Tutoring Services Contract Terms

These Tutoring Services Contract Terms (the Tutoring Terms) apply between a Customer and a Tutor to every booking the Customer makes with the Tutor on the Sunbeam Education platform. Each booking (an Engagement), whether a One-Off Session, a Subscription, a Course or a free introductory session, is a separate Service Contract on these Tutoring Terms.

The Customer accepts these Tutoring Terms when booking, by ticking the box at checkout “I have read and agree to the Terms of Service and the Tutoring Services Contract Terms.” A Customer booking a Subscription also ticks the box “I agree to pay for each session in my Subscription unless I cancel it more than 24 hours before it starts, or during my 14-day cancellation period.”

A booking is confirmed as soon as the Customer completes checkout (for paid sessions, once the Customer’s card has been set up). Sunbeam Education then accepts the booking on the Tutor’s behalf by sending the Customer a booking confirmation email, and this forms the Service Contract between the Customer and the Tutor on these Tutoring Terms. AP Tutoring Limited (Sunbeam Education) is not a party to the Tutoring Terms.

Where relevant, these Tutoring Terms are subject to the Terms of Service https://sunbeameducation.com/terms-of-service/. Where the Terms of Service and the Tutoring Terms conflict, the Terms of Service shall prevail.  

1. PARTIES

The parties to these terms are the Customer and Tutor (the Parties) named in the booking confirmation email. For paid bookings, the email gives the Tutor’s full name.

AP Tutoring Limited, trading as Sunbeam Education (Sunbeam Education), runs the Sunbeam Education platform. It acts as the Tutor’s agent: it confirms bookings, takes payments, makes refunds and receives cancellations on the Tutor’s behalf. Either Party can write to the other through their online account on the Sunbeam Education platform, or by post c/o AP Tutoring Limited, Brook Cottage, Filkins, Lechlade, GL7 3JQ, and Sunbeam Education will pass the letter on.

The Customer can contact Sunbeam Education through the contact form at https://sunbeameducation.com/contact/, by email at info@sunbeameducation.com, by phone on +44 7557 308376, or by post to AP Tutoring Limited, Brook Cottage, Filkins, Lechlade, GL7 3JQ.

2. TUTORING SERVICES

The Tutor shall provide the Tutoring Services to the Customer’s child, according to the Customer’s selections when booking the relevant tutoring session.

How long sessions last: Each paid session (a One-Off Session, or a session in a Subscription or Course) lasts 50 minutes. A double One-Off Session is two sessions back to back and lasts 100 minutes. The free introductory session lasts 20 minutes and is free of charge. The Customer can book one free introductory session with each Tutor.

Tutor Fees: The Tutor Fees for each session (after any discount, and including any travel fee for in-person sessions) are shown on the booking page before the Customer books and in the booking confirmation email. They are collected through the Sunbeam Education platform on behalf of the Tutor.

Paying for sessions: Each paid session is charged separately, to the card the Customer sets up at checkout. Sunbeam Education, on the Tutor’s behalf, places a hold for the session fee on the card up to 72 hours (3 days) before the session and takes the payment about 23 hours before the session starts. If the payment can’t be taken, see Unpaid sessions in section 3.

The Parties agree that the Tutor is performing services as an independent contractor. Tutor agrees to perform the services with reasonable care and skill.

Once a booking is made, these Tutoring Terms can’t be changed for it. The Tutor may agree in writing, through the Sunbeam Education platform, to give the Customer more than these Tutoring Terms provide, but not anything that reduces the Customer’s rights under them.

The Customer’s Obligations: Customers agree that they will:

• comply with the Tutor’s reasonable requests and requirements; and
• provide accurate information to the Tutor.

Information about the child’s needs and health: Sharing information about the child’s health or special educational needs is optional. If, when booking, the Customer chooses a special educational needs or health support type or describes the child’s needs on the intake form, Sunbeam Education asks for the Customer’s explicit consent to use that information (unless the Customer has already given it) and passes it to each Tutor the Customer books, so the Tutor can prepare. The Customer can withdraw that consent at any time by contacting Sunbeam Education. Sunbeam Education recommends that the Customer tells the Tutor about anything that could affect the child’s safety during a session, such as a severe allergy or epilepsy.

3. CANCELLATION, RESCHEDULING AND REFUNDS

Using the platform: The Parties must use their online account on the Sunbeam Education platform, accessible via https://app.sunbeameducation.com/ to message each other and to book, move or cancel sessions. This does not stop the Customer from using the Right to Cancel in any other clear way (see Right to Cancel below), from telling Sunbeam Education that the Tutor was late, didn’t turn up or moved a session to a time that doesn’t suit (see below), or from contacting Sunbeam Education directly about a concern for a child’s safety, as set out in the Customer Care Policy.

Right to Cancel: The Customer can cancel a booking, without giving a reason, within 14 days after the day on which the booking is made (the Cancellation Period). Bookings are confirmed as soon as they are made. For a Subscription or Course, the Cancellation Period runs from the day the Subscription or Course was booked. If the Customer cancels during the Cancellation Period:

• the Customer gets a full refund for each session they cancel that hasn’t been delivered yet, even if it is 24 hours or less before the session starts; and
• if the Customer cancels a whole Subscription or Course, every session in it that hasn’t been delivered yet is cancelled and refunded in full.

To cancel during the Cancellation Period, the Customer can cancel in their online account, or tell Sunbeam Education, acting for the Tutor, in any other clear way: for example through the contact form at https://sunbeameducation.com/contact/, by email at info@sunbeameducation.com, by phone on +44 7557 308376, or by post to AP Tutoring Limited, Brook Cottage, Filkins, Lechlade, GL7 3JQ. The Customer can use the model cancellation form below, but doesn’t have to. Refunds are made on the Tutor’s behalf, to the payment method the Customer used, as soon as possible and within 14 days of the Customer telling Sunbeam Education. There is no fee for the refund.

After the Cancellation Period, the 24-hour rule applies (see Cancelling or moving a session below). Paid sessions are only charged about 23 hours before they start, so cancelling more than 24 hours before a session never costs anything.

Sessions during the Cancellation Period: The Tutor will only start providing paid sessions during the Cancellation Period if the Customer asks for this. If the first paid session of a booking is within 14 days of booking, the Customer makes this request at checkout by ticking the box “I ask for my sessions to start within the 14-day cancellation period. I understand that if I cancel during that period I must pay for any sessions already delivered, and that I lose my right to cancel a session once it has been delivered.” Such a booking can’t be completed without this request, so a Customer who doesn’t want sessions to start within 14 days can choose a later first session. The booking confirmation email confirms the request. If the first paid session is more than 14 days away, the box isn’t shown. Where the Customer has asked for sessions to start during the Cancellation Period:

• the Customer loses the right to cancel a session once the Tutor has delivered it in full; and
• if the Customer cancels during the Cancellation Period, they must pay for any sessions already delivered, which is a proportionate amount of the full price of the booking. Sessions not yet delivered are refunded in full.

Model cancellation form

(Complete and return this form only if you wish to cancel the contract)

To: AP Tutoring Limited (Sunbeam Education), acting for the Tutor, Brook Cottage, Filkins, Lechlade, GL7 3JQ. Email: info@sunbeameducation.com

I/We* hereby give notice that I/We* cancel my/our* contract for the supply of the following service: ____________________
Ordered on: ____________________
Name of consumer(s): ____________________
Address of consumer(s): ____________________
Signature of consumer(s) (only if this form is notified on paper): ____________________
Date: ____________________

* Delete as appropriate.

Cancelling or moving a session: The Customer can cancel or move (reschedule) a session in their online account on the Sunbeam Education platform. For paid sessions:

• more than 24 hours before the session starts: the Customer can cancel the session without charge (and any amount already paid for it will be refunded in full) or move it to another available time; and
• 24 hours or less before the session starts: the session can’t be moved, and if the Customer cancels it, the session fee is charged and isn’t refunded, unless the Customer is within the Cancellation Period (see Right to Cancel above).

If the Customer’s child is late or doesn’t attend: If the Customer’s child doesn’t attend a session, or the Tutor can’t get into the Customer’s premises for an in-person session, the session fee is charged and isn’t refunded. If the child is late, the session still ends at its scheduled time and the fee isn’t reduced. If, 10 minutes after the start time, the child still hasn’t joined an online session or isn’t ready for an in-person session, and the Customer hasn’t told the Tutor through the platform that they are running late, the Tutor may end the session, and the session fee is charged and isn’t refunded.

If the Tutor cancels, is late or doesn’t turn up: If the Tutor can’t deliver a booked session, the Tutor must cancel it on the Sunbeam Education platform as soon as possible. Sunbeam Education may also cancel the Customer’s upcoming sessions on the Tutor’s behalf if it ends its contract with the Customer under its Terms of Service. If the Tutor cancels a session, or Sunbeam Education cancels it on the Tutor’s behalf, the Customer is emailed and isn’t charged for that session or, if it has already been paid for, gets a full refund automatically. If the Tutor is at least 15 minutes late to a session, or doesn’t turn up, the Customer gets a full refund for that session: the Customer should tell Sunbeam Education through the contact form at https://sunbeameducation.com/contact/ or by email at info@sunbeameducation.com, and Sunbeam Education will refund the session in full, on the Tutor’s behalf, to the payment method the Customer used, within 14 days of being told.

If the Tutor moves a session: The Tutor can move a booked session to another time through the Sunbeam Education platform (for a Subscription, the Tutor can also move the regular time of the sessions that follow it). The Tutor can’t move a paid session once it is less than 24 hours away. The Customer is emailed with the new time. If the new time doesn’t suit, the Customer can move the session to another available time in their online account (more than 24 hours before it starts), or tell Sunbeam Education through the contact form or by email (see above) and Sunbeam Education will cancel that session. The Customer then isn’t charged for it or, if it has already been paid for, gets a full refund within 14 days.

Unpaid sessions: If the hold or the payment for a session fails, Sunbeam Education will email the Customer a link to pay, try the card again every 12 hours, and send an urgent reminder when the session is about a day and a half away. If the session is still unpaid about 22 hours before it starts, only that session is cancelled, and the Customer isn’t charged for it. If this happens to 3 sessions in a row in the same Subscription or Course, the rest of that Subscription or Course is cancelled and Sunbeam Education emails the Customer to tell them.

Ending a Subscription or Course: The Customer can end a Subscription or Course at any time in their online account at https://app.sunbeameducation.com/:

• to end a Subscription, the Customer can use “Cancel subscription” on the Subscription’s page. This cancels every session that hasn’t been charged yet, and the Customer isn’t charged for any of them. A session that has already been charged (about 23 hours before it starts) still goes ahead; and
• to end a Subscription or a Course from a particular session, the Customer can cancel that session and choose “This and following sessions”. That session and every later one in the Subscription or Course is cancelled, and the rules in Cancelling or moving a session above apply to each of them.

During the Cancellation Period, the Customer can also cancel a session that has already been charged and get a full refund for it, so that every session not yet delivered is refunded in full (see Right to Cancel above).

4. INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY RIGHTS

4.1 THIRD-PARTY RIGHTS

The Tutor represents and warrants that, in delivering the Tutoring Sessions, the Tutor will not incorporate or use the intellectual property of any third party unless it is generally available for use by the public or the Tutor has a licence to use it.

4.2 LICENCE TO USE THE TUTOR DELIVERABLES           

Upon Tutor’s receipt of full payment from Customer for delivery of the relevant Tutoring Session, the Tutor hereby automatically grants to the Customer a non-exclusive, indefinite, and royalty-free right to use, for personal educational use, the Tutor Deliverables shared during the relevant Tutoring Session with the Customer or the Customer’s child. For the avoidance of doubt, the Tutor does not assign or license any rights to any Background Intellectual Property, but grants the Customer the same right to use any Background Intellectual Property included in the Tutor Deliverables, so far as needed to use the Tutor Deliverables.

5. CONSUMER LAW RIGHTS

5.1 The Customer has rights if there is something wrong with the Tutoring Services.

If the Customer thinks there is something wrong with the Tutoring Services, they should first tell the Tutor through their online account so the Tutor can try to put it right, following the Customer Care Policy. If the Customer is worried about a child’s safety or the Tutor’s conduct, they should contact Sunbeam Education straight away as set out in the Customer Care Policy (or call 999 if a child is in immediate danger). The Customer’s legal rights are summarised below. These are subject to certain exceptions. For detailed information please visit the Citizens Advice website www.citizensadvice.org.uk.

5.2 Summary of the Customer’s key legal rights

The Consumer Rights Act 2015 says:

• The Customer can ask the Tutor to repeat or fix a service if it’s not carried out with reasonable care and skill, or get some money back if the Tutor can’t fix it.
• If a price hasn’t been agreed upfront, what the Customer is asked to pay must be reasonable.
• If a time hasn’t been agreed upfront, it must be carried out within a reasonable time.

6. COMPLAINTS

In the event of a dispute, the Parties agree to follow the Customer Care Policy https://sunbeameducation.com/customer-care-policy in raising and dealing with  complaints.

7. GOVERNING LAW AND JURISDICTION

These Tutoring Terms are governed by English law. Wherever the Customer lives, they can bring claims against the Tutor in the English courts. If the Customer lives in Wales, Scotland or Northern Ireland, they can also bring claims against the Tutor in the courts of the country they live in. The Tutor can claim against the Customer in the courts of the country the Customer lives in.

8. DEFINITIONS

The following capitalised terms have the following meanings:

“Background Intellectual Property” means all Inventions developed by Tutor other than in the course of providing Tutoring Sessions to Customer under the Service Contract and all Inventions that Tutor incorporates into Tutor Deliverables.

“Cancellation Period” has the meaning given in section 3 (Right to Cancel).

“Course” means a set of between 5 and 15 sessions booked in one go, on the dates and at the times the Customer chooses.

“Customer” means any person who entered into a Service Contract to obtain Tutoring Sessions from a Tutor.

“Customer Care Policy” means the policy for raising and dealing with Customer complaints about their Tutor, accessible via https://sunbeameducation.com/customer-care-policy.

“Engagement” means a booking, via the Sunbeam Education platform, of a Tutor to provide Tutoring Sessions to the Customer or the Customer’s child, under a Service Contract: a One-Off Session, a Subscription, a Course or a free introductory session.

“One-Off Session” means a single session, or a double session (two sessions back to back), booked on one date.

“Subscription” (also called a Weekly Subscription) means sessions that repeat every week or every 2 weeks, on the days and at the times the Customer chooses. They are booked automatically, on a rolling basis, up to about 14 weeks (98 days) ahead, until the end date or number of sessions the Customer chose, or until the Customer cancels.

“Sunbeam Education” means AP Tutoring Limited, trading as Sunbeam Education, which runs the Sunbeam Education platform and acts as the Tutor’s agent as described in section 1.

“Tutor” means the relevant tutor on the Sunbeam Education platform who entered into a Service Contract to deliver Tutoring Sessions for a Customer.

“Tutor Deliverables” means the materials that the Tutor produces for the Customer and the Customer’s child, for the Customer’s personal educational use and retention. These do not include the Background Intellectual Property.

“Tutor Fees” means the fees payable for the Tutoring Sessions under an Engagement, as shown on the booking page at the time of booking and in the booking confirmation email.

“Tutoring Sessions” means the tutoring services performed for or delivered to Customers by Tutors.

“Tutoring Services” means the Tutoring Sessions and related services provided by the Tutor under an Engagement.

“Intellectual Property Rights” means all patent rights, copyright rights, mask work rights, moral rights, rights of publicity, trademark, trade dress and service mark rights, goodwill, trade secret rights and other intellectual property rights as may now exist or hereafter come into existence, and all applications for them and registrations, renewals and extensions of them, under the laws of any state, country, territory or other jurisdiction.

“Invention” means any ideas, concepts, information, materials, processes, data, programs, know-how, improvements, discoveries, developments, designs, artwork, formulae, other copyrightable works, and techniques and all Intellectual Property Rights therein.

“Service Contract” means the contractual provisions between a Customer and a Tutor governing the Tutoring Sessions to be performed by a Tutor to the Customer for an Engagement.