COOKIE POLICY
Swot Tots Publishing Ltd
Last updated 25 August, 2026 — version 2.0
THE SHORT VERSION
Before you choose anything in our cookie banner, this site may use cookies that are strictly necessary to make the site work securely.
When we tested the site on 16 August 2026 from a browser with its existing site data cleared, the only cookie present before a choice was made was Squarespace's crumb security cookie.
We choose not to set our non-essential analytics or advertising cookies unless you agree to them.
If you choose Decline, those non-essential cookies are not set.
If you previously accepted them and later change your mind, cookies that were already stored on your device may remain there until they expire or you delete them yourself. However, switching the relevant categories off stops the corresponding non-essential tracking.
You can change your choice at any time using the Cookie Preferences link at the foot of the site.
On the pages we have built for children — including our online tests and answer pages — no non-essential analytics or advertising cookies are set. The Meta (Facebook) Pixel and Pinterest Tag do not run on those pages, regardless of the cookie choice made elsewhere on the site.
1. WHAT A COOKIE IS
1.1
A cookie is a small piece of information that a website asks your browser to keep on your computer, phone, or other device.
Some cookies are housekeeping. They can help keep a site secure, remember a choice you made, or make a feature work properly.
Others can distinguish visitors and sessions, measure how a website is used, or support advertising.
The law also covers other technologies that store information on, or gain access to information from, your device. These can include pixels, tags, scripts, and similar technologies. For simplicity, we sometimes refer to all of these as "cookies" in this Policy where the same rules apply.
1.2
UK law allows certain storage and access technologies to be used without consent where a specific legal exception applies. This includes technologies that are strictly necessary to provide a service you asked for, and some narrowly defined uses for statistical purposes.
We have chosen a simpler approach for this site:
- we use necessary cookies where they are needed to make the site work securely;
- we ask your permission before setting our non-essential analytics cookies; and
- we ask your permission before using advertising technologies.
2. YOUR CHOICE
2.1 The first time you arrive, our cookie banner lets you accept cookies, decline non-essential cookies, or manage your choices.
2.2 Declining is a real refusal, not a delay. If you decline, the non-essential analytics and advertising cookies described below are not set.
2.3 The site does need to remember the choice you made. Squarespace uses preference cookies for this purpose.
These are currently designed to last for 30 days. When the preference expires, or if you delete the relevant cookies yourself, the banner may appear again and ask you to choose again.
2.4 You can change your mind whenever you like using the Cookie Preferences link at the foot of the site.
You do not have to contact us and you do not have to explain why.
If you previously accepted non-essential cookies and then switch those categories off, cookies already stored on your device may remain until they expire or you delete them. The corresponding non-essential tracking stops once you withdraw that permission.
2.5 Nothing on this site is withheld because you decline non-essential cookies. There is no content that you can reach only by accepting them.
3. BEFORE YOU CHOOSE
3.1 We checked this on 16 August 2026 using a browser with its existing site data cleared.
With the cookie banner still showing and no choice made, one cookie was present:
crumb
This is a Squarespace security cookie used to help protect the site and its forms against forged requests. It lasts for the browser session.
No analytics or advertising cookies were present.
3.2 Once you make a choice, Squarespace may store the necessary cookies that record that choice.
These cookies do not turn analytics or advertising on by themselves. Their job is to remember what you decided.
4. WHAT WE USE
4A — STRICTLY NECESSARY COOKIES
These cookies are used for security or to remember your cookie choices.
| COOKIE | SET BY | WHAT IT DOES | ROUGHLY HOW LONG |
|---|---|---|---|
crumb |
Squarespace | Helps protect the site and its forms against forged requests | Browser session |
ss_performanceCookiesAllowed |
Squarespace | Remembers your choice about Performance and Analytics cookies | 30 days |
ss_marketingCookiesAllowed |
Squarespace | Remembers your choice about Marketing or Advertising cookies | 30 days |
The last two may sound slightly circular, but they serve an important purpose: the site needs a way of remembering whether you accepted or refused cookies so that it does not immediately ask you again.
4B — ANALYTICS COOKIES
We use analytics to understand how the website is being used: for example, which pages and resources are visited, how visitors reach the site, and how people move around it.
We choose to set these cookies only if you agree to Performance and Analytics cookies in the banner.
Analytics cookies can distinguish browsers, visitors, and sessions. They do not, by themselves, tell STP your name or email address.
Google Analytics
| COOKIE | SET BY | WHAT IT DOES | DEFAULT DURATION |
|---|---|---|---|
_ga |
Google Analytics | Distinguishes users for analytics purposes | 2 years |
_ga_… |
Google Analytics | Maintains session information for our Google Analytics configuration | 2 years |
The characters following _ga_ identify the particular Google Analytics configuration used by the website and may change. We therefore do not reproduce that identifier here.
Squarespace Analytics
| COOKIE | SET BY | WHAT IT DOES | ROUGHLY HOW LONG |
|---|---|---|---|
ss_cvr |
Squarespace | Distinguishes visitors and tracks sessions | 2 years |
ss_cvt |
Squarespace | Distinguishes visitors and tracks sessions | 30 minutes |
These were the Squarespace analytics cookies present during our final live-site test on 16 August 2026.
Squarespace may change the technologies used by its platform. We periodically review the cookies actually used by this site and update this Policy where necessary.
4C — ADVERTISING COOKIES AND TAGS
We use advertising technologies from Meta (Facebook) and Pinterest to help us understand whether our content and advertising on those platforms resulted in visits to this site and to help us measure our advertising.
These technologies are used only if you agree to Marketing or Advertising cookies.
Which cookies appear can depend on how you arrived at the site. For example, a cookie connected with an advertising click may not appear during an ordinary direct visit.
Cookies associated with these services include:
| COOKIE | SET BY | WHAT IT DOES | ROUGHLY HOW LONG |
|---|---|---|---|
_fbp |
Meta (Facebook) | Identifies browsers for advertising and measurement purposes | 90 days |
_fbc |
Meta (Facebook) | May record information associated with a visit following a Facebook advertising click | 90 days |
_pin_unauth |
Uses an identifier to group actions where Pinterest cannot otherwise identify the visitor | Up to 1 year | |
_epik |
May help Pinterest recognise a visit that followed promoted Pinterest content | Up to 1 year |
During our ordinary live-site test after Accept all, we observed _fbp and _pin_unauth. Cookies associated specifically with advertising clicks will not necessarily appear during that kind of test.
Meta and Pinterest maintain their own information about the cookies and technologies their services use.
4D — WE DO NOT SELL THIS INFORMATION
We do not sell or rent information collected through cookies.
If you consent to our advertising technologies, Meta and Pinterest receive information generated through their respective tags so that those services can provide advertising and measurement functions to us.
We do not give them our mailing list simply because you visit the website.
For more detail about personal information and how we use it, please see our Privacy Policy.
5. THE PAGES CHILDREN USE
5.1
Our free online tests and answer pages are deliberately treated differently from the rest of the site.
Those pages do not set non-essential analytics or advertising cookies, even if somebody previously clicked Accept all elsewhere on the site.
If analytics or advertising cookies were already stored in the browser following a visit to another page, they may still be visible there until they expire or are deleted. The fact that an existing cookie remains in the browser does not mean that the children's page is using it.
5.2
The Meta Pixel and Pinterest Tag do not run on these pages.
Google Tag Manager is also not loaded on them.
Squarespace's native Google Analytics integration does still cause the Google Analytics library itself to be downloaded. However, Google Analytics is disabled on these pages: it does not set Google Analytics cookies or send analytics data about the visit.
Because the library file itself is requested from Google, ordinary connection information associated with that request, such as the visitor's IP address, necessarily reaches Google's server.
We have described this distinction deliberately rather than claiming that no Google technology whatsoever is present.
5.3
The tests themselves do not ask for:
- a name;
- an email address;
- an account;
- a school;
- a saved score; or
- saved progress information.
Some of our tests add the answers selected to the page address while the test is being used. That is how the page keeps track of progress through the test.
The page address can form part of the ordinary technical information generated by a website visit, but it does not contain the user's name, email address, or school.
Our Privacy Policy explains this in more detail.
5.4
Strictly necessary website cookies may still be used on these pages where they are needed for security or basic site operation.
5.5
We have also written a much shorter privacy notice for younger readers in plain English:
6. THINGS WE DELIBERATELY DO NOT DO
- We do not use cookie walls. You can use the site if you decline non-essential cookies.
- We do not treat scrolling, clicking around the site, or continuing to browse as consent to non-essential cookies.
- We do not pre-select analytics or advertising consent for you.
- We do not run the Meta Pixel or Pinterest Tag on the pages built for children.
- We do not sell or rent information collected through cookies.
7. OTHER PEOPLE'S WEBSITES
7.1
Our site contains links to services and websites run by other organisations. These include:
- Amazon and its marketplaces, which sell our books;
- BookFunnel, which hosts some downloadable files;
- TES and Teachers Pay Teachers (TpT), which host digital educational products;
- Google Forms used with some of our practice papers;
- shortened-link services used in some of our printed books; and
- our pages on social media services.
7.2
Once you follow a link to another organisation's website or service, that organisation's own cookies and privacy rules apply.
We do not control the cookies it chooses to use on its own site.
8. CONTROLLING COOKIES YOURSELF
8.1
You can change the choices you made on this site at any time using the Cookie Preferences link at the foot of the page.
8.2
Changing your preferences does not necessarily delete cookies that were already stored on your device.
When we tested this on 16 August 2026, cookies created while consent was active remained visible after Performance and Analytics and Advertising were switched off. However, the corresponding non-essential tracking stopped.
The cookies may remain until they expire or until you delete them yourself.
8.3
Your browser lets you view, block, and delete cookies. The exact controls vary between browsers, but they are usually found under Privacy, Security, or Settings.
8.4
Blocking every cookie can affect features that depend on strictly necessary cookies, including some forms or other interactive functions.
8.5
If you delete the cookies that remember your cookie preference, the site will no longer know what you previously chose. The banner may therefore ask you again.
That is the banner working as intended, rather than ignoring your previous decision.
9. CHANGES, AND GETTING IN TOUCH
9.1
Cookies and the services that use them can change. We review what the site uses and will update this Policy if a material change affects what we tell you here.
The date and version number at the top show when this Policy was last updated.
9.2
If you have any questions about cookies or privacy on this site, please email:
privacy@swottotspublishing.com
9.3
You also have the right to complain to the Information Commissioner's Office about the way personal information is handled:
Information Commissioner's Office
Wycliffe House
Water Lane
Wilmslow
Cheshire
SK9 5AF
Helpline: 0303 123 1113
You do not have to contact us first.
9.4
This version replaces our previous Cookie Policy in full.
Version 2.0 — 25 August, 2026
Swot Tots Publishing Ltd, registered in England, Company No. 9349909.
ICO registration number ZC210662.