Terms and Conditions
Summary of the key terms
This summary is provided so that the terms that matter most are easy to find. It does not replace the full terms below, and the full terms take precedence if there is any difference.
| What you pay | Regular £200 or Intensive £360 per four-week block. Both include a diagnostic, a written plan before teaching begins, and a closing report. A standalone diagnostic on its own is £40. |
|---|---|
| When you pay | Before each block begins. Blocks do not renew automatically — you choose each time. |
| Cancelling the whole contract | You have 14 days from signing to cancel for any reason. If you have asked us to start within those 14 days, you pay only for what has actually been delivered (clause 8). |
| Booking sessions | You arrange session times directly with your tutor, to suit you both. We give you a date by which the block's sessions need to be completed. |
| Missing a single session | 24 hours' notice or more: rescheduled free. Under 24 hours: £25, which covers your tutor's fee for the time they set aside. We make no profit on a cancelled session. Clause 9 lists when we waive it. |
| If we cancel | We reschedule at no cost to you. If we cannot reschedule within the block, that session is refunded in full. |
| Stopping altogether | Any time, effective at the end of the current block. No exit fee. Unused sessions are refunded. |
| What we do not promise | We do not guarantee any particular grade or result. We do promise to perform the service with reasonable care and skill, as the law requires. |
1. Definitions
1.1 In these terms:
“we”, “us”, “our” means Sarah Kuti trading as DATUM Learning;
“you” means the parent or guardian who enters into this contract;
“the Student” means the child named on the registration form who receives the tutoring;
“the Tutor” means the self-employed tutor we match to the Student;
“a Block” means one four-week package of services as described in clause 4, whether Regular or Intensive;
“the Completion Date” means the date we give you by which a Block's Sessions must be used;
“a Session” means one scheduled one-hour tutoring appointment within a Block;
“the Regulations” means the Consumer Contracts (Information, Cancellation and Additional Charges) Regulations 2013.
2. Who we are and how to contact us
2.1 DATUM Learning is a trading name of Sarah Kuti, a sole trader. We are not a limited company.
2.2 Our address for correspondence, including any legal notice or complaint, is 4th Floor, 14 Museum Place, Cardiff CF10 3BH. Our email address is hello@datumlearning.co.uk and our telephone number is 07849 117611.
2.3 If we need to contact you, we will do so by telephone, or by writing to the email address or postal address you gave us on your registration form.
3. How the contract is formed
3.1 Our contract with you begins when we confirm in writing that we accept your registration. Until we send that confirmation, no contract exists and no payment is due.
3.2 We will send you that confirmation, together with a copy of these terms and the cancellation form at Annex A, on paper or by email, before any Session takes place.
3.3 You confirm that you are aged 18 or over and that you have parental responsibility for the Student, or the authority of someone who does, to enter into this contract.
3.4 We may decline a registration — for example if we have no suitable tutor available in your area, or if the Student's needs fall outside what we can properly support. If we do, we will tell you promptly and refund anything you have paid.
4. What we provide
4.1 We provide in-person one-to-one GCSE mathematics tutoring in Cardiff for students in Years 9 to 11, delivered by a self-employed tutor we select and match to the Student.
4.2 We offer three things:
| What it includes | Price | |
|---|---|---|
| Standalone diagnostic | A timed assessment the Student completes at home, plus a written report. No tutoring. | £40 |
| Regular Block | A diagnostic, a written four-week plan, four one-hour Sessions and a closing report. | £200 |
| Intensive Block | The same, with eight one-hour Sessions instead of four — normally two a week. Suited to closing larger gaps or the run-up to exams. | £360 |
4.3 Every Block includes:
a diagnostic assessment of the Student's current attainment, completed at home;
a written four-week teaching plan based on that assessment, sent to you before teaching begins;
four Sessions (Regular) or eight Sessions (Intensive), each of one hour; and
a written closing report at the end of the Block.
4.4 The diagnostic is a timed assessment the Student completes at home, in their own time. Nobody needs to travel for it, and it does not use up any of your Sessions.
4.5 Our teaching is built on the WJEC GCSE Mathematics and Numeracy (Double Award) specification. If the Student is following a different specification, please tell us before registering, as we may not be the right fit.
5. Arranging your Sessions
5.1 Once we have matched you with a Tutor and introduced you, you arrange Session times directly between yourselves. Your Tutor is self-employed and manages their own diary; we do not set their hours or schedule their appointments.
5.2 When a Block begins we will give you a Completion Date — the date by which that Block's Sessions need to have been used. This is normally four weeks from the first Session for a Regular Block, and four weeks for an Intensive Block, in which case Sessions are usually taken twice a week.
5.3 Sessions not used by the Completion Date are treated as delivered, unless the reason is something we or the Tutor did, or we agree an extension. Please ask us if you need more time — we would rather extend than have you lose a Session, and we will not unreasonably refuse.
5.4 Because an Intensive Block fits eight Sessions into four weeks, there is less room to move things around. We will normally agree a longer Completion Date for an Intensive Block where you ask for one.
5.5 Sessions take place at the Student's home or the Tutor's home, agreed between you in advance.
6. What we need from you
6.1 So that Sessions can go ahead safely, you agree that:
a responsible adult aged 18 or over will be in the property for any Session held at the Student's home. Our safeguarding policy explains how brief absences are handled;
Sessions will take place in a room with the door left open, in a part of the home suitable for study;
you will tell us in advance of anything affecting the Student's safety, wellbeing or ability to learn, including allergies, medical needs and additional learning needs; and
you will treat the Tutor with courtesy and will not ask them to do anything outside the scope of the tutoring.
6.2 If a responsible adult is not present when the Tutor arrives at the Student's home, the Tutor will not begin the Session and will leave. We will treat this as a cancellation with less than 24 hours' notice under clause 9.
6.3 We may suspend or end this contract immediately if these requirements are not met, if the Tutor's safety is put at risk, or if the Tutor is subjected to abusive or discriminatory behaviour. Clause 11.4 explains what happens to your money if we do.
7. Fees and payment
7.1 Our prices are:
| Price | Payable | |
|---|---|---|
| Standalone diagnostic | £40 | On booking |
| Regular Block (4 Sessions) | £200 | In advance of the Block |
| Intensive Block (8 Sessions) | £360 | In advance of the Block |
7.2 Each Block price is a single package price covering the diagnostic, the written plan, the Sessions and the closing report. We do not publish an hourly rate, because the assessment and planning are as much a part of what you are buying as the teaching time. If the contract ends before a Block is finished, clause 8.6 sets out how the price is divided up so that you only pay for what you have received.
7.3 If you have bought a standalone diagnostic within the previous 30 days and then book a Block, we do not repeat the assessment, and we deduct the diagnostic element from the Block price. A Regular Block is then £180 and an Intensive Block £340. You are never charged twice for the same assessment.
7.4 An Intensive Block works out cheaper per Session than a Regular one, because the assessment and the plan are done once and cover twice as much teaching. We pass that saving on rather than keeping it.
7.5 We accept payment by direct debit or by card. All prices include VAT where VAT applies. We are not currently VAT registered.
7.6 Blocks do not renew automatically. Each new Block is booked separately by you, and no payment is taken for a Block you have not agreed to.
7.7 We may change our prices from time to time. A change never affects a Block you have already booked and paid for; we will always tell you the price of a new Block before you commit to it.
7.8 If a payment fails or is not made when due, we will contact you before taking any action, and we may postpone further Sessions until payment is resolved. We will not charge interest or administrative fees on a late payment by a consumer.
8. Your right to cancel this contract within 14 days
8.1 You have the right to cancel this contract within 14 days without giving any reason. The cancellation period ends 14 days after the day on which this contract is entered into.
8.2 To cancel, you must tell us clearly that you have decided to cancel — by email to hello@datumlearning.co.uk, by telephone, or by post to our address in clause 2.2. You may use the cancellation form at Annex A, but you do not have to; any clear statement is enough. To meet the deadline, it is enough that you send your message before the cancellation period expires.
Sessions starting during the 14-day period
8.3 A four-week Block lasts longer than 14 days, so Sessions will normally need to begin before your cancellation period has ended. We will not begin providing the service during the 14-day period unless you have expressly asked us to.
8.4 We will ask for that request in writing — on your registration form, or by email or text message from you — so that there is a clear record. When you make that request, we will also ask you to acknowledge that you will have to pay for the part of the service we have actually delivered if you then cancel, and that you will lose the right to cancel altogether once the Block has been fully delivered.
8.5 If you do not ask us to start early, no Session will take place until the 14-day period has ended, and you will owe nothing if you cancel within it.
What you pay if you cancel after asking us to start
8.6 If you have asked us to start and you then cancel within the 14 days, you must pay a proportionate amount for what we have supplied up to the moment you tell us you are cancelling. To make that calculation clear and predictable, you and we agree that the Block price is apportioned as follows:
| Part of the service | Regular | Intensive | Charged when |
|---|---|---|---|
| Diagnostic assessment and written plan | £20 | £20 | Once the assessment has been carried out and the written plan sent to you |
| Each tutoring Session | £45 | £42.50 | For each Session actually delivered |
| Maximum for the whole Block | £200 | £360 | You will never be charged more than the Block price |
8.7 For example: if you are on a Regular Block and cancel on day 12, having received the diagnostic, the written plan and two Sessions, you would pay £110 (£20 + £45 + £45) and we would refund you £90 of your £200.
8.8 You will not be charged anything for the period before cancellation if we failed to give you the cancellation information the Regulations require, or if we began the service without your express request.
When the right to cancel is lost
8.9 You lose the right to cancel once the Block has been fully delivered, but only where you asked us to begin during the 14-day period and acknowledged that you would lose that right on full delivery. In practice a four-week Block is rarely completed within 14 days, so your right to cancel usually remains available for the whole 14-day period.
Refunds
8.10 We will refund you within 14 days of the day on which you tell us you are cancelling, and sooner if we reasonably can.
8.11 We will refund you using the same method you used to pay, unless you expressly agree otherwise. We will not charge you any fee for making a refund.
9. Cancelling or moving an individual Session
9.1 If you give us 24 hours' notice or more, we will move the Session to another time within the same four-week Block wherever we can, at no extra cost. You may do this twice per term without giving a reason.
9.2 If you cancel with less than 24 hours' notice, or the Student is not available when the Tutor arrives, a charge of £25 is payable for that Session. This charge covers the cost of your Tutor, who is paid for the time they set aside for you whether or not the Session goes ahead. We do not make any profit from a cancelled Session. The charge is simply the Tutor's fee, and it is less than the £35 attributed to a Session under clause 8.6 precisely because we do not charge you our own margin on teaching that did not take place.
9.3 We will not make that charge where:
we are able to give the slot to another student, or for any other reason do not in fact have to pay the Tutor for it;
the Session is missed because of illness or another genuine emergency, and we decide — as we often will — to waive the charge or offer a make-up Session instead; or
the reason for the cancellation is something we or the Tutor did.
9.4 Where a charge under clause 9.2 applies, we deduct it from your Block and the Session is treated as delivered. It does not shorten your Block or create any further liability.
10. If we or the Tutor cannot attend
10.1 If we or the Tutor cancel a Session for any reason, we will offer you a replacement Session within the same Block at no cost to you.
10.2 If we cannot reschedule that Session within the Block, we will refund the full amount attributed to it under clause 8.6 — £45 on a Regular Block, £42.50 on an Intensive — or credit it to your next Block if you prefer. This applies however much notice we give you, including none, and it is more than we would charge you in the equivalent situation under clause 9.2.
10.3 If your Tutor becomes unavailable part-way through a Block — because of illness, because they stop working with us, or because of a safeguarding matter — we will offer you a replacement Tutor, matched in the same way. If you would rather not continue with a different Tutor, you may end the contract immediately and we will refund every Session not yet delivered.
11. Ending the arrangement
11.1 You may stop at any time. Your decision takes effect at the end of the Block you are currently in, and there is no exit fee. If you want to stop mid-Block, tell us — we will refund any Session not yet delivered.
11.2 If the Student misses three or more Sessions in a single Block at short notice, we will contact you to talk about whether now is the right time to continue. We would rather pause the arrangement than keep invoicing you, and we will refund the Sessions in that Block that have not taken place.
11.3 We may end this contract by giving you reasonable notice if we can no longer provide a suitable Tutor in your area, or if we stop offering the service. We will refund every Session not yet delivered.
11.4 We may end this contract immediately, on serious grounds only — including a serious safeguarding concern, a risk to the Tutor's safety, abusive or discriminatory conduct, or a serious or repeated breach of clause 6. Even then, we will refund every Session not yet delivered. We will not withhold money for services we have not provided.
12. Your Tutor
12.1 Tutors working with us are self-employed. We select and match them, we set the plan they teach to, and we manage your relationship with them. Please raise scheduling changes, concerns or feedback with us rather than arranging them directly with the Tutor.
12.2 Before we match a Tutor to a Student, we require an Enhanced DBS check including a check against the Children's Barred List, evidence of the right to work in the UK, proof of identity, two professional references, their own professional indemnity and public liability insurance, and completion of our induction.
12.3 Before your Tutor's first Session we will offer you copies of their relevant qualifications, and confirm that we hold two professional references for them from people who are not related to them. You are welcome to ask for these at any time.
12.4 You agree not to engage a Tutor introduced to you by us to provide private tuition to the Student outside this contract while they are working with us and for six months afterwards. This protects the arrangement that allows us to run diagnostics, write plans and pay tutors properly; it is not intended to stop you using any other tutor, and it does not apply to tutors you already knew.
13. Safeguarding
13.1 The safety of the Student comes before this contract. Our safeguarding policy sets out how Sessions are conducted, how concerns are raised and how they are escalated, and it forms part of this agreement. Sarah Kuti is our designated safeguarding lead.
13.2 If we have a concern that a child may be at risk of abuse, neglect or harm, we will report it to Cardiff children's services or the police. We will normally tell you that we are doing so, unless telling you would place the Student at greater risk. We cannot agree to keep such a concern confidential.
14. Your personal information
14.1 We handle personal information about you and the Student in accordance with our privacy policy, which we give you at the point we collect your information and which is available on our website.
14.2 We share with your Tutor only what they need in order to teach the Student safely and effectively.
15. Assessments, plans and reports
15.1 The diagnostic assessments, teaching plans, reports and teaching materials we produce remain our property. You may use them freely for the Student's own education, including sharing them with the Student's school.
15.2 Please do not copy, publish or pass our assessment materials to other tutors or tutoring businesses.
15.3 Sessions must not be recorded, filmed or photographed by either side without the other's written agreement.
16. What we promise, and what we do not
16.1 By law, we must perform this service with reasonable care and skill, and we must do what we have told you we will do. Those obligations cannot be excluded and nothing in these terms attempts to.
16.2 We do not guarantee that the Student will achieve any particular grade, tier or level of improvement. Tutoring outcomes depend on many things outside our control, including the Student's engagement, attendance and work between Sessions. Any indication we give about likely progress is our honest professional opinion, not a promise of a result.
16.3 If something goes wrong with the service, you have statutory rights under the Consumer Rights Act 2015 — including, in most cases, the right to ask us to perform the service again at our cost, or to a reduction in price. Please tell us first, so that we have the chance to put it right.
17. Our liability to you
17.1 We do not exclude or limit our liability to you in any way where it would be unlawful to do so. This includes liability for death or personal injury caused by our negligence or that of anyone working for us, for fraud or fraudulent misrepresentation, and for breach of your statutory rights as a consumer.
17.2 Subject to clause 17.1, we are responsible for loss or damage you suffer that is a foreseeable result of our breaking this contract or failing to use reasonable care and skill. We are not responsible for loss or damage that is not foreseeable.
17.3 Tutors are self-employed and carry their own professional indemnity and public liability insurance. This does not affect your rights against us under this contract.
18. Events outside our control
18.1 If we are prevented from delivering Sessions by something outside our reasonable control — for example severe weather, a public health restriction, or a serious incident — we will contact you as soon as we can and arrange replacement Sessions.
18.2 If the disruption lasts more than four weeks, either of us may end the contract, and we will refund every Session not yet delivered.
19. Complaints
19.1 If you are unhappy with anything, please tell us — by email to hello@datumlearning.co.uk or in writing to the address in clause 2.2.
19.2 We will acknowledge your complaint within 3 working days and give you a considered response within 15 working days. If we need longer, we will tell you why and when to expect our reply.
19.3 When we give you our response, we will also tell you what further options are open to you if you remain dissatisfied. We are not currently a member of an alternative dispute resolution scheme, and we are not required to be; you are free to seek advice from Citizens Advice, and your right to take the matter to court is unaffected.
20. General
20.1 Changing these terms. We may change these terms for a Block you have already booked only where we need to reflect a change in the law or in regulatory requirements. Any other change applies only to Blocks booked after we tell you about it. If a change to a Block already booked is to your disadvantage, you may end the contract and we will refund every Session not yet delivered.
20.2 Transferring the contract. You may not transfer your rights under this contract to anyone else without our agreement. We may transfer our rights and obligations to another business only if that does not affect your rights under this contract, and we will tell you in writing first.
20.3 Other people. This contract is between you and us. No one else has any right to enforce it, except that the Student may enforce clause 17.1.
20.4 If part of it is invalid. If a court finds any part of these terms unlawful, the remaining paragraphs continue in force.
20.5 Delay. If we do not insist immediately that you do something you are required to do, or delay in taking action against you, that does not prevent us from doing so later.
20.6 Governing law. These terms are governed by the law of England and Wales. You and we both agree that the courts of England and Wales have jurisdiction, and if you live in Wales you may bring proceedings in the Welsh courts.
Annex A — Cancellation form
Complete and return this form only if you wish to cancel the contract. You do not have to use this form — any clear statement that you are cancelling is enough.
To: Sarah Kuti trading as DATUM Learning, 4th Floor, 14 Museum Place, Cardiff CF10 3BH, hello@datumlearning.co.uk
I/We hereby give notice that I/We cancel my/our contract for the supply of the following service:
Ordered on / received on: ......................................................................................
Name of consumer: ..............................................................................................
Address of consumer: ..........................................................................................
Signature of consumer (only if this form is notified on paper): ........................................
Date: ...................................................................................................................