Cookie Policy

This Cookie Policy explains how the Heart of Yorkshire Education Group (“we”, “us”, “our”) uses cookies and similar technologies on our website. It should be read alongside our Privacy Notice.

This policy was last updated on 28 May 2026.

What are cookies?

Cookies are small text files that a website places on your device when you visit. They are widely used to make websites work, to make them work more efficiently, and to provide information to the website’s owners. Some technologies perform a similar function to cookies — such as data stored in your browser’s local storage — and where we refer to “cookies” in this policy we mean cookies and these similar technologies.

How we use cookies

We use cookies to make our website work, to understand how it is used so we can improve it, and to show content embedded from other services such as videos and maps. We group the cookies we use into four categories:

• Strictly Necessary — required for the website to function. These are always active and cannot be switched off.
• Analytics — help us understand how visitors use the website by collecting anonymous information.
• Embedded Media — allow us to embed content from third parties such as videos, maps, ticket booking widgets and document viewers.
• Functional — provide enhanced functionality such as live chat support on certain pages.
• Forms & Security — help protect our website forms from spam and abuse.

Your choices and managing consent

When you first visit our website, you are shown a cookie banner that lets you accept all cookies, reject all non-essential cookies, or choose which categories to allow. Strictly necessary cookies do not require your consent and are always active. All other cookies are only set once you have given your consent.

You can change your choices at any time by selecting the “Cookie Settings” link in the footer at the bottom of any page. You can also control or delete cookies through your browser settings — see www.aboutcookies.org for guidance. Please note that blocking some cookies may affect how the website works.

Strictly Necessary cookies

These cookies are essential for our website to function and cannot be switched off. They are usually set in response to actions you take, such as setting your privacy preferences, logging in, or filling in forms. Our lawful basis for these cookies is our legitimate interest in operating a secure, functional website.

The Recite Me accessibility toolbar helps make our website easier to use for everyone. Because it is an accessibility tool, we treat its cookies as strictly necessary so that the toolbar and your saved preferences are always available to you. Recite Me only stores your accessibility preferences and does not track your activity for advertising. You can find out more in our Accessibility Statement.

Analytics cookies

With your consent, we use Google Analytics (loaded through Google Tag Manager) to understand how visitors use our website — for example, which pages are most popular and how people move through the site. This helps us improve our content and services. The information is used in an aggregated, statistical way. These cookies are only set if you accept the Analytics category. Our lawful basis for these cookies is your consent.

Google Tag Manager is used to manage how these analytics tags load. When you decline analytics cookies, we instruct Google not to store analytics information or use it for advertising, using Google’s Consent Mode. For more information, see Google’s Privacy Policy.

Embedded Media

Some of our pages include content embedded from other services, such as videos, maps, event booking widgets and digital publications. This content is only loaded if you consent to the Embedded Media category — either by accepting it in the cookie banner, or by clicking to load a specific item where it appears on the page. When you load this content, the third party may set its own cookies and collect information about your interaction with it, in line with their own privacy policies. Our lawful basis for these cookies is your consent.

Where embedded content is not loaded, we show a placeholder in its place with the option to load it. If you would prefer not to load embedded content, you can usually access the same material directly on the provider’s own website.

Functional

We offer a live chat service on our course information pages, provided by Click4Assistance Ltd, so you can ask questions directly while browsing. This service is only loaded if you consent to the Functional category. Click4Assistance does not set any cookies on your device and does not use long-term tracking. Instead, it uses session storage to manage your chat conversation, which is deleted automatically when you close your browser. Our lawful basis for this service is your consent.

When you start a chat conversation, the information you share with our chat operators may be retained by us in line with our Privacy Notice.

Forms & Security

Our website forms — such as course enquiries, applications, sign-up forms and the complaints form — are protected from spam and automated abuse using Google reCAPTCHA v3. reCAPTCHA analyses how forms are used and may collect device and usage information, including your IP address, which is sent to Google. reCAPTCHA is only active on pages that contain a form, and is not used elsewhere on the website.

Because our forms send information directly to our student records system, we treat protecting them from automated abuse as necessary to provide and safeguard this service. For this reason, reCAPTCHA is active on form pages and our lawful basis is our legitimate interest in protecting our forms and systems from abuse. Your use of reCAPTCHA is subject to Google’s Privacy Policy and Terms of Service.

Other third-party content

We use Font Awesome (provided by Fonticons, Inc.) to display icons across our website. This service is loaded from Font Awesome’s content delivery network, which processes your IP address in order to deliver the icon files. It does not set cookies or store personal data for tracking purposes. For more information, see the Font Awesome Privacy Policy.

Changes to this policy

We may update this Cookie Policy from time to time to reflect changes to the cookies we use or for other operational, legal or regulatory reasons. We review this policy at least once a year. Any changes will be published on this page with an updated date.

Contact us

If you have any questions about this Cookie Policy or how we use cookies, please contact our Data Protection Officer:

Sam Cremore
Data Protection Officer
Heart of Yorkshire Education Group
Margaret Street
Wakefield WF1 2DH
Email: sceremore@heartofyorkshire.ac.uk

For more information about how we handle your personal data and your rights, please see our Privacy Notice.