Terms of use

These terms are an agreement between WithMe (“we”, “us”, “our”) and the school, trust or other organisation that sets up a WithMe account (“the school”). The person who sets up the account confirms that they are authorised to accept these terms for the school.

Staff who sign in through a school must also follow the sections on accounts and acceptable use.

If the school has a separate signed agreement with us, that agreement takes priority wherever the two differ.

WithMe checks the school’s attendance system at times the school chooses and finds students with an unexplained mark. It then notifies the staff responsible and lets them record that a student is with them. It also gives the attendance team a live view of every check.

We will keep improving WithMe, so features may change. We won’t remove a core feature without telling administrators first.

WithMe is currently free. If we introduce charges, we will tell administrators at least 60 days in advance, and the school won’t be charged unless it agrees.

• It isn’t the school’s attendance register. The register in the school’s attendance system remains the official record, and WithMe never changes it.
• It isn’t a safeguarding system or an emergency service. The school must keep following its own procedures for missing children, and must never rely on WithMe as the only way to find a child.
• It depends on other systems. Checks are only as accurate and up to date as the school’s attendance system. Notifications rely on phone, email and internet services and can arrive late or not at all. If the attendance system can’t be reached, WithMe tells administrators, but it can’t check marks it can’t see.

The school’s administrators are responsible for:

• inviting only staff who need WithMe, and giving each the right role
• keeping staff groups, the timetable and closed days accurate
• promptly removing or suspending staff who leave or no longer need access
• deciding whether everyone must use two-step sign-in

Everyone who signs in must:

• keep their password, authenticator app and passkeys to themselves, and never share an account
• use two-step sign-in wherever they can
• tell an administrator, and us at support@withme.school, straight away if they think someone else has used their account

You must not:

• use WithMe for anything other than the school’s attendance and safeguarding work
• look at or use information about students that you don’t need for your role
• try to access another school’s data, another person’s account, or any part of WithMe you aren’t permitted to use
• scan, probe, load-test or try to get around WithMe’s security without our written permission
• copy, resell or reverse engineer WithMe, or use it to build a competing product
• upload anything unlawful or harmful, or anything you don’t have the right to use, such as a logo you don’t own

If you find a security problem, please report it to support@withme.school. We welcome responsible reports.

We may suspend an account that breaks these rules or puts others at risk. Where we can, we will tell the school’s administrators first.

The school owns all the information it puts into WithMe or connects to it (“school data”). We use school data only to provide, secure and support WithMe for that school, as described in our privacy notice.

The school lets us show its name and logo inside WithMe and in emails we send on its behalf.

The school is responsible for having a lawful basis to use WithMe with its data, and for telling staff, students and parents about it, for example in its own privacy notice.

For school data, the school is the controller and we are its processor. This section is the agreement required by Article 28 of the UK GDPR. We will:

• process school data only on the school’s documented instructions, which are these terms and the school’s settings in WithMe, unless the law requires otherwise; if it does, we will tell the school first unless the law forbids it
• make sure everyone who can access school data is bound by confidentiality
• protect school data with appropriate technical and organisational measures, as described in the privacy notice
• use only the providers listed in the privacy notice, under written terms that protect the data as well as these do, and give the school at least 30 days’ notice of any new or replacement provider so it can object; we remain responsible for their work
• transfer school data outside the UK only with the safeguards UK data protection law requires
• help the school respond to people exercising their data protection rights, and with data protection impact assessments and any consultation with the Information Commissioner’s Office
• tell the school within 48 hours of becoming aware of a personal data breach affecting its data, with the information it needs to meet its own duties
• delete school data when the agreement ends, or return it first if the school asks, as set out in “Ending the agreement”
• give the school the information it needs to show that we meet these terms, and allow reasonable audits on reasonable notice

When an administrator connects an attendance system such as Arbor, the school authorises us to read the information WithMe needs from it: students, year groups, forms and lesson attendance marks. WithMe’s access is read-only.

The school is responsible for approving the connection in that system, and can remove it at any time, either there or in WithMe. The attendance system’s own terms continue to apply between the school and that system’s provider.

We work to keep WithMe running and to fix problems quickly, but we can’t promise it will always be available or free of errors. We may sometimes need short maintenance breaks. We will try to schedule them outside the school day and give notice where we can.

For help, email support@withme.school. We aim to reply within two working days.

We own WithMe, including its software, design and name. These terms give the school and its staff the right to use WithMe while the agreement lasts, and no other rights.

If you send us feedback or ideas, we may use them freely, with no obligation to you.

The school can stop using WithMe at any time by emailing support@withme.school and asking us to close its account.

We can end the agreement by giving administrators 60 days’ notice. We can end it straight away if the school seriously breaks these terms, or if we have to for legal or security reasons.

When the agreement ends, access stops. For 30 days afterwards, an administrator can ask us for a copy of the school’s data in a common format. We then delete the school’s data within 90 days of the agreement ending, apart from anything the law requires us to keep.

Nothing in these terms limits liability for death or personal injury caused by negligence, for fraud, or for anything else that the law doesn’t allow to be limited.

We are not liable for losses that were not reasonably foreseeable, or for indirect losses. We are also not liable for losses caused by the school’s own systems or attendance data, or by phone, email or internet services that we don’t control.

Apart from that, our total liability to the school for all claims in any 12-month period is limited to the greater of £100 and the fees the school paid us during that period.

We may update these terms. For significant changes, we will email administrators at least 30 days before the changes apply. If the school doesn’t accept them, it can end the agreement before they take effect.

• These terms are governed by the law of England and Wales, and the courts of England and Wales have jurisdiction.
• No one else has rights under these terms, under the Contracts (Rights of Third Parties) Act 1999 or otherwise.
• Neither side is responsible for delays or failures caused by events beyond its reasonable control.
• If any part of these terms can’t be enforced, the rest still applies.
• We may transfer this agreement to anyone who takes over WithMe, and will tell the school if we do. The school may transfer it only with our agreement. The exception is a transfer to a trust or local authority that takes over the school, which doesn’t need our agreement.
• To contact us about these terms, email support@withme.school.