Privacy policy

Everything described here is looked after by Ella Plummer, trading as EM Coaching. She is the “data controller”, which means she decides what's collected and is responsible for keeping it safe.

Email

ellamaeacts@gmail.com

Postal address

Available on request by email.

If you have lessons with Ella, she writes down your first name, your age or school year, what you're working on and how your exams went - so she can plan good lessons and remember what you did last time.

It isn't shared with anyone else and it isn't used for adverts. You or your parent can ask to see it, or ask for it to be deleted, at any time.

Enquiries

Your name and email, an optional phone number and preferred way to be contacted, your child's first name, their age or school year and experience so far, the lessons you're interested in, what you're hoping for, times that suit, and how you heard about us.

Student records

Your name, email address and phone number; your child's name; the rate agreed for lessons; the date, time, length, subject and attendance of every lesson, and the link the lesson takes place on. Alongside that, Ella's own written notes: what your child is working towards, the lesson plan, how they're getting on, and any exam entries or results.

Reviews

Your name, a star rating and your review - plus your child's first name and an exam result, only if you choose to give them.

Invoices

The amount, the date and what it was for. Payment is by bank transfer directly to Ella - no card or bank details are ever taken, processed or stored by this website.

Needs you tell us about

A medical condition, learning need, neurodivergence or anxiety, where you choose to share it. Only what genuinely helps Ella teach well is written down, it's never passed on, and you can ask for it to be removed at any time.

Emails and messages

Anything you email, and Ella's replies, stay in her email account - this website doesn't store your messages.

Technical information

How you found the site, from your browser's referrer or a campaign link, so it's clear which channels bring enquiries. The site itself never stores your IP address; the website host keeps standard server logs briefly to keep things running and secure. Never sold, and never used for advertising.

The forms here are for parents and guardians aged 18 or over - information about a child under 16 should come from you rather than from them. Only your name and email address are required; everything else is optional, and leaving a field blank won't affect whether you get a reply.

Each use of your information needs a lawful basis under UK data protection law. These are the ones EM Coaching relies on.

Replying to your enquiry

Legitimate interests - you've asked about lessons - and steps towards agreeing them (contract).

Lessons and student records

The arrangement between Ella and you (contract), and keeping accurate teaching records (legitimate interests). The records exist to teach your child better, are kept to a minimum, and are never used for anything else.

Exam entries

Delivering the lessons you've asked for (contract).

Adapting lessons to a need

Your explicit consent, only where you've chosen to tell us and only for that purpose. You can withdraw it at any time.

Keeping children safe

Legal obligation, and safeguarding as a matter of substantial public interest under the Data Protection Act 2018.

Publishing a review

Your consent, given by submitting the review form. Nothing appears until Ella has read and approved it, and it can be removed whenever you ask.

Invoices and tax records

Legal obligation.

Running the website

Keeping it working and secure, and seeing where enquiries come from (legitimate interests).

Nothing is used for advertising or profiling, nothing is sold, and no decision about you or your child is made automatically - every enquiry, review and lesson plan is read and decided on by Ella herself.

Almost everything held concerns a child, so a few things are worth stating plainly.

• Only what's needed to teach well is collected - no date of birth, address, school name or photograph.
• It is never used for marketing, profiling or automated decisions, and never sold or shared for anyone else's purposes.
• Reviews show a child's first name only, and only if you included it. Surnames, ages, schools and photographs are never published.
• Lessons are 1:1 over Zoom and are never recorded - no video or audio of a lesson is saved.
• Parents and guardians can see, correct or delete their child's information at any time. A child old enough to understand the request (usually around 12 or 13) can ask themselves, and Ella will handle it sensitively.

Ella holds an enhanced DBS certificate and follows safer-working practice for online lessons with young people. Lessons are 1:1, with a parent or guardian free to join at any time.

If there's ever a concern that a child is at risk of harm, Ella may record it and share it with the people who can help - a parent or guardian, children's services, or the police. This is the one situation where information may be shared without asking you first, because telling you could sometimes put the child at greater risk.

Safeguarding records are kept outside this website, separately from ordinary lesson notes. They are seen only by Ella and anyone she is legally required to share them with, and are kept until the student turns 25.

Enquiries that don't become lessons

Deleted by hand once they've been dealt with, and automatically after 24 months if they haven't.

Student records

Throughout your child's lessons, and for 2 years afterwards - in case you come back or need a record of exam results. Then deleted.

Exam entries and results

Kept with the student record and deleted with it.

Emails and messages

Kept for 24 months after the last contact. They sit in Ella's email account, not on this website.

Invoices and financial records

6 years after the end of the relevant tax year, as HMRC requires.

Published reviews

For as long as they're on the site, and removed whenever you ask.

Safeguarding records

until the student turns 25

Server logs

Kept briefly by the website host, then discarded.

You don't have to wait for these periods to run out - ask, and information will be deleted sooner unless there's a legal reason to keep it. In practice there's one: once an invoice has been issued, that invoice - its number, date, amount and the name it was made out to - has to stay for HMRC's 6 years. Everything else about your child, including every lesson and every note, is deleted when you ask.

Your information is never sold and never shared for advertising. A small number of services process it on EM Coaching's behalf, under contract and never for their own purposes.

Neon

Hosts the database that enquiries, student records and reviews are stored in (London, UK).

Vercel

Hosts this website, handles the traffic to it, and stores the photograph on the homepage.

Resend

Sends the emails this site generates - enquiry notifications, auto-replies and invoices.

Google (Gmail)

Holds Ella's email account, so any email you send her and her replies sit there.

Zoom

Provides the video calls lessons take place on. Lessons are not recorded.

Beyond that it is shared in only two situations: with an exam board (such as LAMDA or MN Awards) when your child is entered for an exam, which needs their name and the grade - you'll always know, because you'll have asked for the entry - and with the authorities where the law requires it or a child needs protecting, as described above.

Information is stored in the UK region wherever possible. Some of the services above are based outside the UK, so information may be transferred abroad; where that happens the transfer is covered by the safeguards UK law requires - a UK adequacy decision, or the International Data Transfer Agreement or Addendum built into those providers' terms.

The site is served over an encrypted connection (HTTPS). The database and the admin area where student records are viewed are password-protected, and Ella is the only person with access. Devices used to reach those records are password-protected and kept up to date.

The database keeps automatic backups so nothing is lost to an accident, which means information you've asked to have deleted can survive in a backup for a short while before it is overwritten. It isn't used for anything in the meantime.

No system is perfectly secure. If there's ever a breach that puts your information at risk, it will be reported to the Information Commissioner's Office within 72 hours where the law requires, and you'll be told directly if there's a high risk to you or your child.

There's no mailing list and no marketing email. The only emails you'll get are a reply to your enquiry, an automatic acknowledgement when you submit the form, and messages about your child's lessons. If you'd rather not be contacted at all, say so and you won't be.

At any time, and free of charge, you can ask to:

• see the information held about you or your child
• have it corrected if something's wrong or out of date
• have it deleted
• have it restricted - kept but not used - while something is sorted out
• object to it being used on the basis of legitimate interests
• get a copy of what you provided, in a portable format
• withdraw consent you've given, such as for a published review or a health or learning need, without affecting anything done beforehand

Email ellamaeacts@gmail.com. Requests are handled by Ella personally and answered within one month; if one is complicated and needs longer, you'll be told why within that month. She may ask a question or two to check who you are before releasing information about a child.

If something about the way your information has been handled bothers you, please email ellamaeacts@gmail.com first - most things are quickest to fix directly. You can also complain to the Information Commissioner's Office, the UK's data protection regulator, at any time.

Information Commissioner's Office, Wycliffe House, Water Lane, Wilmslow, Cheshire SK9 5AF
Helpline: 0303 123 1113
ico.org.uk/make-a-complaint

If what's collected or how it's used changes, this page and the date at the top change with it. Anything significant that affects information already held is emailed directly to families with current lessons.