For prep school MFL departments
We built Tête-à-Tête for Common Entrance because no AI speaking practice tool was designed for the 13+ paper. The tools that existed were either consumer apps for adults or GCSE-flavoured products pitched at older candidates. This page covers the practical questions an MFL department asks before adopting something new.
Data protection & compliance
Tête-à-Tête is registered with the ICO under ZC135288. We hold a published Data Processing Agreement (DPA), Schools Privacy Notice, and a school addendum that we’ll sign with your school before any pupil uses the service. Standard UK GDPR / Article 28 data-processor wording — your school’s existing parental consent (collected at enrolment) is the lawful basis for processing.
Voice processing. Pupil audio is processed in transit — we do not retain audio recordings on our servers. Transcripts of the practice session are stored so that pupils and (where you choose to enable it) teachers can review the session afterwards. Audio retention by our voice and AI sub-processors follows their published policies, which we disclose in full in the DPA.
Where data lives. EU and US sub-processors, covered by UK Addendum to Standard Contractual Clauses. The list and the relevant DPA links are in our published Schools Privacy Notice. We’ll walk your DPO through it.
What we don’t do. No advertising. No behavioural profiling. No retention beyond the educational purpose. No sharing with third parties for marketing. The Children’s Code (AADC) standards are designed into the product, not bolted on.
Deployment
We demonstrate one session live — usually a Year 8 candidate doing a role play and the open conversation back-to-back. You see what the AI examiner sounds like, what the pupil sees on screen, and what comes out at the end.
We sign your school’s standard data agreement, or our own addendum if your school doesn’t have a template ready. No ambiguity, no “subject to negotiation later” clauses.
Pupils don’t self-register. Your teacher creates the class and adds candidates from their CE register. There is no public sign-up page for pupils — under-13 access is gated through the school.
School iPads, Chromebooks, family laptops. Modern browser, a microphone, headphones if convenient. Nothing to install.
Transcripts and scores from each session are visible to the MFL teacher who set up the class. Useful for spotting which candidates need a bit more drilling on a particular tense or scenario.
During the early rollout
Common Entrance 13+ is a small market and we’d rather get it right than charge for a half-finished product. During the initial rollout we’re asking schools for two things:
In return, no upfront fee during the early rollout. When the product is settled, our intent is per-pupil-per-year licensing at a price designed to be much smaller than what schools already spend on textbooks and Language Lab subscriptions — we’ll talk about specifics when the conversation gets there.
Next step