These terms apply when you book private online lessons with Cove Tutors for yourself or for your child. Please read them before you book. They are written to be clear and fair, and nothing in them takes away your legal rights as a consumer.
If your child’s lessons are arranged and paid for by a school, alternative provision setting or local authority, our terms of business apply instead.
1. Who we are
1.1 Cove Tutors is a trading name of Cornish Adventures Ltd, a company registered in England and Wales with company number 15788616. Our registered office address is shown in the footer of this website.
1.2 You can contact us at hello@covetutors.co.uk. For bookings, email bookings@covetutors.co.uk. For payments and invoices, email accounts@covetutors.co.uk.
1.3 In these terms, “we”, “us” and “our” mean Cove Tutors. “You” means the parent, carer or adult student who makes the booking. “The pupil” means the person who attends the lessons.
2. Our service
2.1 We provide live online tuition in science (biology, chemistry, physics and combined science), maths and geography at Key Stage 3, GCSE and, in some subjects, A level.
2.2 Lessons are one-to-one or in small groups of up to four pupils. They take place on Google Meet with a shared digital whiteboard. We do not offer lessons in person.
2.3 Every programme starts with a baseline so the tutor knows where the pupil is starting from. After every lesson the tutor sends you a short note, and each half term you receive a progress summary. Cove Tutors produces all the teaching materials our tutors use, and they are included in the price.
2.4 Before you book, you can have a free 15-minute introductory call with us.
3. How a booking becomes a contract
3.1 You make a booking by choosing a subject, a lesson time and a payment option, either through our online booking system or by email.
3.2 The contract between you and us starts when we confirm your booking in writing (usually by email) and you have paid, or set up a Direct Debit, as described in section 5.
3.3 We will send you a copy of these terms with your confirmation. Please keep it.
3.4 We match each pupil with the Cove tutor best suited to their needs. Most pupils keep the same tutor. If we need to change the tutor, we will tell you in advance where we can and explain why.
3.5 If you are booking for a pupil under 18, you must be their parent or carer, or have their parent or carer’s permission to book.
4. Prices
4.1 Our current prices for families are:
| Option | Price | Validity |
|---|---|---|
| Single lesson (pay as you go) | £50 per hour | Paid at booking |
| Package of 6 hours | £285 | Use within 10 weeks of purchase |
| Package of 10 hours | £450 | Use within 16 weeks of purchase |
| Trial lesson | £50 | See 4.2 |
| Regular weekly lessons | £50 per hour | Paid monthly by Direct Debit |
4.2 If you buy a package within 14 days of your trial lesson, we credit the £50 you paid for the trial against the price of the package.
4.3 We are not registered for VAT, so no VAT is charged. If we become registered for VAT in future, we will give you written notice before VAT is added to any price.
4.4 We may change our prices from time to time. A price change will not affect a lesson or package you have already paid for. For regular weekly lessons paid by Direct Debit, we will give you at least one month’s written notice of any price change, and you can end the arrangement before the new price applies.
5. Paying
5.1 Single lessons and trial lessons are paid in full when you book.
5.2 Packages are paid in full in advance.
5.3 Regular weekly lessons can be paid monthly by Direct Debit. Before the first payment we will confirm in writing the monthly amount, the lessons it covers and the collection date. You are protected by the Direct Debit Guarantee.
5.4 Card payments and Direct Debits are processed by Stripe. Your card details are held by Stripe, not by us.
5.5 If a Direct Debit payment fails, we will contact you to arrange payment. We may pause lessons until the payment is made, and we will tell you before we do.
6. Moving or cancelling a lesson
6.1 You can cancel or move a lesson free of charge if you tell us at least 24 hours before it is due to start.
6.2 If you cancel with less than 24 hours’ notice, or the pupil does not attend, the lesson is charged in full (or, for a package, the hour is used). This is because the tutor has reserved that time and usually cannot fill it at short notice.
6.3 Every family has one free late cancellation. The first time you cancel with less than 24 hours’ notice, we will not charge for that lesson.
6.4 If the pupil joins late, the lesson still finishes at the booked time so that the tutor’s next pupil is not kept waiting.
6.5 If a lesson cannot go ahead or is cut short because of a technical problem on our side, we will offer you a new time or a refund for the time lost.
7. If we cancel or change a lesson
7.1 We will always try to give you as much notice as possible if a tutor cannot teach a lesson.
7.2 If we cancel a lesson, for any reason, we will offer you a new time at no extra cost. If the new time does not suit you, we will refund the lesson in full, or return the hour to your package.
7.3 If we can no longer provide lessons at all, we will refund any lessons or package hours you have paid for and not yet received.
8. Your legal right to cancel within 14 days
8.1 You have the legal right to cancel your contract within 14 days of the day it starts (see 3.2), without giving any reason. This is your right under the Consumer Contracts (Information, Cancellation and Additional Charges) Regulations 2013.
8.2 Lessons do not normally start until the 14-day cancellation period has ended. If you want lessons to start sooner, you must ask us to do so. We will ask you to confirm this request clearly when you book, for example by ticking a box or confirming by email.
8.3 If you ask us to start lessons within the 14 days and then cancel, you will pay for the lessons already given before you told us you were cancelling. This is worked out in proportion to the full service you booked. For a package, that means the hours already used, charged at the package’s hourly rate. For a single lesson that has already taken place, there is no refund.
8.4 To cancel, tell us clearly that you have decided to cancel. The easiest way is to email hello@covetutors.co.uk. You can use the model cancellation form below, but you do not have to.
8.5 To meet the deadline, you just need to send your message before the 14-day period ends.
8.6 We will refund everything you have paid, less any amount due under 8.3, within 14 days of the day you tell us you are cancelling. We will refund you using the same payment method you used, unless you agree otherwise. There is no fee for the refund.
Model cancellation form
If you would like to use this form, copy it into an email to hello@covetutors.co.uk.
To Cove Tutors (Cornish Adventures Ltd), hello@covetutors.co.uk:
I/We hereby give notice that I/We cancel my/our contract for the supply of the following service: [describe the lessons or package].
Ordered on: [date]
Name of consumer(s): [name]
Address of consumer(s): [address]
Date: [date]
9. Ending a package early
9.1 After the 14-day cancellation period, you can still end a package early at any time. Just email hello@covetutors.co.uk.
9.2 We will refund the hours you have not used. To work out the refund, we charge the hours you have already used at our single-lesson rate of £50 per hour, and refund the rest of what you paid. This is because the package price is a discount for buying the full set of hours.
9.3 For example, if you bought a 6-hour package for £285 and have used 2 hours, we charge those 2 hours at £50 each (£100) and refund £185.
9.4 You will never pay more than you originally paid for the package. We refund within 14 days of your request, using the same payment method you used.
9.5 To stop regular weekly lessons paid by Direct Debit, tell us by email. We will not take any further payments after you tell us, and we will refund any lessons you have paid for that have not yet taken place. Cancelling the Direct Debit with your bank on its own does not tell us that you want to stop lessons, so please email us as well.
10. When a package expires
10.1 Each package must be used within its validity period (10 weeks for 6 hours, 16 weeks for 10 hours), starting from the date of purchase. This helps us plan tutor time and keeps lessons regular, which is better for learning.
10.2 We will remind you by email before your package expires if you still have unused hours.
10.3 If you need more time, for example because of illness, exams, a family event or a holiday, please ask us. We will extend the validity period on any reasonable request.
10.4 If hours are unused when a package expires and you have not asked for an extension, please contact us. We will look at your circumstances fairly before treating those hours as lost.
11. Our standard of service
11.1 We will provide our lessons with reasonable care and skill, as the Consumer Rights Act 2015 requires.
11.2 Lessons are taught by suitably qualified tutors who have been through our safer recruitment checks.
11.3 Good teaching makes a real difference, but results also depend on the pupil’s own effort, attendance and circumstances. We cannot guarantee any particular grade or exam result.
11.4 If a lesson does not meet the standard you are entitled to, tell us. We will put it right, usually by repeating the lesson at no cost, or by giving you a full or partial refund.
12. Pupil conduct and online safety
12.1 We want every lesson to be safe, respectful and focused. We ask pupils to:
- join on time, from a quiet place, with their camera and microphone working where possible
- treat their tutor and any other pupils with respect
- use only the meeting link we send, and never share it with anyone else
- not record, photograph or screenshot the lesson or other pupils
- not contact their tutor on personal social media or messaging accounts
12.2 Tutors will only contact pupils and families through Cove Tutors business accounts.
12.3 If a pupil’s behaviour stops a lesson from being safe or useful, the tutor may end the lesson early and will tell you why. Where this happens repeatedly, we may end the contract and refund any lessons you have paid for and not received.
12.4 Our online safety policy explains how we keep online lessons safe.
13. A responsible adult for pupils under 18
13.1 For every pupil under 18, a parent or carer (or another adult they have chosen) must be the responsible adult for lessons.
13.2 The responsible adult should be contactable during every lesson, and we ask that an adult is in the home while the lesson takes place. Younger pupils should learn in a shared space in the home, not a bedroom, wherever possible.
13.3 Please tell us about anything that would help us teach the pupil well and safely, such as special educational needs, health needs or changes at home.
14. Recordings
14.1 We do not record lessons. A lesson is only recorded if this has been agreed in writing in advance, including by the parent or carer.
14.2 Pupils and families must not record lessons either.
15. Safeguarding
15.1 The safety and wellbeing of every pupil comes first. All our tutors are trained to recognise and report concerns about a child’s safety or welfare.
15.2 If we are worried about a child, we have a legal and professional duty to act. This may mean sharing information with the local authority children’s services or the police, sometimes without telling you first if doing so could put the child at risk.
15.3 Our safeguarding statement explains how we keep children safe. You can raise a safeguarding concern with us at safeguarding@covetutors.co.uk.
16. Your personal information
16.1 We use personal information about you and the pupil only to provide and improve our lessons, to keep the pupil safe and to meet our legal duties.
16.2 Our privacy notice explains what we collect, why, who we share it with and your rights.
17. Our responsibility to you
17.1 If we break these terms or fail to use reasonable care and skill, we are responsible for loss or damage you suffer that is a foreseeable result. Loss is foreseeable if it is obvious it would happen, or if we both knew it might happen when the contract was made.
17.2 We are not responsible for loss or damage that is not foreseeable, or that is caused by things outside our reasonable control, such as a widespread internet or power failure.
17.3 Our lessons are for private, domestic use. We are not responsible for any business loss.
17.4 Apart from 17.5, our total responsibility to you under the contract will not be more than the total price you have paid for the lessons or package concerned.
17.5 Nothing in these terms limits or excludes our responsibility for:
- death or personal injury caused by our negligence
- fraud or fraudulent misrepresentation
- anything else that cannot be limited or excluded by law, including your statutory rights as a consumer
18. Complaints
18.1 If something is not right, please tell us so we can put it right. Email hello@covetutors.co.uk.
18.2 Our complaints policy explains how we handle complaints and how long each stage takes.
19. Other important terms
19.1 We may update these terms from time to time. Changes will not apply to lessons or packages you have already paid for unless the law requires it. For regular weekly lessons, we will give you at least one month’s notice of any change that affects you, and you can end the arrangement before it applies.
19.2 This contract is between you and us. No one else has any right to enforce it.
19.3 If a court decides that part of these terms is unlawful, the rest will still apply.
19.4 If we do not insist straight away that you do something you are required to do under these terms, we can still insist on it later.
20. Law and courts
20.1 These terms are governed by the law of England and Wales.
20.2 You can bring legal proceedings in the courts of England and Wales. If you live in Scotland, you can also bring proceedings in Scotland. If you live in Northern Ireland, you can also bring proceedings in Northern Ireland.