Terms and Conditions
Clients
1. Introduction
a. Ariston Education is an agent for the introduction of one or more tutors to the Client. Ariston Education does not provide tutoring services. We are a tutoring agency and we are a party to this contract.
b. You are referred to in this contract as ‘the Client’, and you are the other party to this contract. You agree to the purchase of tutoring services on behalf of ‘the Student’. ‘The Student’ may be yourself or another person. The Student is the person who receives the tutoring service through sessions of tutoring.
c. The Client agrees to these terms and conditions which relate to Ariston Education’s introduction of a tutor to the Client.
d. The tutoring services are provided by the Tutor under a separate agreement between the Client and the Tutor. See below on this page for this agreement.
e. The Termination or Conclusion of the Agreement occurs when all of the obligations under this contract are complete or discharged, excluding the ongoing undertakings in paragraph 5c and 5d of this contract. Conclusion of the Agreement will typically occur at the end of the final lesson but may occur at another time in accordance with Section 6 of this contract.
2. General
a. The Client acknowledges that these terms govern the legal rights and obligations between the Client and Ariston Education. Ariston Education reserves the right to alter these terms and conditions.
b. No variation or alteration of these terms by the Client shall be valid unless expressly approved in writing by Ariston Education.
c. This agreement is governed by the laws of England and Wales and the parties submit to the jurisdiction of the Courts of England and Wales.
3. Contractual Relationship
a. Ariston Education provides introductions of Tutors to Clients and vice versa; Ariston Education is an agent for the Tutor.
b. A Tutor will be deemed to have been introduced to the Client by Ariston Education in the event that either the name of the Tutor is provided to the Client by Ariston Education following the request for a Tutor by the Client, or Ariston Education arranges for a Tutor to contact the Client following such request for a Tutor provided by the client to Ariston Education.
c. By booking a Session with the Tutor, the Client agrees to be bound by these Terms and Conditions and by the terms and conditions which govern their relationship with the Tutor.
d. The Tutor is self-employed and engaged by the Client to provide tuition to the Student. Clients should be aware that the Tutor does not have power to bind Ariston Education in any way.
4. Prohibition of other Arrangements
a. The Client will not agree to any alternative fees with the Tutor and agrees not to render any direct payments to the Tutor.
b. The Client is not permitted to enter into any private arrangements with any Tutor introduced by Ariston Education. The Client undertakes to make all bookings with Tutors introduced by Ariston Education exclusively through Ariston Education.
c. A breach of these terms will render the Client liable to account to Ariston Education for all sums received by the Tutor direct from the Client or from a new Client without deduction and Ariston Education shall be entitled to seek injunctions against the Client to prevent further breaches. These obligations continue beyond the termination or conclusion of this agreement.
d. Should you wish to recommend one of Ariston Education’s Tutors to any other Potential or Actual Client, that Client must contact Ariston Education to make a booking through the agency.
5. Replacements
a. In the unlikely event that a Tutor is unable to complete the Course of Tuition, or the Client requests a replacement Tutor because they are not satisfied with the original Tutor assigned to them, Ariston Education will endeavour to find up to two suitable replacement Tutors with regard to the level and subject for which tuition is required.
b. If the replacement Tutors meet Ariston Education’s criteria for suitability for the job in terms of subject and level knowledge and is available at the same time or another time convenient for the Client, then Ariston Education has fulfilled its obligations; if the Client then wishes to terminate the Tuition mid-Course, the provisions of paragraph 6d will apply.
c. If the Client wishes to terminate the Tuition mid-Course for any reason, no refunds can be granted for the balance of sessions that have been taught.
6. Payment and Fees
a. Ariston Education’s fees are absolute and no deviation can be considered without written permission. Ariston Education will agree the fees with Tutor and Client before commencement of the first Tutoring session, these will include the commission and registration fee that the Client has agreed to pay Ariston Education in respect of Tutoring Services.
b. Ariston Education will endeavour to invoice the Client after every lesson, on behalf of and as an agent for the Tutor. Invoices are sent out at the end of the day for the same day’s completed tutorials.
c. The Client invoices are based upon completed tutorial hours agreed between Client and Tutor, and recorded on TutorCruncher by the Tutor. The invoice is generated from the completed hours submitted by the Tutor. This acts as a formal record of the lesson for payment purposes and in the event of a dispute.
d. If completed lessons are not recorded, the payment to the Tutor may be delayed. Ariston Education’s rights are reserved to inspect, at any time, any communications made between the Tutor and the Client.
d. It is incumbent upon the Tutor that their hours are logged and up to date. Payment to Tutors cannot be made without this information being submitted on TutorCruncher to Ariston Education. This will forestall any problems or issues the Client may have before the debts are discharged. The Client and Tutor must refrain from entering into financial discussions, if such discussions ensue, you must immediately and respectfully refer the matter to Ariston Education.
e.The Tutor is never paid directly by the Client.
f. All payments are handled by a third party using Stripe express. This is operated by TutorCruncher who collects payments and splits them between the tutor and the agency. Tutor Cruncher receives payments from the client into an independent account and this sum is then split between the tutoring agency and the tutor accordingly. Clients are aware of the split between agency fee and the tutor’s hourly fee.
g. The fees will be calculated based upon the timesheets submitted by the Tutor. The agreed fee shall include the tutor’s fee, plus the agency platform fee.
The usual payment method is via debit or credit card, via Tutorcruncher.
h. All electronic payments are administered through a third party payment provider, Stripe. The Student will be required to permit the storage of the details of a debit or credit card on this system, to allow payment to be taken automatically for each invoice. Acceptance of these Terms includes acceptance of automatic payments, on the basis outlined above.
i. Payment will be attempted automatically one day after the date of invoice. The Tutor and Ariston Education will be made aware, via Tutorcruncher, of any invoices which remain outstanding.
7. Client’s Responsibilities
a. The Client shall notify Ariston Education immediately and without delay and in any event within 24 hours if the Tutor fails to attend work or notifies the Client that (s)he is unable to attend work for any reason.
8. Liability
a. Ariston Education does not accept any liability for any claims by the Client arising out of or related to the provision of tutoring services by the Tutor.
b. Ariston Education does not exclude liability that is not permitted to be excluded by law, and in particular we do not exclude liability for death or personal injury arising from Ariston Education’ own negligence.
c. Ariston Education will not be liable to the Client or any third party for any act, omission or error (whether wilful, negligent or otherwise) of the Tutor.
d. Whilst every effort is made by Ariston Education to give satisfaction to the Client by ensuring reasonable standards of skills, integrity and reliability from Tutors and further to provide them in accordance with the Client’s needs, Ariston Education is not liable for any loss, expense, damage or delay arising from the negligence, dishonesty, misconduct, accidental or deliberate damage to property during the assignment or lack of skill of the Tutor.
e. The Client shall indemnify and keep indemnified Ariston Education against any costs, claims or liabilities incurred by Ariston Education arising out of any Assignment or as a result of any breach of these Terms by the Client.
f. Ariston Education does not accept any liability for the consequences of tuition, including, but not limited to, exam results and dissertation scores.
g. Ariston Education is not responsible for insurance arrangements in respect of the Tutor providing tutoring services and the Client should note that this is the case.
9. Scheduling and Cancellation
a. The Client and Tutor individually should notify each other, in advance, of any leave commitments they may have and any adjustments to the Tuition schedule necessitated through illness. Both Client and Tutor will do their utmost to rearrange a date for cancelled tuition.
b. Failure by the Client to notify the Tutor where the Tutor has made them-self available for a session, or where the Client has failed to give at least 24 hours notification of cancellation to the Tutor (except in unforeseeable situations), will result in the Minimum Fee, being the contractual hourly rate, being charged.
b. Should the Tutor not be available on the day, the Client will be informed, and a re-arranged time will be offered by the Tutor.
d. If a tutorial falls on a Bank Holiday or other national or religious holiday that either the Tutor or the Client wishes to observe, then an alternative Session must be arranged between the tutor and the client.
e. If the Student is late for a Session, the Tutor may choose to, but is not obligated, to work beyond the scheduled end time. If the Tutor stops work at the scheduled end time, the Session will be charged at the usual price. If the Tutor agrees to work beyond the scheduled end time at the Client’s request, the Tutor may choose to charge the Client for the additional time. (any additional times that have been agreed with the Client will be charged on the following invoice). If a Tutor is late for a Session, then it is the duty of the Tutor to arrange to make up the lost time.
f. If the Student or Client chooses to terminate a Session early (for example, after one hour of a two-hour session), the Session will be charged at the usual price.
g. Prior to Sessions, Clients will receive a lesson reminder from Ariston Education via email on behalf of the Tutor.
h. Should the Client wish to terminate the contract before conclusion of the agreed Tuition period then the Client is required to give to the tutor and Ariston Education a minimum of seven (7) days notice of Termination Period.
It is essential that the Client gives at least one (1) week notice of termination of tuition so that the Tutor may conclude their tuition with the Student in an appropriate manner and that the Tutor might rearrange their own commitments. Notice may be given by email only to info@ariston.education. This cancellation provision is applicable after tuition sessions have commenced.
i. Both the Client and the Tutor must inform each other in advance, as well as notifying Ariston Education, if there are any changes to the schedule that has been planned for Tutoring sessions. A 24-hour cancellation policy prevails and Ariston Education reserves the right to charge the Client, in full, if a lesson is cancelled at short notice, or if a lesson is missed (except in unforeseeable circumstances). Additionally, the Tutor will be in breach of the Terms and Conditions if they do not follow the 24-hour cancellation policy without good reason.
j. Should the student be late for a session, it is expected that the Tutor will wait up to 15 minutes whilst attempting to contact the client. Should the Client not respond to the contact or not arrive for the session within 15 minutes of the agreed session start, the Tutor can abandon the session and will treat it as a cancellation in accordance with the terms stated (10.b).
10. Data Protection
a. The Client agrees that they will not disclose any confidential information concerning the Tutor or Ariston Education to any person for the duration of this agreement and for a period of five years after termination of the agreement, save as required by law, court order or any governmental or regulatory authority. More detailed information is available in the Privacy and Data Collection Policy available on Ariston Education’ Website.
b. The information stored relating to Clients and Tutors is solely for the use of Ariston Education for the services that it provides. When Clients provide Ariston Education with data, they are consenting to Ariston Education using this information to arrange introductions to Tutors and being able to contact them. Ariston Education will also use this information for payment purposes, the recording of Client satisfaction, regulatory obligations, best practice and to advise Clients of promotions which may be of value. Ariston Education retains data securely on the TutorCruncher database. Tutorcruncher is our Data Processor and is GDPR compliant. Any other data is stored in a secure and protected environment with authorised access only and is compliant with Data Protection Regulations. Information held by Ariston Education will be used to invoice and communicate information to the Tutor regarding Student progress, Tutorials and such marketing information that Ariston Education feel may be beneficial to the Client. It is your prerogative to opt out and unsubscribe to this communication at any time, but please be aware this may impact upon the services we could offer to you. All parties will adhere to the terms determined by Data Protection Legislation and of this Agreement when processing personal information in connection with the provision of Tutoring Services.
11. Duty of Care
It is a requirement by Ariston Education that a responsible adult or guardian over the age of 18 be in attendance on the premises at all times during each Tutoring session with any Student under the age of 18. A Tutor’s priority and responsibility is to teach the Student and cannot be held responsible for caring for minors, guarding a house or household effects. As a contracting agent on behalf of the Tutor, Ariston Education will accept no liability to any party for any act, omission or error, whether intentional, negligent or in any respect that has been occasioned by the Tutor.
12. Approval
Acceptance of our services will be taken to represent agreement to these Terms and Conditions. Ariston Education reserves the right to alter these Terms and Conditions. For any alterations or variations of these Terms and Conditions to be valid, they must first be approved by the Director of Ariston Education.
Tutors
1. Self-Employment
a. Ariston Education represents tutors as self-employed individuals. We therefore require that all tutors provide proof of their sole-trader status, in the form of their Unique Tax Reference (UTR) number, supplied by HMRC, within three months of their approval of Ariston Education. Tutors who fail to comply with this requirement within 3 months of their first project will be removed as clients of our company. Ariston Education may be required to report such instances to HMRC.
b. Self-employed tutors with Ariston Education may tutor independently of Ariston Education and may engage the services of other intermediaries.
c. Once a tutoring position has been confirmed, you are entering into a contract between you (the tutor) and the client (the student, or the students parent/guardian). Ariston Education acts as an agent on behalf of the tutor and the student. Ariston Education is only responsible for finding students and an appropriate teacher for the specific subject and is not responsible for the content of lessons and the teaching methods. Ariston Education does not handle payments on behalf of the tutor: this is carried out by a third party (Tutor Cruncher) using Stripe Express.
d. The Tutor is an independent contractor and has entered into this Agreement for the purpose of offering their services to Clients and Students introduced to them by Ariston Education. This Agreement shall not be construed to create any association, partnership, joint venture, employee, or worker relationship between Tutor and Ariston Education. The Tutor has no authority (and shall not hold himself or herself out as having authority) to bind Ariston Education and the Tutor shall not make any agreements or representations on Ariston Education’s behalf without Ariston Education’s prior written consent.
2. Tax
a. As a self-employed individual, it is the responsibility of the Tutor to declare their earnings from tuition to HMRC, and to make any contributions specified.
b. Educational services provided by the self-employed Tutor do not attract VAT, so this will not appear on invoices sent to the Student on the Tutor’s behalf.
c. Ariston Education is not currently VAT Registered, therefore commission is not subject to VAT. We will inform you in advance if this status changes.
3. Description of Services:
a This is a Contract for Services. It is not a contract of employment.
b. The Tutor shall be entirely self-employed and nothing in this Agreement shall constitute an employer/employee relationship.
c. Ariston Education is under no obligation to provide any further paid work or unpaid work in the future.
d. In exchange for the agreed fee, the Tutor agrees from the date of acceptance of this Agreement until the termination hereof to be available to provide the services, at the request of the Client, at such times as are mutually convenient.
e. It is understood that the Tutor shall have no obligation to provide the services hereunder, nor shall the Client have any obligation to provide work for the Tutor.
f. It is agreed that the Tutor shall at all times perform the services to the highest standard. In particular the Tutor shall make every effort to: be punctual, be presentable and dressed in an appropriate and respectable manner at all times, be polite, diligent and helpful. Never to use profanity or sexual innuendo in front of a Client or Student, or make derogatory remarks about a Student. Any tutor who does this will be removed from Ariston Education immediately. The Tutor will do all the necessary preparation for each tutoring session. They will not cancel lessons unless absolutely necessary. It should be noted that tutors who repeatedly cancel lessons or fail to notify the Client of cancelled lessons may be removed from the Team.
g. If for any reason the Tutor shall be delayed due to circumstances beyond his/her control, the Tutor agrees to contact the Client to let him/her know (even if the Tutor will be as little as five minutes late). The Tutor agrees to make up this lost time where appropriate by staying longer than the allocated tuition session or by making it up in the following session.
h. The Tutor must keep the Client informed of any issues or problems with each Student taught, as and when they develop.
i. The Tutor agrees not to smoke within the vicinity of the tutoring placement or during an online lesson.
j. The Tutor agrees, so far as is reasonable, to be in ready contact by email and telephone with the Client to enable the Client to inform him/her of possible hours of Tuition and of any cancellations.
k. The Tutor agrees that once s/he has accepted a placement then the Tutor is committed to the specified times and dates.
l. The Tutor shall, at the request of the Client, provide any information as to the Student’s performance.
m. The Tutor shall keep an up-to-date record and schedule of all hours worked, and regarding the Student’s academic performance or exam success.
3. The Company
a. The Tutor accepts to provide a one off free introductory session to the client during which s/he will get to meet the student and briefly assess the level and frequency of the lessons to achieve the desired result by the Client.
b. During the session the Tutor must communicate and come to an agreement about hours and days that the lessons will be taking place and inform Ariston Education should they want to proceed and in order for the job to be allocated to the specific tutor.
c. The Tutor must not discuss their fees with the client at any point.
d. The Tutor also accepts that the Tutor has no direct contractual relationship with the Company and therefore the Company has no contractual obligations or liability to the Tutor.
4. Payment and Cancellation Policy
a. All payments are made by the client and are handled by a third party using Stripe express. This is operated by TutorCruncher who collects payments and splits them between the tutor (the tutor’s hourly rate) and the agency (the agency’s fee). Tutor Cruncher receives payments from the client into an independent account and this sum is then split between the tutoring agency and the tutor accordingly. All lessons are recorded and charged to the client by Tutor Cruncher using Stripe Express and the tutor must ensure that this is the case
b. Both the client and the tutor must notify the other in advance of any holiday commitments they may have and any changes to the tuition timetable necessary because of illness. An alternative date will be arranged. Where the Client has failed to give at least 24 hours notification of cancellation to the Tutor (except in unforeseeable situations), will result in the Minimum Fee, being the contractual hourly rate, being charged. In this case the tutor will need to mark attendance “Did not attend – chargeable” in TutorCruncher.
c. In case of a late cancellation by the client it is down to the tutors discretion and availability to rearrange the lesson at a later time and inform Ariston Education for this change. In the serious event of unforeseen circumstances Ariston Education recommends that no fees should be charged.
d. The Tutor shall be responsible for all travel expenses. If the tutor wishes to be recompensed for travel expenses by the Client, then the Company will undertake discussions with the Client to that end but cannot guarantee such expenses.
e. The Tutor acknowledges that s/he is responsible for payment of all taxes, national insurance and social security contributions due in respect of payments to be made under this Agreement and that s/he shall fully indemnify and hold the Client and the Company harmless in this regard.
f. The Tutor acknowledges that s/he is in no way covered by the Client or the Company in any matter(s) of insurance and will take out, should s/he deem appropriate, his/her own insurance policy in respect of any personal and/or third-party claims. The Company strongly recommends that the Tutor takes out adequate insurance.
g. In case a Client has not paid for a lesson and is in arrears with their account, then the Tutor might not deliver future tutoring sessions until payment has been made by the Client. If the Tutor decides to go ahead with the tutorial knowing that the Client has not paid for previous sessions, the risk of non-payment rests solely with the Tutor and Ariston Education might seek their fees covered by the tutor.
5. Tutor Declaration
The Tutor warrants that all information given to the Client (via the Company or otherwise) whether prior to or during the provision of tuition is true and accurate in all respects. The Tutor has indicated that s/he is skilled to teach the subjects as per the Curriculum Vitae provided to the Company and by provision of qualification certificates. Any breach of this clause shall entitle the Client to terminate the Tutor’s Services immediately.The Tutor must provide the Company with an up to date Enhanced DBS check which should be available on the online services.
6. Termination of Agreement
a. Both parties appreciate the importance of a good understanding and trust between the Tutor and the Student. Accordingly, if the Client is, in his/her reasonable opinion, not happy with the Tutor, the Client must notify the Tutor and the Company of its dissatisfaction in writing. This Agreement shall then terminate with immediate effect and there will be no further charges or payments due to the Tutor. If the Tutor, in her/his reasonable opinion, is unhappy with Client and/or Student behaviour they must inform the Company and the Company may terminate the contract with the Client or find an alternate Tutor.
b. The Tutor hereby agrees that the Company may terminate this Agreement with immediate effect:
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if the Tutor commits a serious or material breach of any of his or her obligations
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if the Tutor repeatedly commits minor breaches of obligations under this Agreement
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if the Tutor acts in such a way so as to discredit the Company
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if the Tutor shall have been found guilty of any criminal offence (other than any offence not involving a custodial or suspended custodial sentence under the Road Traffic Act).
c. In the event of termination of this Agreement further to any of clauses above, the Tutor acknowledges that s/he will be liable for any costs or expenses directly or indirectly incurred, any liability or damages faced by the Client, and any action taken by the Client in this regard.
d. The Tutor may terminate this agreement at any time with the provision of 1 month written notice.
7. Tutor Declaration
The Tutor agrees at all times during and after his/her provision of the Services not to disclose to others any confidential information or knowledge pertaining to the business affairs and operations of the Company, including but not limited to trade know-how, trade secrets, client lists, information about other tutor(s), information about any Client(s) and their family/ies, pricing policies, operational methods, marketing plans or strategies, future plans, and business acquisition and/or expansion plans. The Tutor agrees at all times during and after her/his provision of services to maintain discretion regarding the Student, Client, their home or family.
8. Data Protection
a. The Company will use the information provided by the Tutor to deal with the administration of the Services and to assist in placing the Tutor with other suitable Students. The Company may disclose the Tutor’s information for this purpose to other Clients. Tutor information will not be shared with any outside agencies.
b. The Company may use the information and profile image provided by the Tutor to advertise services and to attract Clients to the Tutor. At our discretion we may use references and client testimonials. No personal contact details or full names will be used and CVs will not be shared.
c. The lawful basis for processing your data at the application stage was the legitimate interest of the tutoring agency to process your application, but further processing is now dependent upon your consent, except where processing is required to fulfil the Tutoring Agency’ legal obligations, or where official authorities have made formal requests, or where disclosure is in the vital interests of data subjects.
We will store and process all or some of the following data about you:
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Your name
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Your address
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Your phone number
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Your email address
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Details of your training, experience and qualifications
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Your DBS certificate number, date of issue and counter signatory
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References
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Copy of your photographic ID
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Your data could be stored: on a laptop, on a mobile phone, in a notepad, in a cloud storage system which is GDPR compliant,on a tablet, on an external hard drive. In each of the above instances, the tutoring agency will take reasonable steps to protect your data from being lost or from unauthorised access or use.
d. You are entitled to request a copy of all data stored about you at any time. You also have the right to request that any inaccurate information is corrected. Furthermore, you have the right to request that your data is deleted, except where doing so would infringe upon our legal obligations of record keeping.
e. We will store your full data:
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for two years after registration if we are unable to provide you with any Opportunities of Work
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for five years after the January following the end of the tax year in which you last conducted Tuition for a Student.
f. Your data will be processed in the following ways:
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to comply with record-keeping legislation
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to comply with our HMRC tax records obligations
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to contact you about Opportunities for Work