Legal
Privacy Policy
How Kensington English collects, uses and protects your personal data.
This Privacy Policy explains how Kensington English Limited ("we", "us") collects and uses personal data when you use our Site and Services. We comply with UK data protection law, including the UK GDPR and the Data Protection Act 2018.
1. Personal data we collect
- Identity & contact data: name, date of birth, email, phone/WhatsApp
- Enrolment data: programme/level, attendance, assessments, certificates, webinar
- Payment data: payment method, amounts, refunds (card data handled by our processors)
- Technical data: IP address, device, browser, analytics/cookie data
- Practice test data: your answers, scores and bands from our free tests; for the optional AI marking (adults only), your IELTS Speaking recordings or Writing answers
- Marketing preferences
- Partner/consultant data: where an Partner or consultant refers or manages your booking, we receive relevant contact/enrolment data from them
2. How we use personal data
- Provide Services and manage your enrolment (contract)
- Customer support, complaints, and safety (contract; legitimate interests)
- Identity verification, fraud prevention, legal compliance (legal obligation; legitimate interests)
- Service analytics and improvement (legitimate interests)
- Marketing communications (consent where required; you can withdraw any time)
- Free practice tests (our level test and IELTS practice tests): to show and email you your result (legitimate interests: you asked for it), and to email you information about our courses unless you opt out (legitimate interests and the "soft opt-in" rule for electronic marketing; you can opt out with the link under the form or use the unsubscribe link in every email). If you give us your phone number on an IELTS practice test, our IELTS team may call or WhatsApp you about your result and our IELTS courses, unless you opted out (legitimate interests; tell us at any time and we will stop)
- Optional AI marking of your IELTS Speaking or Writing practice test: only if you tick the box and confirm you are 18 or over, your recordings or written answers are sent to an AI service to produce an indicative band (consent; you can simply leave the box unticked)
- Checking your phone number: on an IELTS practice test we may send a one-time code to your WhatsApp to confirm the number is yours (legitimate interests: making sure we, or an adviser you ask for, can reach you; you can get your result by email instead)
- Follow-up from a partner adviser: if you take an IELTS practice test, one of our partner education agencies (in your country where possible) may contact you on our behalf with advice about your result and our IELTS courses. For this we share your name, email, phone number, country, test results and the answers you gave about your exam plans. The agency acts for us under our data-sharing terms and may use your details only for this. We never pass on the details of anyone under 18 or of school pupils (legitimate interests: following up the test you asked for; you can refuse with the link under the form, the unsubscribe link in any email, or by emailing admin@kensingtonenglish.co.uk, and we will tell the partner to stop)
3. Sharing your data
We share data with trusted providers under contract, such as:
- Tutors and academic partners (delivery of classes, assessments)
- Video lessons and webinars: Zoom
- Payments and refunds: Stripe
- Hosting: Supabase (our database and student portal, stored in London, UK) and Hostinger (our website)
- Email delivery: Brevo (France, EU)
- Messages and class reminders on WhatsApp: Meta Platforms (WhatsApp Business)
- Spam and bot protection on our forms: Cloudflare (Turnstile)
- Partners/consultants (if you enrolled via them)
- Partner education agencies that follow up IELTS practice tests on our behalf (unless you refused). They may use your details only to help you with your IELTS plans and enrolment with Kensington English, must keep them secure, and must delete them if you do not enrol with us within 90 days
- AI service providers such as Google (Gemini), for the optional AI marking of Speaking practice recordings and Writing practice answers (only if you are 18 or over and tick the box). They process them on our behalf and do not use them to train their AI models.
- Analytics and advertising providers, only if you accept these cookies in our cookie banner: Google (Google Analytics) and Meta Platforms (the Meta Pixel for Facebook and Instagram ads).
We may disclose data to authorities or advisers where required by law or to establish/exercise legal claims.
4. International transfers
Our main database is in London. Some providers are based in, or may access data from, other countries: Brevo is in the EU, which the UK recognises as providing adequate protection; Google, Meta, Cloudflare, Zoom and Stripe are US companies. For transfers to the US we rely on the UK Extension to the EU–US Data Privacy Framework where the provider is certified, or on the UK International Data Transfer Addendum to the standard contractual clauses. Other transfers outside the UK use equivalent safeguards (adequacy regulations or the UK IDTA/Addendum). Our partner education agencies may be outside the UK: before we share anyone's details with an agency, it accepts our data-sharing terms, which include the UK International Data Transfer Addendum.
5. Retention
We keep personal data only as long as necessary: typically 6 years for transactional/contract records and 2 years after your last activity for learning records, unless a longer period is required by law or to resolve disputes. If you take a free test (our level test or an IELTS practice test) and do not enrol, we keep your details and results for 36 months after your last contact with us, then delete them. AI marking results (bands and feedback, which can quote short phrases from your answers) are kept with your test result and in the result email we send you. Speaking practice recordings and Writing practice answers sent for AI marking are deleted as soon as your band is ready (and in any case within 48 hours); the AI provider may keep technical logs for a limited period only to detect and prevent abuse.
6. Your rights
You have rights to access, rectify, erase, restrict, object, and data portability, and to withdraw consent where processing is based on consent. To exercise your rights, contact admin@kensingtonenglish.co.uk.
Complaints. If you are unhappy with how we use your personal data, please contact us first at admin@kensingtonenglish.co.uk. We will acknowledge your complaint within 30 days and tell you what we have done about it. If you are still not satisfied, you can complain to the Information Commissioner's Office (ico.org.uk).
7. Cookies & similar technologies
We use essential cookies for security and functionality. Analytics cookies (Google Analytics) and advertising cookies (Meta Pixel) are only used if you agree in our cookie banner, and you can change your choice at any time on our Cookie Policy page, which lists every cookie we use.
8. Children
Most of our Services are intended for users aged 16 and over. Our Global Explorers programme is offered to younger learners (typically ages 10–17). Where a student is under 18, we require a parent or legal carer to complete enrolment and provide consent, and we process the child's data on that basis.
We take proportionate steps to align with the ICO's Age Appropriate Design Code (Children's Code): we collect only the data we need, enrolled children use a student portal that carries no advertising or analytics tracking, parental consent is required, live lessons are not recorded, and we publish a plain-language privacy notice for children and young people. See also our Safeguarding page. If you believe a child's data has been provided to us without appropriate parental consent, contact admin@kensingtonenglish.co.uk and we will address it.
9. Security
We implement appropriate technical and organisational measures to protect personal data. No system is completely secure; please keep your login details confidential.
10. Updates to this Policy
We may update this Policy. The latest version is posted on the Site with the "Last updated" date. Contact us: admin@kensingtonenglish.co.uk.