Terms and Conditions

The billing process will be under the control of Top Grades who shall send an invoice as soon as the Client has agreed on a tuition session or series of tuition sessions unless alternate arrangements have been mutually agreed upon. 

Fees are agreed verbally and/or in writing by Top Grades with the Client prior to commencement of the tuition. They are normally at a standard rate according to the level of the student and the experience of their tutor. 

A non-refundable registration fee is paid at the time of registration with Top Grades. You are required to pay the registration fee to Top Grades prior to the beginning of lessons. This is an administrative charge which pays for the consideration of several of Top Grades’ most appropriate Tutors before selecting the one the consultant feels best meets the client’s needs. The registration fee also covers materials and stationery provided to the student throughout the year. Where additional books and/or stationery are required, Top Grades will contact the Client to agree a supplementary payment.

 A £100 deposit must be paid by the client to secure the booking at the beginning of the course. The deposit is fully refundable at the end of the course less any penalty fees for late payments (an amount of £25). Where Top Grades receives less than 1 months’ notice for cancellation, the client will forfeit the remainder of their deposit so as to cover costs incurred by Top Grades. 

Our standard service includes receiving invoices and statements via e-mail. If you require paper invoices and statements, then this will incur a yearly administration charge.

Payments must not be made directly to the Tutor at any time.

Any referral scheme cash back offers are subject to the referred client paying the registration fee and paying for 1 terms tuition at once.

Payments that are late are subject to a £25 penalty fee and Top Grades reserves the right to suspend lessons until payment is received in full. Registered students are assigned a unique ID which should be included in the payment reference for all payments made to Top Grades. Clients not assigned a unique ID should include the invoice number in the payment reference. Top Grades will not be held responsible for any delays due to the incorrect reference being used. 

The Client is not permitted to make private arrangements for tuition with a Tutor introduced by Top Grades. Should a Client breach this obligation, they will be liable to account to Top Grades for all sums paid to the Tutor without deduction and Top Grades shall be entitled to obtain an injunction against a Client to prevent further breaches. This obligation shall continue notwithstanding termination of this agreement.

All tuition (unless online) is to take place at the Top Grades premises (66-68 Stanhope Road, St Albans, AL1 5BL). Tuition normally consists of one-hour weekly sessions. Shorter or longer sessions should be agreed in advance between Top Grades and the Tutor.

Invoices are sent to the Client on a half-termly basis to cover tuition up to the start of a holiday or half-term break. For example, tuition received during the second half of the Autumn term (November and December) will be invoiced before or during the October half-term break. Clients who join Top Grades part-way through the billing period, will be invoiced for the remaining weeks of that billing period. Please ensure that payment for all invoices is made within 5 days of the date of the invoice or before the first lesson, whichever occurs first. 

At the end of the prepaid sessions, tuition automatically carries on unless you give one-months’ notice (Termination Notice) in writing to Top Grades. This will enable the Tutor to bring tuition to an appropriate conclusion for the student and seek reassignment to another job. In the case of group lessons, this also enables Top Grades to fill that students’ place in the group.

If you do not provide the Termination Notice to Top Grades or do not provide such notice in sufficient time, Top Grades and the Tutor will assume that you wish to continue and keep your agreed time slot with the Tutor reserved for you, and you will be charged for any such sessions arranged. This aids continuity and the Tutor’s availability as long as you need him/her.

Alternative provision students are defined as those who are not enrolled as full time students in a school. These students are often home educated or source their education from Top Grades with a weekly limit to their hours.

Alternative provision tuition is invoiced in advance on a monthly basis and as a fixed instalment. The monthly instalment is calculated by dividing the number of academic weeks for the year into several instalments. Last payments are usually due at the beginning of July; for GCSE students, who have a shorter academic year, this is due in June. Top Grades assesses each case individually and reserves the right to make adjustments where appropriate. Monthly tuition invoices are sent on the 1st day of each month and are due within 5 days upon receipt of the invoice unless an alternative agreement has been agreed in writing.

In some cases, Top Grades may advise additional tuition in the afternoons and during intensive revision sessions. These are billed separately and the number of hours are agreed in advance between Top Grades, Tutor and Client, as appropriate for the age of the student and goals the client and/or student seek to achieve. 

Online tuition or Live Remote Tuition is when the Tutor delivers the lesson to a student using the Internet. Online tuition is usually only considered where tutor and student are not in the same location. Live Remote Tuition can also be used to supplement face-to-face sessions where this is deemed necessary. 

Tutor and student use a combination of e-mail and an online meeting platform which enables them to hear and see one another as well as the media and notes used during the lesson. All online tuition is paid in advance and all terms and conditions relating to face-face-tuition apply with online tuition.

The Online Home-schooling Programme is offered in response to schools shutting down during the COVID-19 pandemic and should be considered separate from Online Tuition above. The terms and conditions stated in the next paragraph are effective from 16 March 2020 to 31 August 2020.

Tutor and students use a combination of Google Classroom and Zoom - an online meeting platform which enables them to hear and see one another as well as the media and notes used during the lesson. All terms and conditions relating to face-face-tuition apply with online home-schooling programmes with the following exceptions:

• All programmes are billed on a monthly basis and must be paid in full before the first lesson and Top Grades reserves the right to suspend lessons until payment is received in full. 
• The monthly fee stated for the programme is the fee per student, not per family. 
• A £100 deposit must be paid by the client to secure the booking at the beginning of the course. 
• The deposit is fully refundable at the end of the course less any penalty fees for late payments (an amount of £25). 
• Where Top Grades receives less than 1 months’ notice for cancellation, the client will forfeit the remainder of their deposit so as to cover costs incurred by Top Grades. 
• No credit will be given for missed lessons due to illness or other commitments on the part of the student – the monthly fee can be likened to a membership fee which is fixed and independent from the student’s attendance. 
• The online programmes are not eligible for any discounts or promotions listed elsewhere on the website. 

Intensive Revision Sessions are offered to A level and GCSE students during the following holidays: October half-term, February half-term, Easter break, and May half-term. Intensive revision sessions are optional and treated as separate from all other services offered by Top Grades. Intensive Revision Sessions are offered in increments of 2 hour sessions starting from 6 hours per subject. Invoices for Revision Sessions must be paid in full and in advance prior to the start of tuition. Top Grades reserves the right to suspend tuition until payment is received. If a discount is offered for early booking, payment must be in full and cleared by 5pm on the given date in order to qualify for the discount. All terms and conditions relating to face-face-tuition apply with intensive revision sessions.

Residential tuition (tutors travelling to the home of the student) is only made available in exceptional circumstances; the terms of which would be negotiated on a case-by-case basis. 

When a client has prepaid for a course of tuition, and a client is not satisfied with a particular Tutor or if a Tutor must stop tuition mid-course due to unforeseeable circumstances, Top Grades will endeavour to find a replacement Tutor. If a replacement cannot be found of the level and subject required by the Client, then Top Grades will refund the balance of the course fees paid by the client representing the number of pre-paid sessions for which the client does not receive tuition.

Top Grades is registered under the Data Protection Act to hold and use client data for the purposes of the services that it provides. Clients providing personal data to Top Grades are consenting to the use of that data by Top Grades for the purpose of effecting introductions to Tutors, for billing and fee collecting purposes and to enable Top Grades to contact the client and/or student from time to time. Where required for legitimate purposes in connection with Top Grades’ business and subject to suitable safeguards that data may be transferred to others. Please refer to our Privacy Policy for more information.

Top Grades do not accept any liability for any claims by the Client arising out of or related to the carrying out of the tutoring by a Tutor introduced by Top Grades. Any opinion expressed by a Tutor is not necessarily an expression of the opinion of Top Grades.

We hope these Guidelines help to clarify how private tuition operates with Top Grades.

If you have any further queries or comments, please contact us by phone or e-mail so that you are provided with the highest possible level of service.