This is the general privacy policy for Languages United.
Some of our courses, and agreements with providers, have specific privacy policies. They may ask for specific consent, including that of the parent when the student is under 18. Please ensure you read any additional information when applying.
About us
Students & Parents
Homestay Providers
Staff
ETOs (Education Travel Operator) & Schools
Website
Security Cameras
Updating your personal information
Changes to the privacy policy
Third party privacy policies
About us
At Languages United we collect different types of information for five main reasons:
- To ensure the welfare and safeguarding of our students.
- To enable us to treat each student individually and provide a more personalised service.
- To deliver our courses and services.
- To manage the business, employees, and partners.
- If we have permission from you, to keep you informed of new courses and news from the school.
The protection of your privacy and personal data is important to us.
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We will make sure that we have appropriate security measures in place.
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Sometimes we will work with an organisation or individuals to provide a course/service, and will need to provide personal data, e.g. to arrange accommodation. We make sure they understand their reponsibilities to ensure your privacy.
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We will make it clear, when we ask for your information, what we are collecting it for and how we are going to use it.
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We will collect and use your personal information only if we have your permission or have sensible business reasons for doing so. Your personal data will only be used for the purpose for which it was originally collected.
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We will minimise the amount of information we collect from you to what we need to deliver the course/service, and will delete your data after a reasonable period.
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We will ask for your consent to make sure you are happy for us to use your data for marketing purposes.
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If we, our service providers, or our commercial partners transfer any information out of the European Economic area (EEA), it will only be done with the relevant legal instruments or permissions being in place.
Students & Parents
What information do we collect about you and how do we use it?
During your application for a course, you provide us information regarding yourself and/or your child. You/your child will check this information on the Registration Form when you/they start their course.
We require your personal data to process your booking. You may also provide us with additional information to help us provide for any special requirements, such as dietary requirements, allergies, medical information.
We may ask for specific documents from you, e.g. passport. We will keep an electronic copy these for our records.
We use this data to arrange your course and other services you have requested. In order to do this we may give your details, including specific requirements, to the person or organisation providing these services.
We will ask for your telephone number and emergency contact details. This allows us to contact you during your course, and contact the emergency contact should there be any concern relating to your health or welfare.
We will share your name, student and booking references, course start date, and fees with our international payment partner, Flywire, so that you can make a payment using this service (also see Third Party Privacy Policies section).
If you request a digital badge, we will issue this to the email address that you provide. The badge will be associated and verifiable against this email address. The address will be stored by the OpenBadge issuer that we use, Badgr (see Third Party Privacy Policies below). The Badgr service is only available to students aged 13 and over.
We do not store your card details if you make payment by card.
What legal basis do we use for processing your data?
The data you provide is required for us to provide the course and services that you have requested. It helps us deliver a course that meets your needs and that considers the student's wellbeing.
How long do we keep your data?
We keep personal data for four years after the end of your course in order to provide an audit for inspection and for safeguarding purposes.
Homestay Providers
What information do we collect about you and how do we use it?
You provide us information regarding yourself and your family by completing a Homestay Questionnaire at the time of the home visit. You may provide information subsequently by email, through the Homestay Risk Assessment, and on the Homestay Declaration.
This will include personal information that we require to process your application for providing homestay, such as names and dates of birth, address, bank details, as well as contact information including your telephone number and email.
You may also provide us with additional information, such as your dietary preferences to help us match these with students' requirements.
We may ask for specific documents from you e.g. gas certificate, Homestay Declaration, passport or driving licence and copies of DBS. We will keep an electronic copy of these. All paper copies are destroyed as soon as an electronic copy has been made.
When our staff visit your house, they may take photos of the bedrooms and facilities. This enables us to provide the team with details of your accommodation, and help place students.
The information you provide regarding yourself and other members of your household, including children, will be kept in our records. You must have their consent to provide this information and for us to use it as outlined in this policy.
We use the information to:
- Determine your suitability to host students.
- Match student requirements with suitable homestays.
- Inform the student who they will be staying with.
- Deliver a course and homestay experience that meets your needs and considers the students’ wellbeing.
- Ensure the safety of students while in our care.
- Arrange payments to homestay providers.
The arrangement and delivery of homestay accommodation will involve us making your personal data known to the students, their parents, and their school/agent. This will include:
- Name
- Address
- Contact details, including telephone and email address
- Homestay profile (information about yourself and the household, professions, pets, hobbies, interests, dietary information, e.g. vegetarian)
For certain students’ visa application we may have to supply your date of birth and passport number in addition to the above. In these cases we will always request your permission before providing these to the third party.
What legal basis do we use for processing your data?
In applying to become a homestay provider, you are entering into a contract with the school which requires your personal data for performance of that contract, to comply with a legal obligations, and comply with our duty of safeguarding students.
How long do we keep your data?
We keep personal data for four years after you finish hosting for us in order to provide an audit for inspection and for safeguarding purposes. Financial records of any payments made will be kept for accounting purposes.
Staff
What information do we collect about you and how do we use it?
In the course of applying for a position at the school, we will collect personal information including employment history, contact details, qualifications, and identification documents.
These will be used in:
- Determining your suitablility for the role and the terms on which you work for us.
- Checking your right to work in the UK.
- Performing background checks.
- Contacting you regarding your application.
On commencement of your employment, you will be asked for additional personal details, including your NI number, full address, contact information, and bank details.
During your employment and for a short period after the relationship has ended, we will use your personal information for specific purposes. The list below describes the purpose of our processing, the personal data involved and the lawful basis for our processing:
- When making payments to you to also include any necessary tax and NI deductions.
- Liaising with the pension provider and making payments.
- Administration related to the contract of employment.
- Business management and work force planning, including accounting and auditing.
- Conducting and managing reviews of performance and determining performance requirements.
- Making decisions regarding remuneration, bonus, commission and compensation.
- Making decisions regarding promotions to include assessing qualifications for a particular role.
- Gathering evidence for a possible disciplinary or gathering evidence in respect of an informal complaint or grievance.
- Making decisions about your continued employment or engagement.
- Making arrangements for the termination of our working relationship.
- Education, training and development requirements.
- Dealing with legal disputes involving you or other employees, workers and contractors, including accidents at work.
- Managing sickness absence, ascertaining your fitness to work.
- Complying with health and safety obligations, completion of accident book and RIDDOR reporting.
- Monitoring use of our information and communication systems to ensure compliance with our internal procedures and prevention of security lapses and breach of data protection laws.
- Preventing malicious software distribution.
- Equal opportunities monitoring.
During your employment at the school, we will keep records of:
- holiday taken
- appraisals conducted
- professional development and training
- any disciplinary matters related to your employment
Much of the information we hold will have been provided by you, but some may come from other internal sources, such as your manager, or in some cases, external sources, such as referees.
Third party service providers
We will only give your personal details to a third party if it is required for performance of the contract, for example, to conduct background checks, to process the payroll.
In order to meet our legal obligations connected with your employment relationship it is necessary to share your personal information with certain third parties, e.g our accountants, in order to process the payroll. We also need to share your data when we have legitimate business reasons for doing so and also where it is necessary in order to perform your contract.
Third party service providers are only permitted to process your personal data in accordance with our specified instructions. They are also required to take appropriate measures to protect your privacy and personal information. We do not allow your information to be used by the third parties for its own purposes and business activities.
What legal basis do we use for processing your data?
In applying for employment at the school, and accepting subsequent employment, you are entering into a contract with the school which requires your personal data in order for performance of the contract, to comply with a legal obligations, and comply with our duty of safeguarding students.
How long do we keep your data?
If your application for employment is not successful, we will delete the information you have provided within 60 days. If you wish us to contact you regarding positions that might become available in the future, you must specifically ask us to keep your details on file.
If you are employed by the school, we will retain your personal data for as long as is necessary to fulfil the purposes for which it was collected. Details of retention periods for specific purposes are available in our data retention policy which is available from the Data Administrator.
When your employment relationship comes to an end with our business we will either retain or securely destroy your personal data in accordance with our data retention policy or other applicable laws and regulations.
ETOs (Education Travel Operator) & Schools
What information do we collect about you and how do we use it?
We record our communication with ETOs and schools on our CRM (Customer Relationship Management) system. This enables us to know which courses you are interested in, and keeps the history of your relationship with the school.
We store information including your address, contact telephone numbers and email, notes on our meetings/conversations and your interest in courses
We use the information to provide you with a better service, providing information appropriate to your interests, and send you updates from the school regarding our courses.
Group Leaders
A group leader will be required to provide the same personal data as students (see Students & Parents section). In addition, a group leader is required to provide a background check certificate to confirm they can work with junior students.
What legal basis do we use for processing your data?
Our lawful basis for processing your data is as a legitimate business interest.
How long do we keep your data?
If you have unsubscribed from email updates and we have not had any contact with you in the last four years, we will delete your company record. Otherwise, we will retain company records, and personal data associated with the company, until the company requests deletion of their record, or requests an amendment to the contact details.
Group leader's personal data is kept in accordance with our student record retention policy.
Website
Cookies
To make this website work properly, we sometimes place small data files called cookies on your device.
What are cookies?
A cookie is a small text file that a website saves on your computer or mobile device when you visit the site. It enables the website to remember your actions and preferences (such as login, language, font size and other display preferences) over a period of time, so you don’t have to keep re-entering them whenever you come back to the site or browse from one page to another.
How do we use cookies?
Necessary cookies help make the website usable by enabling basic functions like page navigation and access to secure areas of the website. The website cannot function properly without these cookies.
Preference cookies enable the website to remember information that changes the way the website behaves or looks, like your preferred language or the region that you are in.
We also use cookies to provide social media features and to analyse our traffic. Information about your use of our site is shared with our social media and analytics partners who may combine it with other information that you’ve provided to them or that they’ve collected from your use of their services.
Social media and analytics partners:
- Google Analytics
- Mailchimp
- YouTube
- Salesmate.io (Chat facility)
How to control cookies
You can control and/or delete cookies as you wish – for details, see aboutcookies.org . You can delete all cookies that are already on your computer and you can set most browsers to prevent them from being placed. If you do this, however, you may have to manually adjust some preferences every time you visit a site and some services and functionalities may not work.
Live chat
The live chat service on our website enables you to chat with one of our staff. If we are off-line it allows you to leave a message for us.
In the course of chatting with us or leaving a message, you may provide personal data in order for us to answer your questions and contact you later in response to your query.
The chat service will record any conversation/message, along with the pages you visit on the site and your IP address. We have a GDPR-compliant Data Processing Agreement in place with our chat service provider.
Online course applications
When you complete a course application through the website, you provide us with personal data. Please see the Students & Parents section for details of how we use that data.
Security Cameras
Languages United operates security cameras for the safety and safeguarding of its staff and students. The school may view, monitor and record security camera footage for safeguarding purposes.
Updating your personal information
You have the right to correct, erase or restrict processing of your data. You may also request access to the data we hold on you. Information will be provided without delay and at the latest within one month of receipt of your request.
To make a request, please send your request by email to
When making a request, please provide sufficient data for us to identify you, and let us know in what capacity you have previously had contact with the school. A check will be made on the identity of any person requesting information to ensure they have the right to access that data.
To avoid duplicate requests and respond to any subsequent query, your name and email address will be kept in our Subject Access Request Log for one year following the request.
Changes to the privacy policy
If we make changes to our privacy policy we will outline the changes below. If these changes are significant, we may also choose to email relevant individuals with new details. If we are required by law, we will obtain your consent to make these changes.
Version History
April 2024: Addition of Security Cameras.
July 2020: Addition of Facebook and Mailchimp cookies.
July 2020: Addition of issue of OpenBadges. Addition of LanguageCert privacy policy.
22 May 2018: Addition of ETOs & Schools section.
14 May 2018: First published.
Third party privacy policies
Civil & Corporate Security Ltd. (DBS and background checks)
Flywire Global Privacy Policy (international payments)
Badgr (issuer of digital badges)
LanguageCert (examination provider)