Privacy Policy

Last updated: 4 October 2026

This is a plain-English description of what this system actually does with data, written by the people who built it — not a substitute for your school's own data protection review. If your school is deploying this, your Data Protection Officer should confirm this meets your obligations under UK GDPR and the Children's Code, since most people using this are under 18.

Who this is for

Student Helper is a GCSE revision tool used by a school, class by class, or bought directly by an individual student or teacher. Where a school is involved, it (via its teachers) is the data controller for pupil data entered here — this page describes how the system itself handles data, not who's legally responsible for it at your school.

Creating an account

Every student and teacher needs a real account to use the app — this replaced an earlier anonymous, no-login design. Signing up asks for only an email address and a password (or "Continue with Google"/"Continue with Microsoft" for anyone with a school-issued account) — never a name, date of birth, or phone number. We chose real accounts over the old anonymous design so a student's progress isn't lost if they clear their browser, and so the free tier's limits can't be bypassed by simply starting over as a new anonymous visitor. Signup requires ticking a box confirming you've read this policy and the Terms first.

Your password is handled entirely by our authentication provider (Supabase Auth) — we never see or store it ourselves.
A teacher without a school roster integration can give pupils a short identification code instead of matching them by email — entering it at signup links a new account to the name the teacher already has for that pupil, alongside their real account.
Where a school's Google Classroom or Microsoft Teams roster is connected, a student signing in with that same school account is matched automatically by their school email address — no code needed.

What gets logged against your account

Answers typed or photographed, marks self-assessed or AI-marked, and which hints were used, against a specific exam question.
Flashcard review history, streaks, and any personal notes you write.
Your revision: the skills you saved to your revision notes, your revision plan (test date, time each day, tasks ticked off), which explanations you opened and at which level, and which of your answers were quick checks - with what you typed for the app's own practice questions, whether it was right, and whether it was homework or your daily 5. For "choose one" questions, which option you chose and the common mistake it suggests; how far you've climbed each step-by-step practice ladder; and your homework bookwork checks (which answer you said you wrote, and whether it matched).
In a live quiz: the name you joined with, whether each answer was right, and, for questions the app marks itself, what you typed. Classmates in the quiz see names and scores on the leaderboard; only your teacher sees what was typed, as totals of the wrong answers given (not who gave them).
Which suggested videos you opened, and your answer if you said whether one was helpful. Your answers on whether a video helped are only ever shown as class totals, never who said what.
Your teacher sees this for pupils in their own classes: your marks, your revision plan and notes, your quick-check results and homework scores (with bookwork checks passed), the common mistakes your answers suggest, how far you've climbed each practice ladder, and the explanations and videos you opened in the last 30 days. Teachers also see class totals, such as how many pupils watched a video or are behind on their plan.
If a parent/tutor code is generated: that code, and read-only access to the same data above — nothing else.
If you use a referral link (see below): who referred you (or who you referred), and whether a reward has been granted — nothing about either account beyond that relationship.

AI features

A small number of features send data to a third-party AI model (Anthropic's Claude) to generate a response, proxied through our own server so no API key ever reaches a browser:

Hints — the question text, mark scheme topic, hints already shown, and whatever you typed as your attempt.
Photo marking — a photo of handwritten working, marked against that question's mark scheme.
Suggested feedback (teachers only) — a student's submitted answer and marks awarded, used to draft feedback a teacher then reviews and edits before it's saved.

None of these send your name, email, or any other identifying information to Anthropic — just the question and your own input for that one request. Every other hint and mark scheme in the app is pre-generated once, at content-import time, and never involves sending anything about you to any AI model at all.

AI tokens

The three live AI features above are the only ones that draw down a separately-purchased balance of "AI tokens" — every other feature, on every subscription tier, works without them. Buying a token bundle is a one-time Stripe payment (see Terms); we record the transaction and the resulting balance, nothing more.

Anonymous usage data

The app also records a small number of things purely to catch bugs and see which features get used — which page an error happened on, or that a mock exam was started. This is deliberately anonymous: no account identifier, name, IP address, or any other identifying detail is ever included, and it can't be traced back to an individual.

How long data is kept

You can download or permanently delete everything logged against your account at any time, from within the app itself — no request or waiting required.
If an account shows no activity for 24 months, everything logged against it (answers, hints, streaks, notes) is automatically and permanently deleted, the same as using the "delete all my data" option above does immediately. Either way, the account record itself (just an email address and the date you agreed to this policy) is kept so sign-in keeps working — contact us using the details below if you'd like that removed too.
Failed login attempts (used only to rate-limit brute-force guessing) are kept 30 days.
A record of significant teacher/admin actions (accountability log — e.g. who created or archived a class) is kept 24 months.

Other services this relies on

Supabase — hosts the database and handles account login/authentication. All account and pupil data lives here.
Netlify — hosts the website and its server-side functions.
Anthropic — powers the AI hint, photo-marking, and suggested-feedback features (see above).
Stripe — processes subscription and AI token payments. We never see or store your card details.
Resend — sends email digests/reminders a teacher or student has opted into. Only an email address and school-relevant summary content pass through it.

None of these are used for advertising, and pupil data is never sold or shared with anyone outside of running the service itself.

Where your data is stored

The database, which holds all account and pupil data, is hosted by Supabase in the EU (Ireland). The website's server code runs on Netlify, and the AI features are provided by Anthropic. Both are US companies, so requests passing through the site's server, and the question and answer text sent for an AI hint or photo mark, may be processed in the United States.

The site loads no advertising, analytics or tracking scripts, and its fonts are served from this site rather than by a third party. When it shows video links, the app loads YouTube's small site icon once per visit to see whether YouTube is blocked on your network, so it can suggest a video that will play. Like visiting any website, that request shows YouTube your device's internet address; nothing else about you is sent.

Why we can use your data

Where a school arranged your access, the school decides the legal basis, usually its public task of educating its pupils. Where you signed up yourself, we use your data because it's needed to provide the service you asked for. Optional extras, such as email reminders or the class leaderboard, are only used if you switch them on.

Your rights

See and download everything logged against your account: Profile → Data → Download my data.
Delete it: Profile → Data → Delete my data. This is immediate and permanent.
Correct it, restrict or object to its use, or ask a question: ask your school if they set up your access, or contact us (below).
Complain to the Information Commissioner's Office if you're unhappy with how your data is handled: ico.org.uk, or phone 0303 123 1113.

School system integrations (Google Classroom, Microsoft, Wonde, Groupcall)

Where a school connects one of these, class rosters (pupil names, and email addresses where used for the automatic sign-in matching described above) are imported, to save a teacher typing them in by hand — the same information a teacher could already add manually. No other data is read from or written back to these systems, and a school can disconnect an integration at any time.

Questions

If your school arranged your access, contact them directly with questions about your data — they hold the relevant records and are best placed to action a request. If you signed up directly (not through a school), contact us using the details on the billing page for your account.