Privacy Policy

1. Who we are

The Glasgow School of Music is a private music school providing one-to-one music tuition, online lessons, group learning opportunities, student support and related educational services.

For the purposes of data protection law, The Glasgow School of Music is the data controller for the personal information described in this policy.

• Organisation: The Glasgow School of Music
• Company number: SC627435
• VAT number: 492185959
• School address: 542 Scotland Street West, Kinning Park, Glasgow, G41 1BZ
• Email: info@theglasgowschoolofmusic.co.uk
• Telephone: 07922 546713

If you have any questions about this Privacy Policy or how we handle personal information, please contact us using the details above.

2. Personal information we collect

The information we collect depends on how you interact with us. We may collect and use the following types of personal information.

Enquiries and trial lesson requests

• Parent, guardian, student or adult learner name
• Email address and telephone number
• Student age or age range
• Chosen subject or instrument
• Musical experience, goals and lesson preferences
• Availability and preferred lesson times
• Messages submitted through website forms or by email

Student and parent or guardian records

• Student name, age and lesson details
• Parent or guardian contact details where the student is under 18
• Lesson timetable, attendance, cancellations and planned absences
• Lesson notes, progress information and relevant educational details
• Invoice, payment and account records
• Communication history with administration or tutors where relevant to school management

Safeguarding, welfare and access information

Where necessary, we may collect limited information about safeguarding, welfare, access needs, medical considerations, disability, additional support needs or other relevant circumstances. We only collect this information where it is needed to support safe and appropriate tuition, student welfare, reasonable adjustments, safeguarding responsibilities or legal obligations.

Tutor, staff and applicant information

• Name, contact details and application information
• CV, qualifications, experience and references
• PVG, safer recruitment and right-to-work information where applicable
• Employment, payroll, attendance and administrative records
• Communication records relating to employment, teaching, safeguarding or school operations

Website and technical information

• Information submitted through contact forms, trial lesson forms or application forms
• Website usage information, where analytics tools are enabled
• Cookie preferences and consent choices
• Technical information such as browser type, device type, approximate location, IP address and pages visited, where collected by website tools or security systems

3. How we collect personal information

We may collect personal information when you:

• Submit an enquiry through our website
• Request or attend a trial lesson
• Register for lessons or create a student record
• Use our student administration systems
• Communicate with us by email, telephone, text message or in person
• Make payments or receive invoices
• Apply to work with us
• Use our website or accept optional website cookies

We may also receive information from parents, guardians, students, tutors, referees, professional advisers, payment providers, safeguarding bodies or school administration platforms where this is relevant to our services.

4. Why we use personal information

We use personal information for the following purposes:

• To respond to enquiries and trial lesson requests
• To match students with suitable tutors and lesson routes
• To provide music lessons and related educational services
• To manage timetables, attendance, absences, cancellations and make-up arrangements
• To issue invoices, process payments and manage student accounts
• To communicate with students, parents, guardians, tutors and staff
• To record student progress and support continuity of tuition
• To manage safeguarding, welfare and student safety responsibilities
• To recruit, employ and manage tutors and staff
• To maintain accurate administrative, financial and business records
• To improve our website, services, communications and user experience
• To comply with legal, tax, accounting, employment and safeguarding obligations
• To protect the rights, safety and legitimate interests of students, families, staff and the school

5. Our lawful bases for using personal information

Under UK data protection law, we must have a lawful basis for using personal information. Depending on the situation, we may rely on one or more of the following lawful bases.

Contract

We use personal information where it is necessary to provide lessons, manage student accounts, process bookings, issue invoices, administer lesson blocks and deliver agreed services.

Legitimate interests

We use personal information where it is necessary for the legitimate operation of our school, provided those interests are not overridden by the rights and freedoms of the person concerned. This may include responding to enquiries, managing lesson schedules, communicating with families, improving services, maintaining records and protecting the school from misuse or non-payment.

Legal obligation

We use personal information where required by law, including tax, accounting, employment, safeguarding, health and safety, regulatory or statutory record-keeping obligations.

Consent

We may rely on consent for certain optional uses of personal information, such as non-essential website cookies, optional marketing communications or specific permissions. Where we rely on consent, you can withdraw it at any time.

Vital interests

In rare situations, we may use personal information where necessary to protect someone’s life or immediate safety.

Special category information

Where we need to use information about health, disability, access needs, safeguarding, welfare or other sensitive matters, we will only do so where there is a valid lawful basis and an additional condition under data protection law. This may include explicit consent, safeguarding, legal obligations, vital interests, employment obligations or substantial public interest where applicable.

6. Children and young people

Many of our students are children or young people. We take additional care when handling information relating to students under 18.

Where a student is under 18, we will normally communicate with a parent or guardian about administration, payments, scheduling, safeguarding and lesson arrangements. We may also hold relevant student information needed to provide appropriate tuition and maintain safe school operations.

We ask parents and guardians to provide accurate information and to inform us of any relevant changes that may affect a student’s lessons, safety, access needs or welfare.

7. Student administration systems and third-party services

We may use trusted third-party systems to help operate the school. These may include student administration platforms, website hosting, email services, payment providers, analytics tools, security tools, form plugins and cloud-based business systems.

For example, we may use systems such as My Music Staff for student scheduling, invoices, attendance records, lesson notes and parent/student portal access.

Where we use third-party service providers, they are only permitted to use personal information for the purposes of providing services to us, unless they are acting as an independent controller for their own legal or service obligations.

8. Who we share personal information with

We do not sell personal information. We only share personal information where necessary, appropriate and lawful.

We may share information with:

• Students, parents or guardians where relevant to lessons and administration
• Tutors and staff involved in providing lessons or school support
• Student administration, scheduling and invoicing platforms
• Payment providers, accountants, bookkeepers and professional advisers
• Website, email, hosting, security and IT service providers
• PVG, recruitment, payroll or employment service providers where applicable
• Safeguarding, welfare, legal or regulatory bodies where required or appropriate
• Law enforcement, courts, regulators or public authorities where legally required

We will only share the information needed for the relevant purpose.

9. Marketing communications

We may send service-related communications about lessons, invoices, schedules, policy updates, planned absences, school operations, safety information or student administration. These are not marketing messages and are necessary for the operation of our services.

We may send marketing or promotional communications only where we have a lawful basis to do so. This may include consent or another permitted basis under applicable law. You can opt out of marketing communications at any time by contacting us.

We will not use children’s personal information for direct marketing without appropriate safeguards and permissions.

10. How long we keep personal information

We keep personal information only for as long as necessary for the purposes described in this policy, including legal, accounting, tax, safeguarding, educational, contractual and operational requirements.

Typical retention periods may include:

• General enquiries: normally up to 24 months unless the enquiry becomes an active student, staff or business record
• Student records: for the duration of tuition and for a reasonable period afterwards to manage administration, safeguarding, complaints, financial records and continuity
• Invoices and payment records: normally at least 6 years for accounting and tax purposes
• Safeguarding records: retained for as long as necessary in line with safeguarding responsibilities and the seriousness of the matter
• Employment and tutor records: retained in line with employment, tax, payroll, safeguarding and recruitment requirements
• Website analytics and cookie data: retained according to the relevant tool settings and consent preferences

We may keep limited records for longer where required to establish, exercise or defend legal claims, comply with legal obligations, handle complaints or protect the safety of students, families, staff or the school.

11. How we protect personal information

We take reasonable technical and organisational steps to protect personal information from unauthorised access, loss, misuse, alteration or disclosure.

These measures may include:

• Limiting access to personal information to staff and tutors who need it
• Using password-protected systems and secure account access where available
• Maintaining appropriate administrative controls
• Using trusted third-party platforms for school administration, hosting and communication
• Keeping safeguarding and welfare information restricted to appropriate personnel
• Reviewing records and deleting or archiving information where it is no longer needed

No system can be guaranteed completely secure, but we aim to handle personal information responsibly and proportionately.

12. International transfers

Some of the systems we use may store or process information outside the United Kingdom. Where this happens, we expect appropriate safeguards to be in place, such as adequacy regulations, contractual protections or other lawful transfer mechanisms.

13. Your data protection rights

Depending on the circumstances, you may have the following rights in relation to your personal information:

• The right to be informed about how your information is used
• The right to access your personal information
• The right to have inaccurate information corrected
• The right to request deletion of your information
• The right to restrict certain processing
• The right to object to certain processing
• The right to data portability in certain circumstances
• The right to withdraw consent where we rely on consent
• The right to complain to the Information Commissioner’s Office

These rights are not absolute and may depend on the lawful basis, the type of information and any legal or safeguarding obligations that apply.

To exercise your rights, please contact us at info@theglasgowschoolofmusic.co.uk.

14. Complaints

If you are concerned about how we handle personal information, please contact us first so that we can try to resolve the issue.

You also have the right to complain to the Information Commissioner’s Office, the UK regulator for data protection.

15. Cookies and website tracking

Our website may use cookies and similar technologies to make the site work, improve performance, understand website usage and support embedded services.

For more information, please read our Cookie Policy.

16. Changes to this Privacy Policy

We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time to reflect changes in our services, website, systems, legal obligations or school operations.

The latest version will be published on this page with the updated date shown above.