Last updated: 23 October 2026

Westie’s Workshop is a free maths website for pupils, parents and teachers. I’m Gareth Westwater, a secondary school head of maths, and I run the site on my own. This page explains, in plain English, what the site does and does not collect. The short version: there are no accounts and no adverts, we never ask for your email address to use the site, and the only cookies are optional Google Analytics ones that you can say no to.

If you have a question about this page, email westiesworkshop@gmail.com.

No accounts

You don’t need to sign up or log in to use anything on this site. We don’t know who you are, and we don’t want to.

What is saved in your own browser

Some tools remember things so you don’t lose your work. This is saved only in your browser on your device (using your browser’s local storage). It is never sent to us, and we can’t see it.

  • Whiteboard: your drawings on each question page.
  • Question timer: your timer and music settings.
  • Times Tables Arcade: the player names you type in and your scores. Use a first name or a nickname, not your full name.
  • Calculator: which calculator you last chose.
  • Exam builder: the questions you have picked for a paper.
  • Ticks on questions: which questions you have marked as done, when, and any marks you entered.
  • Your cookie choice: whether you pressed Accept or No thanks on the cookie banner. We ask again after a year.

Anyone else who uses the same browser on the same device can see these things. You can delete them at any time by clearing your browser’s site data (sometimes called “cookies and site data”) for westiesworkshop.com.

Important: because this is saved only in your browser, it will be lost if you clear your browsing data, use a private window, or switch to a different device.

Save codes

To move your ticks to another device, or keep them safe if you clear your browser, you can make a save code. This is a random code, for example K7M2-QX9P-4HTA.

  • When you make a save code, a copy of your ticks, dates and any marks you entered is stored on our server under that code. No name, email address or other details are attached to it.
  • Anyone who has your code can load those ticks, so keep it to yourself.
  • Save codes that haven’t been used for 12 months are deleted automatically.
  • You can delete a save code at any time using the “Delete my backup” button.

Sharing an exam paper

If you share a paper you built in the exam builder, the link itself holds the list of questions and the front page settings you chose (for example a school name you typed in). Nothing is stored on our server, and the link contains no other information about you.

Photos you send us

On the Enrichment page you can send a photo of something you’ve made (for example a Pi Day cake). If you do:

  • We keep the photo, the caption, and the name you type (we ask for a first name, class or school only, and you can leave it blank).
  • Nothing is shown on the site until we have checked and approved it.
  • Please don’t send photos showing anyone’s face or full name.
  • To have a photo removed, email westiesworkshop@gmail.com and say which one. We will remove it.

Emails

If you email us, we use your email address only to reply to you. We don’t add anyone to a mailing list.

Visitor numbers

We count visits so we know which pages are useful. One of the tools we use doesn’t use cookies and doesn’t identify you:

  • WP Statistics runs on our own server. It doesn’t set cookies, and IP addresses are scrambled (hashed) before they are stored, so they can’t be read back.

Cookies and Google Analytics

The only cookies on this site come from Google Analytics, and only if you press Accept on the cookie banner.

  • Google Analytics tells us things like how many people visited, which pages they used and roughly which country they were in.
  • It sets cookies whose names start with _ga. They last up to 13 months, so it can tell a new visit from a return visit.
  • Google receives your IP address and basic details about your device and browser. Google’s own privacy policy explains how it handles this.
  • We only ever look at totals, such as how many people visited a page last month. We don’t use it for advertising.
  • If you press No thanks, Google Analytics doesn’t load at all, and the site works exactly the same.

You can change your mind at any time using the Cookie settings link at the bottom of every page.

Keeping the site safe

Like almost every website, our host (Bluehost) and our security plugin (Wordfence) record technical details such as IP addresses when pages are requested. This is used only to keep the site running and to block attacks, and old logs are deleted automatically.

Videos, fonts and other websites

  • YouTube videos only load when you press play, and use YouTube’s privacy-enhanced mode (youtube-nocookie.com). Once a video plays, YouTube’s own privacy policy applies.
  • Images are delivered by Jetpack’s image service, and the site’s lettering by Google Fonts. Your browser asks their servers for these files, which means they see your IP address, as with any website.
  • Many pages link to resources on other websites. Those sites have their own privacy policies, so it’s worth checking them.
  • Buy Me a Coffee: if you choose to support the site, the payment is handled by buymeacoffee.com, not by us.

Mark with AI

The “Mark with AI” button copies the question, the mark scheme and some marking instructions to your clipboard, so that you can paste them into an AI app such as ChatGPT, Claude or Gemini. We don’t send anything to an AI app ourselves.

AI apps have their own terms and minimum ages: ChatGPT and Gemini are 13 and over, and Claude is 18 and over. If you’re under 18, ask a parent or teacher before using one, and never put personal details (like your full name or school) into an AI app.

Children

This site is designed to be safe for pupils of all ages. We don’t ask children for personal details, there are no accounts or chat features, and there is no advertising or tracking for advertising.

Your rights

Under UK data protection law (UK GDPR) you can ask what information we hold about you, and ask us to correct or delete it. In practice the only personal information we might hold is a photo you sent or an email you wrote. Email westiesworkshop@gmail.com and we will reply within one month.

If you’re unhappy with how we’ve handled your information, you can complain to the Information Commissioner’s Office (ico.org.uk).

Changes to this page

If anything here changes, we will update this page and the date at the top.