Privacy Policy

Last updated: 28 September 2026 · Contact: hello@emblemforall.co.uk

Who we are

Emblem for All is Edd Chalkley, a sole trader trading as Emblem for All, contactable at hello@emblemforall.co.uk. Our data protection fee registration with the Information Commissioner's Office is in progress — application reference C2004208 — and this page will be updated with the final registration number once issued.

Two different roles, and why that matters

This policy covers two separate things, because UK GDPR treats them differently:

• Your school's own contact details — if you fill in the trial-request form on this website, or email us — where we are the data controller. We decide why that information is collected and how it's used.
• Children's work inside the Emblem app — where your school is the data controller and Emblem is the data processor. Your school decides to use Emblem and controls what goes into it; we process it only on your school's instructions, under a data processing agreement.

If you're a parent, carer or pupil with a question about information held about a specific child, that question should go to the school first, not to us — the school controls that data and can instruct us to act on it (including deleting it).

What we collect, and why

On this website (trial requests, contact)

What	Why	Lawful basis
School name, address/postcode	To identify your school and set up a trial	Legitimate interests — responding to a request you made
Your name and school email	To contact you about the trial and issue an access code	Legitimate interests / steps to enter a contract

This website does not use cookies for tracking or advertising, and does not load any analytics, third-party fonts or scripts. The trial-request form opens your own email app, so nothing is sent until you press send.

Inside the Emblem app (on behalf of your school)

Emblem is built to need as little personal data as possible. Specifically:

• No child's name is ever entered into or stored by Emblem. Each child is identified only by their class and a symbol — for example, "Class 3, ★" — printed on their book label, and nothing else. Emblem also never holds dates of birth, pupil numbers (UPNs) or photographs of pupils.
• The link between a symbol and a real child's name is held only by the school — for example, on a class list your SENCo or class teacher keeps separately. Emblem never receives or stores that link.
• Because a symbol can still be traced back to a named child by the school, everything linked to it is still personal data under UK GDPR, even without a name attached — this is called pseudonymisation, and it's a safeguard, not an exemption. We treat it accordingly.
• Where a child's needs relate to a barrier to learning (for example, a specific reading level or support need), or their home language is recorded so key words can be translated, this may be treated as special category data. Your school, as controller, is responsible for having an appropriate lawful basis for recording this (typically substantial public interest / education-related processing conditions under the Data Protection Act 2018, Schedule 1).

For each child (by symbol), Emblem may hold:

What	Why
Class, symbol, the barriers to learning selected, level of support, print preferences and home language	To adapt each lesson for that child
Work completed on a tablet or laptop, and the teacher's marking	So the child can do their work on screen and get feedback
Which supports each lesson used, and how the child did against the learning question	So the school can see which support is making a difference, and reduce support as the child becomes more independent
The child's own answer to "How did that feel?" and "What helped you?" after a sheet (optional)	So the child's views are part of planning their support
Short notes of parents' or carers' views, recorded by staff	So families' views are part of planning support
Which supports were added on a specialist's advice, the date and the type of specialist. The advice itself is never saved.	To show where classroom support came from
Words the child looks up with the word helper, with their symbol and the time	So staff can see what children are looking up, and follow up any word the helper refused
Check-in ratings against goals their teacher has set (only where a school uses this feature)	To support a child's daily check-in

Staff sign in with a single access code per school, so Emblem holds no staff accounts. Teachers can optionally add their initials to a class so marking shows who marked it. Staff devices keep a working copy of the school's class data in the browser, which is cleared when staff sign out.

How long we keep things

Data	Kept for
Class setup (symbols, needs, level of support), provision and outcome records, and saved lessons	365 days, refreshed automatically while the class is in use
Submitted and marked work	365 days (a full school year), refreshed automatically each time the class submits new work — so an actively-used class doesn't lose history mid-year, and work stays available through to a parents' evening
A day's assignment sheets	365 days, organised into termly folders in the app so a year of history stays easy to find
Laptop sign-in codes for pupils	365 days
Words looked up with the word helper	90 days
Problem reports sent by staff	90 days
Technical error logs	60 days
Lesson content sent to Anthropic to write a sheet	Deleted by Anthropic within 30 days
School licence and access code	For as long as the school's licence is active, or until the school asks us to delete it

A school can delete a class's or the whole school's data at any time from Emblem's settings — this is a built-in feature, not a manual request we action later, and deletion happens immediately. When a licence ends, we delete the school's data within 30 days, unless the school asks for a copy first.

Where data is stored, and what leaves the UK

Everything Emblem stores is held with Upstash, a database provider, in London, UK (AWS eu-west-2). The app runs on Vercel's servers in London.

To write and adapt worksheets, Emblem sends the lesson content to Anthropic (the maker of the Claude AI model), whose servers are in the United States. This is the one transfer outside the UK. What is sent is the lesson itself (the learning question, the task, any worksheet a teacher uploads), the kind of support to apply (for example "simplify the language"), the year group, and the name of the child's home language if key words need translating. For the pupil word helper, it is a single word. Anthropic never receives a child's name, symbol or work.

The transfer is protected by the UK International Data Transfer Addendum in Anthropic's data processing agreement. Anthropic does not use this content to train its AI models, and deletes it within 30 days (content flagged by its automated safety systems may be kept for up to 2 years). Because staff type and upload the lesson content, please don't include pupils' names in task text or in photos of worksheets.

Other services we use (sub-processors)

Service	What it does	Where
Upstash	Stores Emblem's data	London, UK
Vercel	Runs the app and website	London, UK (Vercel Inc. is a US company; its data processing agreement includes the UK International Data Transfer Addendum)
Anthropic	The Claude AI model, which writes and adapts worksheets, teacher answer keys and pre-teach slips, matches a specialist's advice to supports, and explains single words for pupils	United States (see above)

Each processes data only on our behalf, strictly to run the service, under a data processing agreement. We will give schools 30 days' notice before adding a new sub-processor.

Your school's rights

As the data controller for your pupils' data, your school can ask us at any time to:

• Delete some or all of a class's or the school's data
• Confirm what categories of data are held and where
• Provide a copy of the data we hold on the school's behalf

Contact hello@emblemforall.co.uk for any of these. We reply within 2 working days.

Security

• Each school signs in with a single access code, which we can revoke straight away if it's ever lost or a licence ends.
• Each pupil device has its own key that opens only that child's own work — never another child's work, and never a staff or admin screen. This is enforced by Emblem's servers, not just the app.
• Data in transit is encrypted (HTTPS) between your device, Emblem and its hosting providers. Access keys and secrets are held only on Emblem's servers.
• If Emblem's servers were ever set up incorrectly, they refuse every request rather than letting anyone in.
• Every AI-written worksheet is shown to the teacher first, and only reaches pupils when the teacher prints or assigns it.
• If we become aware of a personal data breach affecting a school's data, we will tell the school without undue delay, and within 48 hours.

How Emblem meets the DfE's generative AI product safety standards is set out in our AI safety statement.

Changes to this policy

If how Emblem handles data changes materially, this page will be updated and the date at the top will change. Schools with an active licence will be told directly of any change that affects them.

Complaints

If you have a concern about how personal data is handled, contact us first at hello@emblemforall.co.uk. You also have the right to complain to the Information Commissioner's Office at ico.org.uk.