By booking a lesson I agree:

• I will be polite and respectful in any messages I send.
• I will be polite and respectful in lessons.
• If I cannot attend the lesson I will give at least 24 hours’ notice (except in an emergency).
• I am in agreement that if the teacher needs to rearrange the lesson she will give at least 24 hours’ notice (except in an emergency).
• I will pay for each lesson in advance at the time of booking.
• I will learn the new words after my lesson so that I am ready for the next lesson and I can progress faster.
• I will complete the extra work in between lessons if I decide I want it.

I will contact the teacher if there is a problem or I am unhappy about the lessons.

Refunds

Refunds will only be given in exceptional circumstances at the teacher’s discretion, including for blocks of lessons.

If the student cannot attend a lesson, wherever possible it will be rearranged for another time/day.

If a student regularly cancels lessons without enough notice, the teacher may refuse to arrange any further lessons and may not give a refund on any outstanding lessons already paid for.

The teacher has the right to end a lesson early if the student exhibits inappropriate behaviour (including intentional foul language or threats). In such a case, fair warning will be given as well as an opportunity to correct the behaviour and apologise. If the teacher ends the lesson early due to behaviour, no refund will be given and the student will be removed from englishchat.co.uk.

Use of personal information

Necessary information about individual students will be collected before the first lesson and stored in a password-protected file on my laptop. This information will be retained for 1 month after the student’s last lesson with englishchat.co.uk and then permanently deleted. If the student chooses to communicate via Whatsapp, their mobile telephone number will be added to the contacts list on the englishchat.co.uk business phone. This phone is password protected. The student’s mobile telephone number will be deleted from the contacts list immediately after their last lesson with englishchat.co.uk.

Personal information requested before first lesson:

• First name
• Age (only if under 18)
• Country of residence
• First language
• Any other languages spoken and to which level
• Current level of English
• Reason(s) for learning English
• Email address
• Whatsapp number (if the student chooses to communicate via Whatsapp)

Any additional personal information shared during lessons will remain confidential (unless a safeguarding issue is suspected – see below) and will only be used for the purpose of increasing the student’s ability to talk about things that are relevant to them.

Safeguarding and PREVENT

As an educator I have a duty of care to act upon any possible safeguarding or ‘prevent’ issues, regardless of whether they are disclosed to me by a student or whether they are suspected by me as a result of something the student says or does. If this is the case, I will inform the student of any action I am taking and why.

Recording of lessons

I do not record lessons as standard practice but students can request this. I will ask a student at the beginning of each lesson whether they want me to record it. If a recording is made, it will be emailed to the student immediately after the lesson and kept in a password-protected folder on my laptop. Thereafter it will be treated the same as ‘personal information’ (see above). Students can request at any time that their recorded lessons be deleted from my laptop with immediate effect.