, for each question:
- the letter they picked, or that they left it blank;
- whether that answer was right or wrong. We work that out ourselves on our own computer, not on the page your child uses;
- if it was wrong, the kind of mistake that answer usually points to. Every wrong option in our questions is written to catch one particular slip;
- the skill the question practises;
- how long the question took, and when it was finished.
If your child changes an answer after that first Check, it helps them learn, but it does not change what is saved.
What the passport shows you. The Friday Progress 10 is the score that counts. The practice days (Monday to Thursday) are shown beside it as practice, so you can see what your child has been working on. The two are never added together into one score.
What we never save:
- your child's name as they type it. The portal already knows whose login it is, so a typed name is thrown away before anything is saved;
- anything your child writes in words. Lessons and the extra practice pages save nothing at all;
- your child's surname, date of birth, school, photographs or handwriting;
- any comparison with other children. We do not rank children, and no other child is ever shown against yours.
Why we save it. So the passport can show you, week by week, which skills are secure, which need more work and which mistake keeps coming back, and point you to the right practice. Nothing else. We do not sell your child's answers, use them for advertising, or use them to train any computer system, and no outside AI tool ever reads them.
Who sees it. You and your child, when you are signed in. Sam Stirling, who runs Stirling Tuition, when he needs to keep the service working or answer a question from you. Nobody else. That includes your child's school, and other parents.
Where it is kept. In our database in London, run for us by DigitalOcean. On the way from the page to the database, the answers pass through Cloudflare's network, which DigitalOcean uses in front of our portal. Cloudflare carries them; it does not keep them.
What stays on your own device. While your child is working, the page keeps a copy of their answers in that browser, on that device, so a page that closes by accident can carry on where it stopped. That copy includes the first name on your login. It is not sent anywhere else. If the internet drops when your child finishes, the answers wait on the device, without the name, and are sent the next time they open the portal. Clearing your browser's data for our site removes it.
Changing your mind. Email education@stirlingtuition.com at any time to switch the passport on or off (there is a "Change your passport choice" link on your account page that starts the email for you). If you switch it off, we stop saving at once. Tell us whether to keep or delete what is already saved. We keep a dated note of your choice and of any change you ask for.
Why we are allowed to keep it
- To provide what you have paid for (contract): your login, the lessons, and the emails about your subscription.
- Your child's answers: our legitimate interest in helping your child prepare, by showing you what they find hard and what to practise next. We have weighed this against your child's interests, and we keep a written record of that. The tick on the sign-up form is your choice on top of that.
- Our other legitimate interests: keeping the service secure, preventing fraud, and keeping a record of what we told you and when, including that we warned you before every payment.
- Legal obligation: payment records have to be kept for tax.
Who else handles it
We share information only with the companies that make the service work.
| Who | What they handle | Where |
|---|---|---|
| DigitalOcean | Runs the portal and its database, including your child's saved answers | London, UK. DigitalOcean is a US company, and its staff in the US may reach the data to keep the service running |
| Cloudflare | Carries information between your browser and the portal, and stores the lesson files (which contain nothing about you) | A US company with a worldwide network; the lesson files are held in the European Union |
| Stripe | Takes payments and holds your card details | Ireland, with a US parent company |
| Postmark | Delivers our emails to you | United States |
Where any of this reaches the United States, it is covered by the UK-US "data bridge" (the UK Extension to the EU-US Data Privacy Framework), which these companies have signed up to, with the ICO's International Data Transfer Addendum in their contracts as a fall-back.
The free daily question is separate. If you also get the free Daily SEAG question by email, that list is kept by Mailchimp, not in the portal, and it has its own sign-up note. The portal itself never sends you marketing; it sends only emails about your account and your payments.
WhatsApp. If you message Sam on WhatsApp, your phone number and what you write are also handled by WhatsApp (part of Meta) under its own privacy policy. Sam uses them only to answer you and to help your child with their work. We never add you to a WhatsApp group, and we never use WhatsApp to send you marketing.
How long we keep it
- Your child's answers: while your subscription is running. When it ends, they are deleted 30 days later, so that a problem with a card or a change of mind does not wipe the passport. While we are retrying a failed payment, your subscription has not ended.
- Your account: for as long as you are with us. If you leave, we delete your account details two years after you go. If you signed up but never subscribed and have not used the account for two years, we delete it entirely.
- Payment records: six years, because HM Revenue & Customs requires it.
- The emails we sent you about payments: six years after your account closes, because they are how we can show we warned you before every payment. This is the one thing we cannot delete early, even if you ask, and we will tell you so.
- Backups: our database backups are kept for seven days, then overwritten.
Your rights
You can ask us to:
- show you what we hold about you and your child;
- correct anything that is wrong;
- delete it. You can ask us to delete just your child's answers and keep your account. We delete them without delay, always within one month, and email you to confirm. Copies in our backups are gone within seven days;
- give you a copy to take elsewhere.
You can object. Because we rely on our legitimate interests to save your child's answers, you can object at any time, by email or by telling Sam. We will stop.
Email education@stirlingtuition.com. We answer within one month, and usually much sooner. You will never be charged for asking, and asking will never affect your subscription.
If you are not happy with how we have handled something, you can complain to the Information Commissioner's Office: ico.org.uk, 0303 123 1113. We would rather you told us first, so we can put it right.
Cookies and tracking
No tracking. We use no analytics, no advertising pixels and no trackers of any kind. The only cookies are the two that let you log in safely: a session cookie and a security cookie. The pages your child works on also keep their place in your browser's own storage, as described above. That is not tracking, and it never leaves your device.
How we look after it
- Everything travels over an encrypted connection, always.
- Passwords are stored as one-way hashes; nobody can read them, including us.
- Your child's answers can only be sent from a signed-in page on our own site, and they are checked before they are saved. Anything we did not agree to receive, including a typed name, is refused or thrown away.
- Your child's answers are never written into the portal's working logs.
- Lesson downloads use links that expire after sixty seconds, so a link shared by accident is useless to a stranger.
- The database accepts connections only from the portal itself.
- Only Sam has administrative access.
Children's information
The information about your child in this system is their first name, the ✓ Done marks for what they have finished, and, if you ticked the box, the answers they pick. There is no surname, date of birth, school or photograph, so if our records were ever stolen, they could not be used to find your child.
The account belongs to you, the adult. Your child does not have their own login, and we never contact them.
What your child sees. On each Daily 10 page, and on the Progress 10, there is a short version for children:
What happens to my answers?
If your grown-up said yes when they signed up, the first time you press Check (or Finish, on Friday's Progress 10) we keep the letter you picked for each question, and whether it was right.
On Friday's Progress 10, that is your score for the week. On the practice days, your answers show what you've been practising, but they don't go into your score.
If you type your name, we don't keep it. We never keep anything you write in words.
Only you, your grown-up and Sam can see your answers. Not your school, and not anyone else.
Changes to this notice
If we change anything that matters, we will email you before it takes effect, just as we do before every payment.
This notice was last updated on 30 October 2026.