Cookie Policy

1. What are cookies?

Cookies are small text files placed on your device when you visit a website. They are widely used to make websites work, or work more effectively, as well as to provide information to the site owner.

2. Cookies this website sets directly

This website is a static, brochure-style site. It runs no advertising scripts and sets no advertising cookies. There are only two things it can place on your device, and one of them is entirely your choice:

• Your cookie choice itself. When you accept or reject analytics below, we remember that in your browser’s local storage, under the name msm-cookie-consent-v1. It contains a single word — “granted” or “denied” — and nothing that identifies you. Storing it is strictly necessary to honour the choice you made, so it does not itself require consent.
• Google Analytics, only if you accept it. If you choose to accept analytics, Google Analytics 4 sets _ga and _ga_TV3TQ8VZLT cookies to count visits and show us which pages people find useful. They expire after two years. If you reject analytics, or simply ignore the banner, the Google Analytics script is never loaded at all — not blocked after the fact, but never requested, so no data about your visit reaches Google and no analytics cookie is created.

Separately, we use Cloudflare Web Analytics for a basic visitor count. It is cookieless: it sets no cookies, stores nothing on your device, and does not track you across other websites. Because it stores nothing, it does not require your consent, and it runs for everyone.

You can change your mind at any time using the cookie settings link, which is also in the footer of every page. Withdrawing consent is exactly as easy as giving it.

3. Cookies set by embedded third-party services

A small number of pages on this site embed a service from another provider. Those providers may set their own cookies while their embed is on screen, governed by their own cookie and privacy policies:

• MyMusicStaff, our lesson booking system, embedded on our registration page, may set cookies needed to process your sign-up and remember your booking session. The “Client Login” link in our site header takes you away to MyMusicStaff’s own website, where their cookie policy applies instead of ours.
• Google Maps, embedded on our contact page to show our location, may set cookies in line with Google’s own cookie policy.
• Our online shop for gift vouchers is hosted on a separate subdomain and has its own cookie and checkout practices, shown when you visit it.

These embeds only load, and only set cookies, on the specific pages listed above, not across the rest of the website.

4. Cloudflare hosting

This website is hosted on Cloudflare, which may use a limited security cookie to help protect the site from abuse (for example, distinguishing genuine visitors from malicious traffic). This is strictly necessary for the website to run securely and does not track you for advertising purposes.

5. Managing cookies

Analytics on this site are opt-in, and you can change your decision whenever you like:

• Use the cookie settings link here or in the footer of any page to accept or reject analytics. Rejecting stops the Google Analytics script from loading on your next page view.
• Your browser settings let you see, delete and block cookies from specific sites, including any set by the embedded services in section 3. Blocking cookies for MyMusicStaff, for example, may prevent the booking or login widget from working correctly.
• Clearing your browser storage for this site also clears your saved cookie choice, so we will ask you again on your next visit.

6. Changes to this policy

If we add a feature that changes what this website stores on your device, we will update this page and, where the law requires consent, ask you first rather than switching it on by default. The “last updated” date above shows when this page was last revised.

7. More information

For more on how we handle personal data generally, see our Privacy Policy. For independent guidance on cookies, see the ICO’s guide to cookies.

Questions about this policy can be sent to reception@morningsideschoolofmusic.co.uk or by calling 0131 447 1117.