School Checks
Privacy policy
School Checks ("the App") helps families practise at home for the Year 1 phonics screening check and the Year 4 multiplication tables check. Children use it with a parent or carer. This policy is written for parents and carers. In short: there is no account, the App has no internet access, and nothing your child or you enter is ever sent to us or to anyone else. We do not collect any personal data from you or your child.
1. What the App keeps on the phone
A grown-up adds each child with a first name or nickname, a colour, a buddy picture chosen from the App's own set and the check they are getting ready for. We never ask for a child's surname, age, birthday, school, photo or email address. As your child practises, the App saves their practice results (answers, how long answers took, words marked as read or not yet, stars, which words and sounds have come up, and the days they practised) and their settings, such as letter spacing, sounds and times tables check options. It also remembers whether Pro is active.
2. Where it is kept, and who can see it
Everything is stored in the App's private storage on the phone. It is never sent to us or to anyone else. The App switches off Android cloud backup and device transfer for this data, so it is not copied to a Google account or to a new phone. Anyone who uses the phone can open the App and see each child's progress, so keep that in mind on a shared family phone.
3. How long it is kept, and how to delete it
Data stays on the phone until you delete it. In the Grown-ups area you can remove one child, or delete every child and all progress, at any time. Uninstalling the App deletes everything too. Because the data never reaches us, we cannot see, restore or delete it for you.
4. No internet, microphone, camera or location
The App does not have internet access and does not ask for the microphone, the camera, contacts, photos or location. Phonics words are marked by a grown-up listening, not by speech recognition, so your child's voice is never recorded.
5. Questions read aloud
If a grown-up turns on "Read questions aloud", the App asks the text to speech voice already installed on the phone to say each times tables question, such as "7 times 8". It chooses an offline voice where one is installed. Only the question is sent to the voice, never your child's name or results.
6. Printable sheets
Printable sheets are made on the phone. When you print or save one, Android's print screen sends it to the printer or place you choose. A sheet includes your child's first name only if you print it from their profile.
7. Purchases
School Checks Pro is sold through Google Play as a yearly plan or a one-time lifetime purchase. The purchase screen is behind the grown-ups check, and Google Play asks for its own confirmation before any payment. Google Play handles the payment and tells the App which plan is active, and the App keeps only that plan status on the phone. We never see card or payment details. You can cancel the yearly plan at any time in Google Play.
8. Links and email
The Grown-ups area has a link to this policy, a link to manage your plan in Google Play and an email link to contact us. These are behind the grown-ups check and open in your browser, the Play Store or your email app, which have their own privacy policies. If you email us, we receive only what you choose to send, and we use it only to reply.
9. Analytics, advertising and tracking
The App contains no analytics, crash reporting, advertising or tracking tools. It does not use the advertising ID or any other device identifier, and it does not build a profile of your child.
10. Children's privacy
The App is designed for children to use with a parent or carer, and everything in it is treated as if the user could be a child. Because nothing a child enters ever leaves the phone, we do not collect personal data from children. Settings, purchases, outside links and email sit behind a grown-ups check, a sum written out in words, which is meant to keep young children out of those areas. There is no chat, no sharing and no content from other users. We designed the App with the UK Age Appropriate Design Code (the Children's Code), the US Children's Online Privacy Protection Act and Google Play's Families policy in mind: high privacy by default, only a first name or nickname, no profiling, no location and no nudges to share more.
11. Changes
If this policy changes, the new version will be posted on this page with a new effective date.
12. Contact
Publisher: zarkon.co.uk (Richard Ross). Email: support@zarkon.co.uk