What's a cookie?

A "cookie" is a piece of information that is stored on your computer's hard drive if you agree to this and which records how you move your way around a website so that, when you revisit that website, it can present tailored options based on the information stored about your last visit. Cookies can also be used to understand how people use a website and for advertising and marketing purposes.

Cookies are used by nearly all websites and do not harm your system.

We are required to obtain your consent for all non-essential cookies used on our website. You can block cookies (including essential cookies) at any time by activating the setting on your browser that allows you to refuse the setting of all or some cookies. However, if you use your browser settings to block essential cookies you may not be able to access all or parts of our site.

How do we use cookies?

We use cookies to understand how our website is used, such as which pages are viewed and how people interact with them. This enables us to understand how visitors like you use the site and track any patterns with regards how people are using our website. This helps us to develop and improve our website (what information is most useful to families) as well as products and / or services in response to what people might need or want. In particular, this helps us inform schools what parents are searching for, in order that they can improve the information they provide.

Cookies are either:

- Session cookies: these are only stored on your computer during your web session and are automatically deleted when you close your browser – they usually store an anonymous session ID allowing you to browse a website without having to log in to each page but they do not collect any personal data from your computer; or

- Persistent cookies: a persistent cookie is stored as a file on your computer and it remains there when you close your web browser. The cookie can be read by the website that created it when you visit that website again. We use persistent cookies for analytics tools such as PostHog and Google Analytics to help us understand overall usage of the site and improve the experience for families and schools.

Cookies can also be categorised as follows:

- Strictly necessary cookies: These cookies are essential to enable you to use the website effectively, such as when buying a product and / or service. Without these cookies, the services available to you on our website cannot be provided. These cookies do not gather information about you that could be used for marketing or remembering where you have been on the internet.

- Performance cookies: These cookies enable us to monitor and improve the performance of our website. For example, they allow us to count visits, identify traffic sources and see which parts of the site are most popular.

- Functionality cookies: These cookies allow our website to remember choices you make and provide enhanced features. For instance, we may be able to provide you with news or updates relevant to the services you use. They may also be used to provide services you have requested such as viewing a video or commenting on a blog. The information these cookies collect is usually anonymised.

- Targeting cookies: These cookies help to ensure that the information shown to you on our website, and occasionally on other platforms, is relevant to your general areas of interest such as schools, open days, and locations.

- First and third party cookies: First party cookies are cookies set by our website. Third party cookies are cookies on our website that are set by a website other than our website, such as if we have adverts on our website or use Facebook pixels so that we can show you relevant content from us when you are on Facebook.

You can find more information about the individual cookies we use and the purposes for which we use them below:

The information collected by cookies is used in aggregated form and does not identify individual visitors .

Managing your cookie preferences

You can change or withdraw your cookie consent at any time by clicking the cookie settings icon at the bottom left of the screen. This allows you to update your choices or withdraw consent for non‑essential cookies.

You can also control your cookie settings for all websites through your web browser.

If you have any questions about the cookies that we use, feel free to email us at info@mytopschools.co.uk