Information for Parents and Carers
Your child's school uses Zippylang to teach languages. Here is what that means, in plain English.
What is Zippylang?
Zippylang is a website that helps primary school children learn a language — Spanish, French, German, Italian or Mandarin. Children work through short lessons with games, quizzes and pictures, and can hear words spoken aloud to help with pronunciation.
It also has a friendly robot character called Zippy, which children can practise simple conversations with. Zippy is powered by artificial intelligence (AI) rather than being a real person, and the app makes that clear to children.
Zippylang is used in school, as part of lessons. It is chosen and managed by your child's school, not by us.
How does my child sign in?
Their teacher gives the class a short join code. Your child types in that code and their name, and that is what creates their account. Some teachers also set a 4-digit PIN so that a child can get back into their own account.
Your child does not need an email address, and does not need to create a password.
What information is held about my child?
We keep this deliberately small. It is:
- Their name — first name and surname, so that teachers and classmates can tell children apart
- Their class and year group
- Their progress — which lessons they have done, their scores, how long they spent, and the points they have earned
- A 4-digit PIN, only if their teacher has set one
That is all. We do not collect:
- Email addresses or phone numbers for children
- Dates of birth or home addresses
- Photographs, video or voice recordings of your child
- Anything about your child's health, background or family
We do not show advertising to children, we do not use their information for marketing, and we do not sell it to anyone.
What about the AI tutor?
When your child chats with Zippy, what they type is sent to our AI provider (Anthropic) to produce a reply, and then shown on screen. Zippy is set up to behave as a language tutor for young children: to use age-appropriate language, to keep conversations on the topic of the language being learned, and to suggest asking a teacher if it is unsure about something.
Like all AI, it is not perfect. That is why Zippylang is intended to be used in class, with a teacher present, rather than unsupervised.
We do not currently keep a saved copy of these conversations, so teachers cannot read back through what a child typed. If you would like to know more about how the school supervises this, your child's teacher is the best person to ask.
Who is responsible for my child's information?
Your child's school decides to use Zippylang and is responsible for the pupil information held in it. We (Drakon Systems Ltd) run the service on the school's behalf and look after the information according to UK data protection law.
This means that if you want your child's information corrected or removed, or you would prefer your child not to use Zippylang, the school is the right place to start. Teachers can delete a child's account and their progress records themselves.
Asking us a question
We are happy to hear from parents directly. Please note that, because the school holds the relationship with us, we may need to refer requests about a specific child back to the school.
You may also want to read our Privacy Policy, Cookie Policy and the safeguarding information we provide to schools.