Practicalities and policies

Here you can find details of how booking my tutoring services works, and my policies on cancellation, lateness, and academic integrity. Hopefully it should mostly be common-sense stuff, but I do ask that you make yourself aware of the specifics before we agree your first booking. If you have any questions about any of this, please do let me know.

You may also be interested in: Safety and Trust.

Booking and fees

I try to keep my rates up-to-date on my site, but we’ll discuss and confirm the price to be paid before starting. For some services, such as marking, I only know the exact price once I’ve done it; in these cases, an estimate is available before booking.

You can book sessions or services as a one-off, or in blocks lasting up to three months. In either case, the fee will always be what we agreed it was at time of booking. Alternatively, we may agree an indefinitely recurring schedule (e.g. ‘every Tuesday evening’); in this case the price at which you book will be guaranteed for three months, after which it may or may not change.

I will always let you know in good time before the price of a recurring booking changes, and what the price is before booking. I do not charge any extra monies outside of the quoted fee.

Payments

Payment is due for services already rendered, rather than in advance, on a monthly basis. I send invoices at the end of the calendar month, unless we agree otherwise. Your invoice will detail the dates and type of services provided, and the fee for each and overall. Payment is by bank transfer.

Cancellation policy

Up to 48 hours before a booked session begins, you are free to ask to reschedule it or to cancel it entirely by contacting me, and there will be no charge for the session if cancelled, or no extra charge beyond the original fee if moved. If you wish to cancel or reschedule after this time, there is a charge outside of exceptional circumstances. For a cancellation, this is the full agreed cost of the session. To reschedule, this is half the agreed cost of the original session, charged in addition to the cost of the session at the new time. This policy is to protect my time and income, as I have often turned down other activities, opportunities, or work for our session.

For services other than scheduled sessions (e.g. marking), bookings are non-refundable, as I may have started work as soon as the work, deadline, and fee is agreed.

Occasionally, I may need to reschedule a session. If this is the case I will give you as much notice as possible, and make finding a new time a priority.

For recurring (e.g. weekly) sessions, I don’t count future sessions as scheduled and booked for cancellation purposes until two weeks ahead. This means that for future dates beyond two weeks, I undertake to give your possible booking preference over any other tutoring work, but do not guarantee my availability. If, for instance, we were to agree to meet every Tuesday evening, there might be the occasional session I can’t make (e.g. if Christmas Day were a Tuesday), and I don’t imply that I’ll be available at that time in perpetuity (e.g. my circumstances could change in six months).

Lateness

Please let me know at your earliest opportunity if you or your child may be late to a tutoring session. If you are late, I will normally still have to end the session at the booked time, and you will still be charged the full agreed price.

Academic good practice policy

I never accept work marking, editing, or commenting on work that you intend to represent as your own for any examination, competition, or other formal requirement. In particular, I never offer help of any kind with coursework for a qualification or assessment. This is my policy even if you know or believe that such help would be allowed. The one exception is personal statements for applications: I may look at these and discuss them with the applicant, but I will never edit them or write any material for them, and all decisions about content will remain entirely with the applicant.

Please do not ask me to do any work that might violate rules, lead either of us to act or appear to act dishonestly, or give you or your child an unfair advantage. Were I to discover that I had inadvertantly provided help that contravened the rules of an institution or exam board, or facilitated academic malpractice, I would report it to the relevant authorities.

Safeguarding concerns

In the event that I had a concern that a child might have been harmed or be at risk of harm, I would seek to notify the appropriate people best placed to protect that child. Depending on the circumstances and nature of the concern, this could be a parent or guardian, the Local Authority Designated Officer or another official, or emergency services. I will always act in the best interests of the child and, as far as is possible as an individual provider outside of organisational structures, in accordance with the guidance in Keeping Children Safe In Education.

Should a situation ever develop in which I considered that continuing tutoring posed any risk of harm to a child, or any risk of appearance of impropriety that could not be easily rectified to everyone’s satisfaction, any further tutoring services would cease immediately, regardless of what had previously been agreed (and any pre-paid monies returned).

You can read more about how I keep everyone safe on the about me page.