Terms and Conditions for Tuition
These terms and conditions are valid for all tuition from 1st September 2023. I reserve the right to make changes to these terms and conditions from time to time and parents will be notified of these with as much notice as possible.
Registration
Clients are required to provide adequate contact details including postal address, email, and landline/mobile numbers to enable me to communicate with you effectively. Please complete the registration form as accurately as possible. Please ensure you provide contact numbers for all parents/guardians who are likely to be present during tuition, this is to ensure I can contact the relevant guardian/parent in case of emergencies/technological breakdowns. Please ensure that you inform me if any contact details change during the academic year.
Booking and payment for 1:1 Tuition
Booking and payment for Group Tuition and Courses
Non-payment of fees – Serenity Education & Tutoring reserves the right to refuse to allow the student to attend tuition while fees remain unpaid or if there is a persistent failure by you to pay the fees on time.
Term dates
Term dates generally follow Bristol City Council published term dates (please note that Academies, Independent and International schools often have their own term dates). An up to date list of term dates is available on my website https://www.serenity-education-and-tutoring.co.uk/availability/
Ad hoc and school holiday lesson(s)
If Ad hoc lessons are required, I will try to accommodate these where possible, subject to availability or last minute cancellations. If you would like to be added to the reserve list for this please contact me to advise, please also state how flexible you are and how much notice you would need to take up an available space.
School holiday lessons can be arranged subject to availability, please contact me to arrange.
Cancellation Policy
1:1 Lessons:
Lessons cancelled with less than 48 hours’ notice will be billed to the client in full.
If for any reason you need to reschedule an agreed lesson, I am happy to do so, subject to availability at a date/time that is mutually convenient to both tutor and student, when at least 48hrs notice has been given as above.
Any lessons cancelled by me for any reason, will be rescheduled where possible, or refunded in full (credited to your next invoice).
Group Lessons (including courses):
Group lesson fees are non-refundable; any lesson cancelled/missed will not be rescheduled due to the nature of group tuition. Access to notes and homework etc. (where requested) from any missed lesson will be provided.
Any lessons cancelled by me for any reason, will be rescheduled where possible, or refunded in full (credited to your next invoice).
Repeated Cancellations – Serenity Education & Tutoring reserves the right to withdraw tuition for repeated cancellations and/or no shows.
Reservations and Waiting Lists
Places for each academic year can be reserved in advance with a non-refundable deposit of two lessons. This will be deducted from the first invoice of the new term when regular tuition recommences. When, I am fully booked, I operate a waiting list, as there are times of the year when students come to the end of their tuition e.g. May after KS2 SAT’s. Places (each new academic year and mid-year) are allocated first to existing students and then to students on that year’s waiting list (in order they were placed on the waiting list).
Termination policy
Lessons will continue until a mutually agreed termination date, subject to a minimum of 2 weeks’ notice in writing. If this coincides with the end of a term, then written notice must be given before that term ends. This is to allow an appropriate transition, allowing me to offer the lesson to a waiting client with reasonable notice. I reserve the right to end our agreement with appropriate notice as per the above.
Time Keeping, Behaviour/Student Expectations and Snacks during lessons
Time Keeping: Clients are responsible for logging in for online tuition on time, if you arrive late to your lesson the time will not be extended, the lesson will end at the designated time to enable the next student to have their full lesson. If for any reason the Tutor is late the lesson duration will take place in full.
Behaviour/Student Expectations: Parents are responsible for ensuring that their children know how to behave appropriately. Abusive or discriminatory behaviour towards the tutor and/or other students will not be acceptable. I reserve the right to cancel any bookings for students whose behaviour is unacceptable, or where abusive language is used by either parent or student. Although this is very unlikely, you will, of course, receive a refund for outstanding lessons if I need to enforce this.
Students are expected to:
Additional expectations for Online Group Lessons:
Snacks: Unless medically required, whenever possible, snacks should be consumed before or after the lesson. If snacks are required during the lesson, these should be able to be consumed quickly and quietly, to avoid distracting from the learning process.
Student progress and parental involvement
It is the parents responsibility to provide any additional information they feel is important to tuition (for example medical conditions/special education needs etc.) Parents are welcome to join the video call at the beginning or end of the lesson for feedback. I do not provide written progress reports.
Limitation of Liability
The tutor will strive to provide the best possible service. However, the tutor will not be held accountable or responsible for the academic success or lack thereof demonstrated by the student/client. Although the tutor will do everything in their power to help grades and skill sets improve, the tutor can offer no guarantee thereto.
The tutor is not liable for any direct, incidental, consequential, indirect, special, punitive or similar damages arising out of this tutoring service, or any errors or omissions in the content of our materials. You the client specifically waive any and all claims arising out the use of the tutoring service.
The General Data Protection Regulations (GDPR) came into force on 25th May 2018 and requires that all businesses issue a privacy statement to all clients and contacts, regarding the data held about the individual.
Nicola Sanders is the ‘controller’ of your data
What information is held
The information I hold comes from you as the parent and your child as the student. On the registration form you complete I ask for the following information:
I only hold the data needed to provide the services you engage me to provide. Contact information is used for scheduling, invoicing, record keeping and communicating my own services. Data will not be shared unless there is a legal obligation to do so. All reasonable steps are taken to ensure your data is processed and stored securely. This information is usually stored as paper copies in a securely locked cabinet and also any files are stored on my password protected computer. Names and email addresses are also stored in my email contacts on my password protected computer and phone numbers are also stored on my pass code protected mobile phone.
Your rights
You have the right to ask for all information held relating to you to be deleted. Please note, however, that for child protection reasons tuition cannot continue after information is deleted and that terms and conditions regarding cancellation remain the same. Unless a client has specifically asked for information to be destroyed, client details will be held on file for 2 years following the completion of tuition by the student. Financial data will be retained for seven years for tax reasons. When the information is destroyed, all papers will be shredded to protect the client’s identify and any data held in computer files will be either anonymised or permanently deleted. Emails/Phone records will be permanently deleted.
Subject access requests
You have the right to see information held relating to this tuition agreement.
If you wish to exercise this right then you can do so by making an appointment to view the information at the beginning of your child’s tuition lesson.
Communication
For child protection reasons, I communicate with you, as the parent before tuition begins and ask for your consent to hold information on your child and permission to tutor. Communication regarding booking invoices etc. is via email and occasionally text message or phone call.
Consent
It is assumed that on completing the registration form and tuition agreement, you consent to me holding the information about your child on file until 2 years after tuition with me ends. It is assumed that consent to communicate via Zoom/Skype other online platforms is given by parents for this online tuition service.
Data Breaches
The GDPR introduces a duty on all organisations to report certain types of data breach to the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO), and in some case, to individuals. In the event of a data breach, I will notify the ICO of a breach where it is likely to result in a risk to the rights an freedoms of individuals – if, for example, it could result in discrimination, damage to reputation, financial loss, loss of confidentiality or any other significant economic or social disadvantage.
Photography
From time to time I take photos of children’s work and activities taking place. These may be published on my website and on social media. Children’s faces are not shown in photos and names will not be shown online in photos.
Email Marketing
Serenity Education & Tutoring would like to keep you up to date with information, latest news, updates and special offers. We don’t sell or share our email list with other organisations and businesses.
We use a third party provider Mailerlite to deliver our information and news of our Tutoring Services. We gather statistics around email opening clicks using industry standard technologies to help us monitor and improve our newsletters. For more information please see Mailerlite’s Privacy Policy visit:https://www.mailerlite.com/legal/privacy-policy
You can unsubscribe at any time by clicking the unsubscribe link at the bottom of our email or by emailing nicola@serenity-education-and-tutoring.co.uk or nicola.sanders_tutor@outlook.com
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