Privacy policy

Last updated: 20 May 2026.

Who we are

Compare My School is a static, independent reference site that publishes performance data on state-funded schools in England. The site is operated by an individual, not a company. You can contact us at [email protected].

What information we collect about you

We do not ask you to create an account, log in, or provide any personal information to use the site. We collect the following limited information automatically:

• Standard server logs kept by our hosting provider, Cloudflare. These include the IP address of your device, the page requested, the date and time of the request, the referrer, and your browser's user agent string. We use these only to detect abuse and keep the site secure.
• Anonymous, cookieless usage analytics via Cloudflare Web Analytics, where enabled. These show aggregate page views and country-level traffic and do not identify individual visitors.
• Postcode lookups via the third-party Postcodes.io API when you use the “schools near me” feature. The postcode you enter is sent to api.postcodes.io to convert it into a latitude and longitude — we do not store or transmit your postcode ourselves.
• Advertising cookies set by Google AdSense, if and when ads are enabled. AdSense uses cookies and similar technologies to serve and measure ads. See “Cookies and similar technologies” below.

Cookies and similar technologies

The site itself does not set any cookies. Third-party services we use may set the following:

• Cloudflare may set a strictly necessary security cookie (cf_clearance) to verify your browser passes Cloudflare’s bot-detection challenge. This is exempt from consent under PECR as it is necessary for the service to function.
• Google AdSense, when enabled, sets advertising and measurement cookies. These require your consent under UK GDPR and PECR — you will be asked via a cookie banner the first time you visit, and can change your preferences at any time using the banner’s settings link.

Legal basis

Where we process limited personal information through server logs and Cloudflare’s security cookie, we rely on our legitimate interest in keeping the site available and free from abuse. Where we use advertising cookies, we rely on your consent, which you can withdraw at any time.

Your rights

Under UK GDPR you have the right to access, correct, or request deletion of any personal data we hold about you, to object to processing, and to lodge a complaint with the Information Commissioner’s Office (ico.org.uk). Because we do not hold accounts or contact details, in practice the only personal information we hold is the limited log data described above.

Data about schools

The school performance data displayed on this site is published by the Department for Education under the Open Government Licence v3.0. It relates to schools and aggregate cohorts, not to individual pupils. If you are a school and believe data on this site is incorrect, please email us at [email protected] and we will investigate.

Changes to this policy

We may update this policy from time to time, for example when adding new features or third-party services. The “Last updated” date at the top will change when we do. Significant changes will be flagged on the homepage.