Privacy Policy

Schoolmail is operated by Schoolmail Ltd, a company registered in England and Wales (company number 17412871). This policy explains what personal data we collect through the Schoolmail mobile app and the staff admin panel, why we collect it, and the rights you have over it.

If you have any questions about this policy or how your data is handled, contact us at support@schoolmailapp.co.uk.

If you're a parent using the mobile app: Schoolmail does not require an account or login. The school you select, your light or dark theme choice and any news posts you save are stored on your device only, so the app remembers them next time you open it. If you grant notification permission, your device receives a push notification token (via Firebase Cloud Messaging), used only to deliver news and alert notifications for the school you've selected.

Location. If you tap “Use my location” when choosing your school, the app asks your phone for its approximate location. This is used once, on your phone, to show which schools are nearest to you. It is not sent to us or to anyone else, and it is not stored. You can use the app without it by searching for your school by name or postcode.

Postcode search. If you search by postcode or area, the postcode you type is sent to postcodes.io, a free UK postcode lookup service, so the app can find it on the map. The result is saved on your device so the same postcode is only looked up once. No name or other detail is sent with it.

The map. The map in the school finder is provided by MapTiler and uses OpenStreetMap data. To draw it, your phone asks MapTiler for the map tiles of the area you are viewing, so MapTiler receives your device's IP address and the area shown. If you chose to use your location, that area can be near where you are. MapTiler does not receive your name or any account detail, because there are none.

Feedback. The app has two places to send feedback, and each says who will read it. Feedback for the school goes to the staff of the school you chose. Feedback about the app (an idea or a problem) goes to the Schoolmail team, not to your school, and is not linked to your school. In both, we collect the topic you choose, the message you write, a star rating if you give one, and a photo or screenshot if you attach one. With feedback about the app we also receive the version of the app and the version of Android or iOS on your phone, which helps us fix problems. We don't require your name or contact details, and we never receive your phone's model or any identifier. Photos are stored in Google Cloud Storage and can be seen only by the people the feedback was sent to. The app can only see the photo you choose; it cannot browse your photo library. Please don't include children's names or other personal details in your message or photo.

If you're school staff using the admin panel: we collect your email address and a securely hashed password to authenticate you, along with whatever content you create or upload through the panel (news posts, alerts, documents, calendar entries, and your school's profile details).

We do not run advertising, and we do not use any analytics or tracking tools beyond the infrastructure described below.

We use the data above only to operate the service: showing parents the right school's news and documents, helping them find their school, delivering push notifications they've opted into, letting staff manage their school's content, and responding to feedback or support requests. We do not sell personal data, and we do not share it with third parties for their own marketing purposes.

Schoolmail is built on Google Firebase (Cloud Firestore, Authentication, Cloud Storage, and Cloud Messaging), which stores and processes the data described above on our behalf. Google acts as our data processor for this infrastructure, under its own data processing terms.

The app also uses two small services, described above: postcodes.io, to find a postcode on the map, and MapTiler, to draw the map. Each receives only what it needs to do that job, including your device's IP address, as any internet service does when your phone contacts it. We don't use any other third-party services to process personal data.

Schoolmail is used by parents and school staff, not directly by children. The app does not create child profiles, and we do not knowingly collect personal data about children through the app itself. Content that staff choose to post (such as a photo or a child's name in a newsletter) is controlled entirely by the school, in line with their own safeguarding and consent policies – the same as it would be for a paper newsletter sent home.

Content created by school staff (news, alerts, documents, calendar entries) is kept for as long as the school's account is active, and is deleted if the school removes it or closes their account. Your school selection is removed from your device the moment you switch schools, and everything the app stores on your device (your theme, saved news posts and postcode lookups) is removed when you uninstall it. Feedback for a school, including any photo you attach, is kept only as long as needed to review and act on it. Feedback about the app is kept by the Schoolmail team only as long as needed to fix problems and improve the app.

Under UK GDPR, you have the right to access the personal data we hold about you, ask us to correct or delete it, restrict or object to how we use it, and request a copy in a portable format. To exercise any of these rights, email support@schoolmailapp.co.uk. You also have the right to complain to the UK Information Commissioner's Office (ico.org.uk) if you believe your data has been mishandled.

Access to school data is scoped so that each school can only see and manage its own content, enforced at the database level, not just in the app's interface. Staff authentication uses Firebase's industry-standard password hashing, and all data in transit is encrypted.

If we make material changes to this policy, we'll update the date at the top of this page. We encourage checking back periodically, particularly before providing any new information to us.

Questions about this policy or how your data is handled can be sent to support@schoolmailapp.co.uk.