Terms and conditions

These terms explain how tuition with Top Tutors Scotland works: what we do, what you pay, what happens if a lesson has to move, and what to do if something goes wrong.

They are written to be read. If anything is unclear, ask us before you agree to it.

1. Who we are, and who you are

We are Toptutorsscotland Ltd, a company registered in Scotland, company number SC898863, registered office 53 Menteith Place, Glasgow, South Lanarkshire, G73 5RQ. We trade as Top Tutors Scotland.

You can reach us at enquiries@toptutorsscotland.co.uk or 07950 415740.

You are the parent or carer arranging tuition. The contract is between you and us. You must be 18 or over to agree to these terms.

The pupil is the young person we teach. They are not party to this contract, but parts of it are about them, and we ask that you go through the relevant parts with them.

These terms apply to every lesson we provide, alongside our privacy policy and our safeguarding policy.

2. What we provide

One-to-one online tuition in National 5 and Higher Maths and Physics, taught against the current Qualifications Scotland course specification.

Every lesson is one to one. We do not offer group tuition.

Lessons are delivered online using Google Meet.

Tutors are qualified, hold PVG scheme membership before their first lesson, and are engaged by us as self-employed contractors under a contract for services. They are not our employees. That does not change our responsibility to you: we are responsible for delivering the tuition you have paid for, and you should come to us, not to the tutor, if something is wrong.

We may change the tutor teaching your child — for example if a tutor is ill, stops working with us, or the match is not working. If we do, we will tell you and we will match your child to a tutor teaching the same subject and level.

What we do not promise

We will teach your child properly and with care. We do not guarantee a grade, a pass, or any particular result. No tutor honestly can. Exam outcomes depend on the pupil, the exam, and a lot of things outside our control.

3. How tuition starts

1. You ask for a free evaluation, through the website or by email.
2. We arrange a free 30-minute evaluation. It is not a taught lesson. It is a conversation to work out where your child is, what would help, and whether we are the right people to help. There is no charge and no obligation, and we take no card details to book it.
3. If we both think tuition is the right call, we confirm in writing what has been agreed: the plan, the rate, the subject, the level and the intended lesson pattern.
4. We send the first invoice.
5. Lessons begin once that invoice is settled.

The contract between us is formed when we send you that written confirmation and you accept it. Not before. If we do not think we are the right support for your child, we will say so at the evaluation.

4. Prices

Lessons are one hour.

A ten-lesson pack runs for three months from the date you buy it. That allows a weekly lesson with a fortnight of slack for illness, holidays and rearranged weeks.

If a pack expires with lessons unused, you may ask us to extend it where there is a good reason, or to refund the unused value. For a refund, we deduct the standard hourly price for each lesson already taught from the amount paid for the pack and refund the remaining balance. We do not charge an administration fee. This does not affect the cancellation rights in section 8.

Toptutorsscotland Ltd is not currently registered for VAT, so no VAT is added to the prices above. If that changes we will tell you in writing before it affects anything you have booked.

We may change our prices. If we do, we will give you at least 30 days’ notice in writing, and the new price will not apply to lessons you have already paid for or to a pack you have already bought. If you do not want to continue at the new price, you can stop, and we will refund anything you have paid for lessons not yet taken.

5. Paying

No payment is ever taken on our website. There is no checkout and no card field anywhere on it. We invoice you directly.

• Essential lessons are invoiced and settled before each lesson.
• Pro and Elite lessons are invoiced monthly in advance.
• The first Pro or Elite invoice comes before the first lesson, and lessons start once it is settled.
• Invoices are due within 7 days of the invoice date.

Ways to pay: bank transfer.

If an invoice is not paid

We would always rather talk to you. If money has become difficult, tell us and we will try to work something out.

If an invoice is unpaid and you have not been in touch, we may postpone lessons and offer the reserved slot to another family. We will tell you before we do that. Slots are in short supply in the evenings and at weekends, and holding one open indefinitely means turning another family away.

We do not charge interest on a late payment.

Cancelled and rescheduled lessons

Cancelled or rescheduled lessons are non-refundable. Where rescheduling is available under your plan, the lesson can be moved in line with the applicable notice period, but no cash refund will be issued. This does not affect your statutory cancellation rights in section 8, your rights where we cancel, or any other refund the law requires us to provide.

6. Moving or cancelling a lesson

Life happens. This is how we handle it.

• Four hours’ notice or more on Pro or Elite: the lesson is rescheduled free of charge, subject to the monthly limits below.
• Less than four hours’ notice: the lesson is charged in full. The slot has been held and the tutor has already prepared for it.

How many free reschedules you get depends on your plan:

• Pro: up to two a month.
• Elite: unlimited.
• Essential: rescheduling is not included. Once an Essential lesson is booked, a missed or cancelled lesson is charged in full unless we agree otherwise as a gesture of goodwill.

If we cancel

If we have to cancel a lesson, we will give you as much notice as we can and offer you a replacement slot. You are not charged for a lesson we cancel. If we cannot offer a replacement that suits you, you can have the money back.

If a pupil does not turn up

If a pupil does not join within 20 minutes of the start time and we have not heard from you, the tutor will end the session and the lesson is charged in full. The tutor will not sit alone in a virtual room waiting indefinitely, for safeguarding reasons as much as practical ones.

7. Your side of it

For lessons to work, we need a few things from you.

• Equipment and connection. Lessons are online, so your child needs a device that can run the lesson platform, a working camera and microphone, and a broadband connection good enough to hold a video call. That is your responsibility, not ours.
• If your connection fails. If a lesson cannot go ahead or is cut short because of a problem at your end, the lesson is charged as normal. We will always try to make up lost time where we reasonably can.
• If our connection or platform fails. If a lesson is lost because of a problem at our end, or the tutor’s, you are not charged, and we will rearrange it.
• A workable space. A quiet place where your child can concentrate, and ideally not a bedroom. Our safeguarding policy explains why.
• Being reachable. Please keep your contact details up to date, and let us know if anything changes that affects the lessons.

8. Your right to cancel — 14 days

Because you are arranging this at a distance, without meeting us in person, you have a legal right to cancel under the Consumer Contracts (Information, Cancellation and Additional Charges) Regulations 2013.

You can cancel within 14 days of the contract being made, for any reason, and you do not have to give one. The 14 days start the day after we confirm the arrangement in writing.

To cancel, just tell us in a clear statement — email enquiries@toptutorsscotland.co.uk. You can use the cancellation form at the end of these terms, but you do not have to.

If you want lessons to start inside the 14 days

Most families do, because exams do not wait.

If you ask us to start lessons within the 14-day period, we will. You are asking us expressly to begin, and we will confirm that in writing. It does not take away your right to cancel.

If you then cancel within the 14 days:

• you pay for the lessons that have already been taught, in proportion to what you have had
• you get the rest of your money back
• if no lesson has been taught yet, you get everything back

We will refund you within 14 days of you telling us, using the same method you paid with.

9. Stopping later

After the 14 days:

• Lessons booked by the hour: stop whenever you like. Tell us, and you are only invoiced for lessons you have had. We ask for reasonable notice so we can offer the slot to someone else, but there is no minimum term and no exit fee.
• A ten-lesson pack: if you stop partway through, we deduct the standard hourly price for each lesson already taught from the amount you paid and refund the remaining balance. We do not charge an administration fee.

If we stop

We may stop providing tuition if:

• invoices go unpaid and you have not been in touch
• a pupil’s or a parent’s behaviour towards a tutor is abusive or threatening
• we have a safeguarding concern that means lessons should not continue
• we cannot provide a suitable tutor

We will tell you why in writing and refund anything you have paid for lessons you have not had. Where you bought a pack, we calculate that refund in the same way as a part-used pack above. Ending tuition for cause does not allow us to keep payment for lessons not supplied.

10. Recording lessons, and materials

Lessons are not recorded. No video or audio recording of a lesson is made, kept or stored by us.

Neither the pupil nor anyone else may record, photograph or screenshot a lesson without our written agreement. That protects the tutor as much as the pupil.

Teaching materials, the e-syllabus, worksheets and feedback we give you remain ours, or our licensors’. You and your child may use them freely for your own learning. Please do not share, sell, publish or post them.

11. Contact between tutors and pupils

All contact between a tutor and a pupil happens through our channels, and only about tuition. Tutors do not give pupils personal phone numbers, personal email addresses or social media contacts, and they do not accept them.

The “direct chat with your tutor” included in our plans runs through WhatsApp, between us and the parent or carer only, which we can see. It is for questions about the work between lessons.

Our safeguarding policy explains this in full and it applies to these terms.

12. If something goes wrong

Please tell us. Email enquiries@toptutorsscotland.co.uk with what happened and what you would like us to do.

We will acknowledge it within 5 working days and give you a full answer within 20 working days.

We are not currently required by law or contract to participate in a particular alternative dispute resolution scheme and have not committed to one. If that changes, we will tell you about the applicable scheme when responding to a complaint. You can obtain independent consumer advice from Advice Direct Scotland, and your right to use the courts is unaffected.

13. Our responsibility to you

We will provide tuition with reasonable care and skill, as the Consumer Rights Act 2015 requires. If we do not, you are entitled to ask us to put it right, and if we cannot, to a reduction in price. Nothing in these terms takes those rights away.

Nothing in these terms limits or excludes our liability for:

• death or personal injury caused by our negligence
• fraud or fraudulent misrepresentation
• any other liability which cannot be limited or excluded by law

We do not set a separate contractual cap on liability in these terms. Our responsibility is determined by applicable law, including the Consumer Rights Act 2015.

We are not responsible for a pupil’s exam results.

14. Your information

We explain what we do with your information, and your child’s, in our privacy policy. It covers what we collect, why, how long we keep it, and your rights. Please read it — it is part of the picture, and it is short.

15. Other things

Changing these terms. We may update these terms. If a change affects you materially we will give you at least 30 days’ notice in writing, and you can stop if you do not accept it.

Passing this on. You cannot transfer this contract to someone else without our agreement. We may transfer it if the business is sold, and your rights will not be affected.

If part of this does not hold. If any part of these terms turns out not to be enforceable, the rest still applies.

Circumstances outside anyone’s control. If something genuinely beyond our control stops us delivering lessons — a major outage, severe weather, illness — we will rearrange rather than charge you.

16. The law that applies

These terms, and any dispute arising from them, are governed by the law of Scotland.

Any dispute may be brought in the courts of Scotland.

If you live elsewhere in the United Kingdom, you keep the benefit of any mandatory consumer protections of the place where you live, and you may be able to bring proceedings in your local courts.

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Model cancellation form

(You only need this if you want to cancel within the first 14 days. You can simply email us instead.)

To: Toptutorsscotland Ltd, enquiries@toptutorsscotland.co.uk, 53 Menteith Place, Glasgow, South Lanarkshire, G73 5RQ

I hereby give notice that I cancel my contract for the supply of the following service:

• Service: online tuition
• Ordered on: …
• Name: …
• Address: …
• Date: …

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