Terms of use

1. About these terms

These terms cover your use of the Classroom Sounds website, the school portal at my.classroomsounds, the Classroom Sounds app for iPhone, Android and Windows, and the browser extensions. In these terms, we call all of these the service.

The service is run by Classroom Sounds Ltd, a company registered in England and Wales (company number 16976041), Unit C Holy Oak Farm, Upton Snodsbury, Worcester, Worcestershire, WR7 4NH. When we say we or us, we mean Classroom Sounds Ltd.

Your school or trust has its own agreement with us, which covers what it buys, what it pays and our responsibilities to it. These terms are about how you, as a member of staff, use the service. If the two ever disagree, your school's agreement wins.

By signing in or using the service, you agree to these terms. If you do not agree, please do not use it, and speak to your school's site admin.

2. Who can use the service

Anyone can read the public website. Everything else is for staff at schools and trusts that use Holly or Classroom Sounds Alert.

• Your account is set up by your school's site admin. You cannot sign up yourself.
• Accounts are for school staff only. The service is not for pupils or parents.
• Supply and visiting staff can be given a day code by the school. It works until the end of that school day.
• Your school decides what you can see and do, such as who can raise an alert or open sensitive documents.

3. Keeping your account safe

• Keep your password, two-step sign-in and alert PIN to yourself. Never share them, even with a colleague.
• If you lose your phone or think someone else knows your details, tell your site admin straight away, or contact us.
• Use the service only from devices you control, and sign out of shared computers.
• You are responsible for what is done with your account, so please look after it.

4. Alerts and calls for help

In an emergency, always call 999. Classroom Sounds is not an emergency service, and we do not watch alerts or calls for help as they happen.

Holly and Classroom Sounds Alert are supplementary communication aids. They help staff tell each other what is happening. They are not certified alarm systems, and they do not replace your school's fire alarm, its emergency plan, or anyone's own judgement.

Alerts travel over mobile networks, Wi-Fi, the internet and services run by other companies. We work hard to get every alert through, but we cannot promise that every message will arrive, or arrive on time. In particular:

• Your phone needs signal or Wi-Fi, and charge, to receive an alert.
• Your phone's settings, such as notifications, silent mode or Do Not Disturb, can stop an alert showing or sounding. The app shows you whether your phone is ready.
• Texts and calls depend on mobile coverage at your school.

Your school keeps responsibility for its emergency plan, staff training and practices. When you use the service:

• Raise an alert only when it is genuinely needed, or as a practice your school has arranged.
• Never raise an alert as a joke or to test the system outside an arranged practice.
• Only you can mark yourself as safe. Answer honestly, and update your answer if things change.

5. The policy builder and Safety File

The Martyn's Law policy builder and the Safety File help your school write, practise and keep its own safety procedures and paperwork.

• Using them does not make a school compliant with Martyn's Law or any other law. Compliance stays with your school.
• We do not write your procedures. Templates and prompts are starting points only.
• Your school is responsible for checking that what it writes is right for its building, its people and the latest official guidance.

6. Holly devices and readings

Holly measures how loud a room is, along with temperature, humidity and air pressure. It never records, stores or transmits audio.

• Holly readings are a guide for the classroom and for school leaders. Holly is not a calibrated sound level meter, so its readings are not suitable for formal acoustic or legal assessments.
• Holly does not detect fire alarms. Staff record fire drills themselves.
• Please do not open, move, cover or tamper with a Holly. If one looks damaged or stops working, tell your site admin.

7. Using the service fairly

Please use the service only for your work at your school, and only in ways the law allows. In particular, please do not:

• try to get into accounts, schools or data you have not been given access to
• interfere with, overload or test the security of the service without our written permission
• copy, change or reverse-engineer our software, except where the law allows you to
• upload anything unlawful, harmful or that you do not have the right to share
• add pupils' personal details to announcements, documents or notes unless your school has decided this is necessary.

8. Your school's content

Procedures, documents, records and messages that your school adds to the service belong to your school. We use them only to provide the service, as set out in our agreement with your school and our privacy notice.

Your school can ask for its content back, or for it to be deleted, when its agreement with us ends.

9. Our software and brand

The service, including our software, designs, words and the Holly voice and sounds, belongs to us or the companies we license it from. We give you permission to use it for your work at your school while your school's agreement with us is in place. This permission is personal to you and you cannot pass it on.

Classroom Sounds, Holly and Classroom Sounds Alert, and their logos, are our brand names. Please do not use them without our permission.

10. Privacy

Our privacy notice explains what information the service holds, why, and for how long. Your school is the data controller and we are its data processor.

The public website sets no cookies and uses no analytics, tracking or advertising.

11. Updates and availability

We keep improving the service. Apps and Holly devices receive updates, and we may add, change or remove features. If a change takes away something important, we will tell your school first.

We aim to keep the service running at all times, but it may sometimes be unavailable, for example during maintenance or because of a fault in a service we rely on. Please keep the app up to date, because older versions may stop working.

12. Our responsibility to you

Our responsibilities to your school, including what we are liable for, are set out in our agreement with your school.

You use the service as part of your work for your school. So far as the law allows, we are not responsible to you personally for any loss that arises from using the service, from it being unavailable, or from an alert or message not arriving.

Nothing in these terms limits or excludes our liability for death or personal injury caused by our negligence, for fraud, or for anything else that cannot be limited or excluded by law.

13. Suspending or ending access

Your school can remove your access at any time, and your access ends when your school's agreement with us ends.

We may suspend or end an account if it is being misused, if these terms are broken, or if we need to protect the service or other users. Where it is safe to do so, we will tell your school first.

14. Apps from the App Store and Google Play

If you download our app from the Apple App Store or Google Play, the store's own terms also apply to that download.

For the iPhone app, these terms are between you and Classroom Sounds Ltd, not Apple. Apple is not responsible for the app, its content, maintenance or support, or for any claim about it, including product, legal or intellectual property claims. If the app fails to meet any warranty that applies, you may tell Apple, and Apple may refund the purchase price, if any. To the extent the law allows, Apple has no other warranty obligation for the app. Apple and its subsidiaries can enforce these terms against you as third-party beneficiaries.

You confirm that you are not in a country subject to a UK, EU or US government embargo, and that you are not on any UK, EU or US government list of restricted parties.

15. Changes to these terms, and the law

We may update these terms from time to time. We will show the new date at the top of this page, and tell your school about any important change before it takes effect.

These terms are governed by the law of England and Wales, and the courts of England and Wales can decide any dispute about them.

16. Contact

Questions about these terms? Email hello@classroomsounds.com or call 01905 905415. For help with the app, visit Support.