Cookie Usage
Our website uses Cookies to help us provide you with a useful and reliable browsing experience and to help us improve our site. Cookies are small files of letters and numbers that are stored on your device. When someone visits our website, we collect standard internet log information and details of visitor behaviour patterns. We collect this information in a way which does not personally identify anyone.
Cookies are small text files that are placed on your device to help our website provide a better user experience. Cookies are stored on your individual device and you have full control over their use.
How to change your cookie settings
You may deactivate or restrict the transmission of cookies by changing the settings of your web browser. Cookies that are already stored may be deleted at any time. To find out more about cookies and how to manage or delete them, visit www.aboutcookies.org.uk.
Find out how to manage cookies on popular browsers:
To find information relating to other browsers, visit the browser developer’s website.
To opt out of being tracked by Google Analytics across all websites, visit tools.google.com/dlpage/gaoptout.
If you choose to disable cookies, you may not be able to use all the features on our website.
The types of Cookies we use on this site are:
First Party Cookies
These are necessary Cookies that are set by this website directly. These Cookies are essential to the running of our website and are kept for the duration of a user’s visit. These keep track of things such as the session ID itself and whether the visitor has chosen to view the site in high visibility mode.
First Party Cookies set by this website
| Name | Purpose | Expires |
|---|---|---|
| auth_user | Records when a user has logged in to the website (e.g. protected pages that require a user login). | End of session |
| cms_user | Identifies a session that should not retrieve pages from cache (e.g. when a user is logged in to the CMS). | End of session |
| highvis | Records if the user has switched to high visibility mode. | End of session |
| PHPSESSID | Default identifier that PHP uses for Cookies which are generated during a session. | End of session |
| popup_seen_today | Indicates whether pop-up announcements have been viewed or not | At midnight |
Third Party Cookies
These are Cookies set by other suppliers which we may be using to enhance our site and which are controlled by them. The following section details third party Cookies you might encounter through this site. For more information on these Cookies or to opt-out of third parties collecting any data regarding your interaction on our website, please refer to their websites for further information.
Google Analytics
Like many websites, we use Google Analytics to collect information about visitor behaviour, such as the number of visitors to the various parts of our website. We do this to compile reports that help us improve our site. Google Analytics stores information about what pages you visit, how long you are on the site, how you got here, what documents you download and what you click on. This analytics data is not tied to personally identifiable information (e.g. your name or address) so this information cannot be used to identify who you are.
Below is a description of the Google Analytics Cookies we may use on this site and what they are used for:
| Name | Purpose | Expires |
|---|---|---|
| _utm.gif | Logs details about visitor’s browser and computer | End of session |
| _utma | Used to distinguish users and sessions | 2 years |
| _utmb | Used to determine new sessions/visits | 30 mins |
| _utmc | Used to determine the duration of a visit | End of session |
| _utmv | Use to determine visitor behaviour during a session | End of session |
| _utmz | Stores the traffic source that explains how the user reached the site | 6 months |
| _utmt | Used to throttle request rate | 10 minutes |
| _utmt_masterTracker | Updates the total number of page visits in anonymous form | End of session |
| _ga | Used to distinguish users | 2 years |
| _gid | Used to distinguish users | 24 hours |
You can find more detailed information about the Google Analytics Cookies we use by clicking here.
You can find out more about Google’s position on data privacy as regards to its analytics service, including information about the Google Analytics opt-out browser add-on in the Privacy Controls section here.
Other Third Party Cookies
We may use third party plugins or integrate with other websites or services (for example: Issuu PayPal, ParentPay, WisePay, facebook, twitter, Linkedin, YouTube, Instagram, vimeo).
For these to work they may set Cookies through our site. We do not control these Cookies and you should refer to their websites for their respective privacy policies or for further information on how to opt out of them collecting any data regarding your interaction on our website. Alternatively you may deactivate or restrict the transmission of Cookies by changing the settings of your web browser.