● Privacy notice  ·  Updated 27 September 2026

Your details,looked after.

To run the Award we need a few details from the people who enter — most importantly your name and email address. This page explains, in plain English, what we collect, why, who can see it, how long we keep it, and who to ask if you have a question.

What we collect
The basicsName, school email, year group, team, dietary needs
Why
To run itOnly for organising the Award
Who sees it
OrganisersPlus supervising staff; never sold or shared for marketing
How long
Jan 2027Deleted after the 2026/27 Award ends

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Contents

01 — Who we are

Who we are.

The Dr Perse Innovation Award is a competition run by a committee of students at The Perse School, Cambridge, with the support of school staff. In this notice, “we” means the Award’s organising committee.

The sign‑up form runs on the school’s Microsoft 365 account, so The Perse School is responsible for the personal data it holds (the “data controller” under UK data protection law). The school’s own privacy notices continue to apply alongside this one.

02 — What & why

What we collect, and why.

We only ask for what we need to run the competition, and we use it only for that.

  • Sign‑up formWho you are

    Your name and school email address

    So we know who has entered and can send you updates: masterclass details, deadline reminders, round one results and finals arrangements. The form asks you to sign in with your school account, which records your name and email automatically.

  • Sign‑up formYour entry

    Year group, team name and team members

    So we can organise teams, check who is eligible for the Young Enterprise Award (Years 7–9), and plan numbers for each event.

  • Sign‑up formFood

    Allergies and dietary requirements

    Only so we can serve food safely at the pilot, the masterclasses and the finals. This is health information, so it is treated with extra care: you choose whether to tell us, it is seen only by the people preparing food, and it is the first thing we delete.

  • Submission pageRound one

    Your proposal, and a record of when it arrived

    When you upload on the submission page we store the file, its name, size and word count, the time it arrived and a fingerprint of it, linked to your team. If you replace or delete it, the earlier file is kept in a private archive in case of a dispute. That lets it be marked, proves what you sent, and lets feedback reach you. Proposals are marked anonymously: markers get a copy named only by reference number, with author names removed from the file.

  • By emailFinalists’ slides

    Slides and the email address you send them from

    So finalists’ slides can be shown on the night.

  • SecurityWrong codes

    A scrambled copy of your IP address, briefly

    To stop anyone guessing team codes, a wrong code is counted against a one‑way scrambled (hashed) version of the connection’s IP address. The count is forgotten after 15 minutes. Team codes themselves are stored the same way, never in readable form.

  • FinalsResults

    Names of finalists and winners

    If you reach the finals, your name and team name are announced at the event. Winners’ names, team names and idea titles may be published on this website and in school news as a record of the Award.

The legal part, briefly

We use your details because running the competition you signed up for is a legitimate part of school life. For allergy and dietary information we rely on your consent, which you can withdraw at any time by emailing us. We never use your details for marketing, and we never sell them.

03 — Access

Who can see it.

  • The organising committee

    The small group of students running the Award, who need your details to organise teams, events and communications. They are told to keep them confidential and use them for nothing else.

  • Supervising staff

    The Perse School staff overseeing the Award, including the staff contact for scoring enquiries.

  • Markers & judges

    Round one markers see your proposal without your name. Finals judges see the six finalist teams’ names, as they watch them pitch.

  • Catering

    Only the allergy and dietary information needed to prepare food safely.

  • Service providers

    Microsoft, which stores the sign‑up responses and emails on the school’s behalf, and Netlify, which hosts this website and stores uploaded proposals privately. Netlify may store data outside the UK, protected by standard data‑protection contract terms.

  • Not our sponsor

    Our sponsor, Adder Technology, does not receive your personal details. Nobody else does either, unless the law requires it.

04 — Retention

How long we keep it.

We keep your details only as long as the 2026/27 Award needs them, then delete them.

  • By 4 Dec 2026Allergies & diet

    Deleted within two weeks of the finals on 20 November 2026.

  • By 31 Jan 2027Everything else

    Sign‑up responses, email addresses, team codes, proposals (including archived and withdrawn versions), markers’ scores and comments, and slides are deleted once feedback has been returned and any queries settled, and no later than 31 January 2027.

  • KeptWinners

    Winners’ names, team names and idea titles are kept as a record of the Award’s history. Ask us if you would rather yours were removed.

05 — This website

This website.

  • No cookies, no analytics, no tracking for visitors and entrants. We do not record who visits or what they read. (Organisers who sign in to manage submissions get one security cookie.)
  • If you use the “Turn off animations” button in the footer, your choice is saved in your own browser so it is remembered next time. The same goes for closing the privacy pop-up. Neither ever leaves your device.
  • On the submission page, your team code is remembered only in that browser tab, so a refresh doesn’t sign you out. It is forgotten when you close the tab or click “Not your team?”.
  • The site’s fonts come from Google Fonts, so your browser shares your IP address with Google when a page loads, as it would with most websites.
  • Like every website, our hosting provider may keep short‑term technical logs (such as IP addresses) to keep the site secure and running.
  • The sign‑up form is hosted by Microsoft Forms, which has its own privacy statement.

06 — Your rights

Your rights.

It is your information, so you can ask us at any time to:

  • see the details we hold about you;
  • correct anything that is wrong;
  • delete your details, or withdraw from the competition;
  • withdraw consent for us to hold your allergy or dietary information.

Just email us — there is no form to fill in. If you are unsure about any of this, talk to a parent, carer or teacher; they can contact us for you.

07 — Contact

Questions? Ask us.

  • The organisers

    info@drperseaward.co.uk — the first place to ask anything about your details, or to see, correct or delete them.

  • The school

    For data protection questions about The Perse School itself, write to the Data Processing Manager, The Perse School, Hills Road, Cambridge, CB2 8QF.

  • If you are not happy

    You can complain to the Information Commissioner’s Office at ico.org.uk or on 0303 123 1113 — though please talk to us first so we can put it right.

08 — About this site

Made by students.

This website was designed, written and built by students at The Perse School as part of organising the Dr Perse Innovation Award. It is not the school’s main website — for that, visit perse.co.uk.

We have done our best to keep everything here accurate. If you spot a mistake, or anything on this page is unclear, please let us know. We will update this notice if the way we use your details changes, and change the date at the top when we do.