Scholars Guild: Terms of Use, Child Safety and Privacy Policy

We run an online platform where students attend live group classes with independent tutors for IGCSE, A-level and similar courses, and where parents manage bookings, payments and progress. Classes usually have between one and four students.

• Under 18: a student must have a parent or legal guardian who creates and owns the account, accepts these terms and gives consent for their child's data to be used as described in Part D.
• Ages 11 to 15: the student uses a child login linked to the parent account, with the safeguards in Part B.
• Ages 16 to 17: the student may have their own login, but the parent or guardian remains the account owner, receives class reports and is responsible for payments.
• 18 and over: the student may hold their own account.
• Tutors must be 18 or over.

If we learn that an account was opened without the required parental consent, we may suspend it until consent is given.

• Give accurate information and keep it up to date.
• Keep passwords private. Do not let others use your login.
• Tell us straight away if you think someone else has accessed the account.
• Parents are responsible for activity on accounts linked to their child.
• One student per student login. Do not share logins between siblings or friends.

When booking, you must give the correct school year, subject and curriculum or exam board. This lets us place students in suitable groups. If a student turns out to be in the wrong group, we will help move them to a better one.

• Classes are paid for with tokens. Parents buy tokens through our payment provider, Payoneer. We do not store card details.
• Prices are shown in [CURRENCY] before you pay, and include any taxes we must charge.
• Tokens belong to the account that bought them. They cannot be sold, transferred or exchanged for cash, except as set out below.
• Unused tokens expire [12] months after purchase. We will remind you by email before they do.

• A class has up to four students. A class may start with fewer, and we may merge nearby groups of the same subject and level so that no one waits unfairly.
• We will tell you by email if your group changes size, time or tutor.
• A student may join a running course after it has started. We will share notes so they can catch up, but we cannot guarantee that missed material is repeated.
• Classes take place live by video. Students need a working device, camera, microphone and internet connection.

• Cancelling by you: cancel or move a class at least [24] hours before it starts and the token is returned. Later cancellations, or not attending, use the token.
• Cancelling by us or the tutor: if we cancel, or the tutor does not turn up, the token is returned or the class is rearranged at no cost.
• First-class guarantee: [if you offer it] if you are not happy after the first paid class, tell us within [48] hours and we will refund the tokens or offer a different tutor.
• Technical problems: if a class cannot run properly because of a fault on our side, we will return the token.
• Refunds go back to the original payment method within [10] working days.
• If you are a consumer, you also have legal rights that these terms do not remove, including any right to cancel a distance contract within the legal cooling-off period. Where your right to cancel applies and you ask us to start classes within it, you may have to pay for classes already taken.

Before a tutor can teach, we [describe only what you really do, for example: verify their identity, check their qualifications, interview them and, where the law of their country allows, ask for a criminal records or police clearance certificate]. Every tutor agrees to our Tutor Code of Conduct. A check at the start does not replace attention afterwards, so we also review concerns and feedback on an ongoing basis.

• Contact students only through the platform, never by phone, social media, email or any other app.
• Never ask for or accept personal details, photos, gifts or money from a student.
• Never arrange to meet a student outside the platform.
• Keep classes professional and focused on learning. Keep the camera on and the learning environment appropriate.
• Never record, screenshot or share any part of a class or chat.
• Never complete a student's coursework, assessed work or exam tasks.
• Report any concern about a student's safety to our Safeguarding Lead straight away.

We do not record classes. This protects students' privacy and the tutor's materials. Students, parents and tutors must not record, photograph or screenshot a class either. We may keep text chat messages for the period set out in Part D so that we can investigate any report.

Parents and guardians may join any class as a silent observer, using a link from their account. They must keep their microphone and camera off, must not disturb the class, and must not share anything they see or hear. Because other children attend, observers must not identify, contact or comment on another family's child.

If you are worried about a student's safety or a tutor's behaviour, contact our Safeguarding Lead, [NAME], at [EMAIL]. We will acknowledge your report within [1] working day. If a child is in immediate danger, contact your local emergency services first.

We may suspend a tutor or student straight away while we look into a report. Where required or appropriate, we will tell the relevant authorities. Reports made in good faith will never count against the person making them.

Everyone using the site must treat others with respect. You must not:

• bully, harass, threaten or insult anyone, or use hateful or sexual language
• share personal information such as addresses, phone numbers, school names or social media handles
• share links, files or messages that are harmful, illegal or unsuitable for children
• pretend to be someone else, or let someone else attend in your name
• try to contact tutors or other students outside the platform, or invite them to do so
• interfere with the site, test its security without permission, or use automated tools on it

Tutoring supports learning. It must not be used to cheat. Tutors will not complete coursework, non-exam assessment, assessed practicals or exam tasks, and students must not ask them to. Nobody may use the site to get help during an exam or to break the rules of an exam board. We may end the account of anyone who does.

• Notes, worksheets, slides and other materials shared in class belong to the tutor or to us. They are for the student's personal study only and must not be copied, sold, posted online or shared with people outside the class.
• Past papers and mark schemes belong to the exam boards and are used only for study.
• By posting messages or files in class chat, students give us and their tutor permission to display them within the class for learning purposes. We do not use students' work in marketing without written parental consent.

If these rules are broken, we may warn the person, remove a message, move a student to another class, suspend or close an account, and, where needed, tell parents or the authorities. For serious breaches, we may act without warning.

• Parent or guardian: name, email, phone number, country, payment history (card details are handled only by our payment provider), and the consent they give.
• Student: first name, school year, curriculum or exam board, subjects, class attendance, work and messages shared in class, and tutor reports on progress.
• Tutors: identity, qualifications, checks carried out, contact details and payment details.
• Technical data: device type, browser, IP address and basic usage logs, used for security and to fix problems.

We do not collect more than a student needs to attend class. We do not record live classes, audio or video.

• To set up accounts, form class groups, run classes and process payments (to carry out our agreement with you).
• To send class reminders, reports and service messages (to carry out our agreement and for our legitimate interest in running the service).
• To keep children safe, prevent misuse and investigate concerns (legal obligations and our legitimate interest in protecting children).
• To improve the site (our legitimate interest, using the least personal data possible).
• Where law requires consent, including for a child's data, we rely on the parent or guardian's consent, which can be withdrawn at any time.

We do not make automated decisions that have legal effects on students, and we do not build advertising profiles of children.

• Tutors see only what they need to teach: first name, school year, subject and progress.
• Other students in a class see only a first name or initials.
• Service providers who work for us, such as Payoneer, [VIDEO PROVIDER], [HOSTING AND DATABASE PROVIDERS] and [EMAIL PROVIDER], under contracts that protect the data.
• Authorities, where the law requires or where needed to protect a child.

We never sell personal data. Class reports are shared only with the student's parent or guardian.

Our tutors, students and service providers are in different countries, including the UK, the UAE, Turkey and Pakistan. When personal data is sent to a country with a different level of protection, we use safeguards recognised by law, such as approved standard contractual clauses, and limit what is sent.

When we no longer need data, we delete or anonymise it.

Parents and guardians, and students old enough under local law, can ask us to give access to, correct, delete or restrict the use of their data, to object to certain uses, to move it, or to withdraw consent. We will reply within one month. You can also complain to your data protection regulator, such as the Information Commissioner's Office in the UK, the Personal Data Protection Board (KVKK) in Turkey, or the data protection authority in the UAE. A parent may ask us to delete all of their child's data at any time.

We protect data with encryption, access controls and limited staff access, and we check our providers. No system is perfectly secure, so we will tell you and the regulator if a data breach puts you at risk, as the law requires.

We use only the cookies needed for the site to work, such as keeping you signed in. We do not use advertising cookies on student accounts. If we add analytics or other cookies, we will ask for consent first where the law requires it.

We provide the platform and the services with reasonable care and skill. Tutors are independent professionals, not our employees. We take care in choosing them, but we cannot control what any individual says or does beyond the rules in this document.

Tutoring helps students learn, but exam results depend on many things, including the student's own work. We cannot promise any grade or exam outcome.

Nothing in these terms limits our liability for death or personal injury caused by our negligence, for fraud or fraudulent misrepresentation, or for anything else the law does not allow us to limit, including your rights as a consumer. Otherwise, we are not responsible for losses we could not reasonably have foreseen, or for loss of profit or business. Our total liability for any claim relating to the service is limited to the amount you paid us in the [12] months before the claim.

We may suspend or close an account if these terms are broken, if a child's safety may be at risk, or if the law requires it. A parent may close an account at any time by contacting us, and we will refund any unused tokens that are eligible under section 7.

If you are unhappy, email [EMAIL]. We will acknowledge your complaint within [2] working days and aim to give a full reply within [10] working days.

We may update these terms and our privacy policy. For important changes we will email the parent at least [14] days before they take effect. If you do not agree, you can close your account. Continued use after the change means you accept it.

These terms are governed by the law of Pakistan, and its courts can hear disputes. If you live elsewhere and local consumer law gives you the right to bring a case in your own country or to rely on its mandatory protections, those rights stay unaffected.

If any part of these terms cannot be enforced, the rest still applies. Not enforcing a right straight away does not mean we give it up. These terms are available in English; if we offer a translation, the English version applies if there is a difference, unless local law says otherwise.

Scholars Guild, run by Ahmad Hasan, Pakistan, [CONTACT ADDRESS]

Email: [EMAIL]. For a privacy request, a safeguarding concern or a complaint, please put "Privacy", "Safeguarding" or "Complaint" in the subject line.