Terms and Conditions

1. Who we are and how these terms work

These Terms and Conditions (the "Terms") govern your access to and use of the website and services operated by Catchment Area ("Catchment Area", "we", "us", or "our"). By accessing or using our website at catchmentarea.co.uk, mobile applications, or any related services (collectively, the "Service"), you agree to be bound by these Terms. If you do not agree, you must not use the Service.

We may update these Terms from time to time by posting a revised version on this page. Changes apply from the date posted. Your continued use of the Service means you accept the updated Terms. Some provisions in these Terms may be superseded by notices published elsewhere on our site.

2. What we do

Catchment Area provides information about schools across the UK, including their locations, performance data, catchment areas, and related educational resources. Our Service is designed to help parents and carers make informed decisions about their children's education. We do not own, operate, manage, or control the schools listed, and we do not endorse any particular school. Information may be sourced from government databases, Ofsted, local authorities, and other publicly available materials and may change without notice.

We strive to keep information current and accurate but do not guarantee its completeness, reliability, or suitability. You should verify critical details (for example, admissions criteria, catchment boundaries, and school performance data) directly with the school or local authority before making decisions.

3. Eligibility

You must be at least 18 years old to use the Service. If you use the Service on behalf of a business or organisation, you represent that you have authority to bind that entity, and "you" will include both you and that entity.

4. Your use of the Service

We grant you a limited, non-exclusive, revocable licence to access and use the Service for your personal, non-commercial use. You agree not to:

• copy, scrape, crawl, harvest, or index the Service or its content, whether manually or by automated means;
• use the Service in any manner that could disable, overburden, damage, or impair it or interfere with any other party's use;
• upload or transmit viruses, malware, or other harmful code;
• attempt to gain unauthorised access to any accounts, systems, or networks;
• reverse engineer, decompile, copy, or adapt any software or other code or scripts forming part of our site;
• change, modify, delete, interfere with, or misuse data contained on our site and entered by or relating to any third party user;
• infringe the intellectual property or other rights of Catchment Area or any third party;
• share or resell access to premium features or subscription content;
• create derivative works based on our Service without permission;
• use the Service for any unlawful, misleading, or harmful purpose.

By breaching these provisions, you may commit criminal offences under the Computer Misuse Act 1990 and other relevant laws. We will report any such breach to the relevant law enforcement authorities and will co-operate with those authorities by disclosing your identity to them.

5. Content standards

These Content Standards apply to any content, comments, or materials posted or uploaded on our site. The Content Standards must be complied with in spirit as well as to the letter. We will determine, in our discretion, if such postings breach these standards. We reserve the right to edit, not publish, or remove any content whether or not it complies with these Content Standards.

Postings must:

• Be relevant to the subject matter
• Be written in English and comply with acceptable standards of spelling and grammar
• Comply with the laws applicable in England and Wales and in any country from which it is posted

Postings must not:

• Be defamatory of any individual or organisation
• Be obscene, offensive, hateful, threatening, harassing, or unlawful
• Promote discrimination based on race, sex, religion, nationality, disability, sexual orientation, or age
• Contain abusive language
• Disclose the full name, telephone number, email address, or postal address of any individual without their consent
• Stereotype sections of society
• Name any organisations or businesses other than the organisation or business that is relevant to the content
• Infringe any copyright, database right, or trade mark of any other person
• Breach any legal duty owed to a third party, such as a contractual duty or a duty of confidence
• Be in contempt of court or breach of a court order
• Impersonate any person, or misrepresent your identity or affiliation with any person
• Give the impression that the posting emanates from us if this is not the case
• Advocate, promote, or incite any unlawful or criminal act
• Contain any advertising or promote any services or web links to other sites

Notice & Take Down Procedure: If you believe that content on our website may breach any of our Content Standards, you can alert us by emailing hi@catchmentarea.co.uk. You will need to provide your email address together with a short explanation why you believe the content does not comply with our Content Standards. Reporting content will not automatically remove it, but will ensure we look at it as soon as possible.

Licence of Content: By submitting content to our site, you agree to grant us a non-exclusive, perpetual, royalty-free, transferable, and sub-licensable licence to use that content. Although you will still own the copyright in your content, we will have the right to freely use, edit, alter, reproduce, publish, and/or distribute the material contained in your content.

6. User accounts

To access certain features of our Service, you may need to create an account. You are responsible for maintaining the confidentiality of your account information and for all activities that occur under your account. You must:

• Provide accurate and complete information when creating your account
• Keep your login credentials secure and confidential
• Not share your account with others or allow others to access your account
• Notify us immediately of any unauthorised use of your account
• Be responsible for all activities that occur under your account

We have the right to disable any user identification code or password, whether chosen by you or allocated by us, at any time, if in our opinion you have failed to comply with any of the provisions of these Terms or we believe your user identification has been compromised.

7. Intellectual property

We are the owner of all intellectual property rights in the material and data on our site, subject to the provisions regarding user-submitted content above. Such rights include, but are not limited to:

• unregistered trade mark rights protecting our business and trading names;
• database rights protecting the data published on our site;
• copyright and design rights in the text and graphics on our site; and
• copyright in the software used on our site.

You must only use the materials and/or data on our site for personal and non-commercial purposes. You may print off one copy, and may download extracts, of any page(s) from our site for your personal reference. You must not modify any materials you have printed off or downloaded.

We expressly prohibit any third party from gathering, extracting, reproducing, and/or displaying any material or data on or from our site, regardless of how such material or data is obtained (e.g. by the use of spiders, screen scraping software, or other automated means). If you use our site or data in breach of these terms, your right to use our site will cease immediately and you must return or destroy any copies of the materials you have made.

8. Third-party links and reliance

The Service may include links to third-party websites or materials. We are not responsible for and do not endorse such third-party sites or resources. We have no control over the contents of those sites or resources, and accept no responsibility for them or for any loss or damage that may arise from your use of them.

Commentary and other materials posted on our site are not intended to amount to advice on which reliance should be placed. We therefore disclaim all liability and responsibility arising from any reliance placed on such materials by any visitor to our site, or by anyone who may be informed of any of its contents.

9. Data accuracy and disclaimers

Whilst we strive to provide accurate and up-to-date information, we cannot guarantee the accuracy, completeness, or reliability of any data presented on our Service. School information, catchment areas, and performance data may change frequently. Users should verify important information with the schools and local authorities directly before making educational decisions.

Catchment area boundaries, admissions criteria, and school performance metrics are sourced from publicly available data and may not reflect the most recent changes. We are not responsible for any decisions made based on information provided through our Service.

10. Subscription and payment

We offer subscription plans that provide access to premium features. By subscribing to our Service, you agree to pay the applicable fees as displayed at the time of purchase. Subscription fees are charged in advance on a recurring basis. All payments are non-refundable unless otherwise specified or required by law.

We reserve the right to change our pricing at any time. Price changes will be communicated to existing subscribers with at least 30 days' notice before the change takes effect.

11. Suspension and termination

We may suspend or terminate your access to the Service at any time if we reasonably believe you have breached these Terms, are using the Service in a way that poses risk to us or others, or where required by law.

We strive to maintain high availability of our Service, but we do not guarantee uninterrupted access. We reserve the right to temporarily suspend the Service for maintenance, updates, or technical issues.

In the event of permanent Service discontinuation, we will provide at least 90 days' written notice to users and pro-rated refunds for unused portions of prepaid subscriptions.

12. Account deletion and data rights

If you have created an account with Catchment Area and wish to delete your account and associated personal data, you may request account deletion by contacting us at hi@catchmentarea.co.uk.

Upon receiving your deletion request, we will process it within a reasonable timeframe, typically within 30 days. Please note that certain information may be retained where we have a legal obligation to do so or for legitimate business purposes (such as fraud prevention), as outlined in our Privacy Policy. For more information about how we handle your personal data and your rights under data protection legislation, please see our Privacy Policy.

13. Disclaimers

The Service is provided on an "as is" and "as available" basis without any guarantees, conditions, or warranties as to its accuracy. To the fullest extent permitted by law, we disclaim all warranties, representations, and conditions, whether express or implied, including any implied warranties of merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose, and non-infringement. We do not warrant that the Service will be uninterrupted, secure, or free from errors or harmful components.

14. Limitation of liability

Nothing in these Terms limits or excludes liability that cannot be limited or excluded under applicable law (including liability for fraud, fraudulent misrepresentation, or for death or personal injury caused by negligence).

Subject to the foregoing, we will not be liable for any indirect, incidental, special, consequential, or punitive damages, or any loss of profits, revenue, data, goodwill, business interruption, anticipated savings, or wasted management or office time, arising out of or relating to your use of our Service, even if we have been advised of the possibility of such damages.

To the extent permitted by law, our total aggregate liability to you for all claims arising out of or relating to the Service or these Terms will be limited to the greater of £100 or the total amounts you paid (if any) to us for the Service in the 12 months preceding the event giving rise to the liability.

Our liability for losses suffered as a result of a breach of these Terms is strictly limited to liability in respect of claims brought within one year of the event giving rise to the claim.

15. Indemnity

You agree to indemnify and hold harmless Catchment Area, its affiliates, and their respective officers, directors, employees, and agents from and against any claims, liabilities, damages, losses, and expenses (including reasonable legal fees) arising out of or in any way connected with your use of the Service, any content you have uploaded onto our website, or your breach of these Terms.

16. Changes to the Service

We aim to update our site regularly, and may change the content at any time. We may modify, suspend, or discontinue all or part of the Service at any time without notice. We will not be liable to you if for any reason the Service is unavailable at any time or for any period. Any of the material on our site may be out of date at any given time, and we are under no obligation to update such material.

17. Pricing and subscription fees

If you subscribe to any paid services offered by Catchment Area, we reserve the right to increase subscription costs in line with inflation. While we will typically only make such increases on an annual basis, we reserve the right to adjust pricing at any time with reasonable notice to subscribers.

18. Privacy and data protection

Your privacy is important to us. Our collection, use, and protection of your personal information is governed by our Privacy Policy, which forms part of these Terms. By using our Service, you consent to the collection and use of your information as described in our Privacy Policy.

19. Governing law and jurisdiction

These Terms and any dispute or claim arising out of or in connection with them or their subject matter or formation (including non-contractual disputes or claims) shall be governed by and construed in accordance with the laws of England and Wales. The courts of England and Wales will have exclusive jurisdiction.

20. Severability

If any provision of these Terms is found to be unenforceable or invalid, the remaining provisions will remain in full force and effect.

21. Contact us

Questions about these Terms? Please contact us at hi@catchmentarea.co.uk.

Thank you for visiting our site.