Terms & conditions

The Bell Post is a public website that publishes news, resources, and ideas for people who work in and around schools and colleges. The site is operated by The Bell Post.

Questions about these terms, privacy, or a takedown request: use the contact details published on the site or write to the operator of this installation.

You may read articles, events, and other public pages without an account. Optional reader accounts let you bookmark stories and comment. The Studio (admin) area is only for the people who publish this site.

Content on The Bell Post is for general information. It is not legal, medical, financial, or professional advice, and it is not a substitute for guidance from your school, college, or advisers.

You agree not to:

• break the law or try to break into the site, other accounts, or our systems;
• scrape, overload, or automate the service in a way that harms other readers;
• post spam, malware, or content you do not have the right to share;
• impersonate another person or misrepresent your affiliation.

We may refuse, suspend, or close an account, remove content, or block access if we believe these terms have been broken.

The Bell Post is a public publication. Anyone may read it. Accounts, comments, and the newsletter are available without an age gate. If you are not able to enter a contract where you live, a parent or guardian should help you use the site.

If you create an account we store the name, email, and a hashed password you give us, plus whether you asked for the newsletter. We send a one-time code to confirm the email. You are responsible for keeping your password secret.

You can stop using your account at any time. To correct or delete account data, contact us. Closing an account does not automatically remove comments already published on an article.

We collect only what the product needs:

• Account: name, email, hashed password, newsletter preference.
• Newsletter: email address if you subscribe in the footer, on signup, or elsewhere on the site.
• Comments: the text you post and your display name, shown on the article.
• Bookmarks: which stories you saved, visible only to you.
• Session cookies: an httpOnly cookie so you stay signed in. The Studio uses a separate admin cookie.
• Page views: a first-party count of public page loads for the Studio visitors dashboard. We do not attach that count to your name. The server may see your IP for rate limiting.

We do not sell personal data. We do not use advertising pixels or third-party analytics unless this page is updated first.

Data is stored on the servers and database that host this installation (and, if configured, object storage or email delivery from our providers). We keep it for as long as the account, subscription, comment, or legal need lasts.

You may ask us for a copy of the personal data we hold about you, or to correct or delete it, subject to records we must keep (for example a send log that only stores the subject and a recipient count, not your email).

Essential cookies run the signed-in session. The page-view beacon does not set a tracking cookie. If we later add optional analytics or advertising, we will say so here before turning it on.

Comments are written by readers, not by The Bell Post. You keep ownership of what you write and you grant us a non-exclusive licence to display it on the site. Do not post harassment, hate, threats, sexual content involving minors, other people's private data, spam, or anything illegal.

We may hide or remove a comment and restrict the account after a report or if we find a problem. To report a comment, contact us with the article URL and what is wrong.

Articles, events, images we upload, and the site design are owned by The Bell Post or used under licence. You may share a link. You may not copy the site or our articles for another publication without permission.

If you believe something on the site infringes your copyright, write to us with: your name and contact details, the work you own, the URL on The Bell Post, and a statement that you believe the use is not authorised. We will review takedown requests in good faith.

The weekly issue is sent only to addresses that subscribed or opted in at signup. Each message includes an unsubscribe link. You can also leave at any time on the unsubscribe page. Unsubscribing stops future issues; it does not delete a reader account. You can subscribe again later with the same email.

We aim to keep the site up but do not guarantee uninterrupted access, error-free content, or that every article will stay online. The site is provided as is. To the fullest extent the law allows, The Bell Post is not liable for indirect or consequential loss, or for decisions you make based on what you read here. Nothing in these terms limits liability that cannot be limited by law.

We may update this page. The date at the top will change. Continued use after an update means you accept the revised terms. If a change is material we will note it here.

These terms are governed by the laws that apply to the operator of this site. If a court finds one part unenforceable, the rest still applies.