Working Together – What You Need To Know

(Updates to Terms and Conditions (As at 23/01/18)

Easy scheduling aligned to the school year

Our tutoring aligns with the government school calendar (four 10-week terms) which students are familiar with. We believe that holidays are important for recharging and helps students to maintain a positive outlook towards learning.

Students get a minimum of 10 sessions per term. We find that children derive the most benefit from having one session per week. For this reason, your child will have a regular weekly session at the same time and day each week.

We offer flexible scheduling options for students who have started partway through the term, attend private schools, or prefer to use all their sessions ahead of exams.

If your regular session falls on a public holiday or student-free day, we will gladly reschedule for another day. Usually, students prefer to schedule their catch-up one hour before or after a regular session, effectively booking what we call a “double-session”. However, we need you to book as far in advance as possible to secure your preferred date and time.

Rescheduling sessions

We understand that life doesn’t always go as planned. We’re happy to accommodate rescheduling requests where possible. Please contact our office via phone, text, or email for any scheduling needs.

Minimum 5 Days’ Notice. Our schedules are planned far in advance, carefully coordinating our students’ and parents’ preferences with our tutors’ availability as well as the capacity of our venues. We need a minimum of 5 working days to reschedule a session.

Catch-up sessions. We honour sessions that can’t take place because of  a public holiday, a student-free day, a pre-arranged school commitment, or  the school term has ended.

·         We can only grant catch up sessions if we receive notice at least 5 days in advance.

·         If school term has ended, your remaining sessions will be honoured as catch-up sessions in the following term. You just need to give us at least 5 days’ notice to schedule a catch-up session.

Courtesy sessions. We understand that children get sick unexpectedly. Where we have been notified in the most reasonable time-frame possible, and at our discretion, we can provide courtesy sessions.  These are complementary, so they can’t be credited or deemed as replacing a regular session. Courtesy sessions must be scheduled within the current term. They can be rescheduled with at least 5 days’ notice, but are otherwise forfeited if they are not used.

Keep us in the loop.

Please let us know as soon as possible if your child is sick, not going to make their session, or if you think that you could be late. We need to know that your child is ok, and whether we should expect their arrival. This is also important where you may be late to pick up  your child.

We believe in fairness for everyone. The sooner you let us know that your child won’t be able to make their regular session the sooner we can offer that space to another student who may need a catch-up or courtesy session. In the same way, this is how we are able to secure additional sessions for your child.

Only applicable to students that are enrolled for the following term. Catch-up and courtesy sessions can only be carried over to a new term once. If they are not used within the new term, they are seen as expired and are not carried over again.

Should there be less than two weeks left in the school term. We will honour the courtesy session in the following term, provided the student is enrolled for that term. A minimum of 5 day’s notice is required to redeem a courtesy session.

How to get the most out of tutoring

·         Please ensure students arrive on time to get the most out of their full session.

·         Have all the homework sheets, downloaded material, project or assignment outlines ready.

·         Bring any tools, books or learning materials you want to use along.

·         Parents receive feedback in the last few minutes of each session.

Other Terms and Conditions:

First session is FREE

Your first session is FREE. When children are returning to us after being away from tutoring for a period of time, we don’t do the first returning session as a free session.

There is no Enrolment Fee

There is no enrolment fee.

Session Prices

All prices are available on our website (See page: https://bigimprovements.com.au/pricing)

What happens at each session – relating to tutoring

We work as a team. We deliberately arrange tutoring sessions so that children can experience interacting with different tutors, and the variety and enjoyment that comes with that. Children may not always have the same tutor. We try to set up each group so there are 2 children with each tutor. We do not put children in groups of 3 or more with one tutor.

10 sessions/term

Children are booked into 10 sessions of tutoring each term. Parents can choose to re-schedule sessions from the end of term back to earlier in the term, for such things as preparing for school exams if your child prefers that. If your child’s school ends early, we still tutor your child because that’s actually the best time to tutor – when they’re relaxed, they’re not tired from school and we can help them with long term skills. However, if you prefer, you can reschedule these sessions to earlier in the term.

Public Holidays

We don’t tutor on public holidays. Parents choose another day for a catch-up up session when public holidays coincide with your child’s regular session time.

Payment

Direct debit payment in advance by term/fortnightly:

Many parents pay in advance for the full term, but if you’d prefer, you can pay in advance fortnightly. You can choose:

·         Direct debit from your bank account
Payments are directly debited from your chosen bank account each Tuesday.

·         Direct debit from your Visa/Mastercard credit card
Payments are directly debited from your chosen Visa or Mastercard credit card each Tuesday (Credit card surcharge fees apply, – 1.32% (minimum $0.27) transaction fee.

If no direct debit is in place by the first paid session, then we need to pause your child’s tutoring until that can be resolved.

What happens if a payment is declined for any reason?

It’s important that you make sure you have sufficient funds in your nominated account before the due payment date. It’s also your responsibility to ensure that bank or card details are correct at all times and that you update your expiry date when you receive a new credit/debit card.

If a payment is declined at any time (for any reason) you will be notified by Ezidebit that payment will be re-attempted in 3 business days time. There is a $11.90 dishonour fee charged by Ezidebit, and your bank may also apply an additional Dishonour Fee.

Catch-ups, not refunds

Refunds are not available for absent sessions, because we do catch-up sessions instead. We want your child to get the benefit of their tutoring sessions.

We assume your child will continue tutoring the next term. We will reserve the same timeslot in the following term until you get in contact with us to change it.

We understand that sometimes life happens, things come up, and your child may not be able to make their regular tutoring session. That’s not a problem! If it is for a foreseeable reason (non-sickness reason), just contact us to let us know at least five (5) days before the session in question, and we can arrange the most convenient time to do a catch up session. Sessions that students miss with less than five days notice are not exchanged for a catch-up session.

Rescheduling when my child is sick

We appreciate that sickness doesn’t offer the luxury of consulting our timetable or even giving us notice. So as soon as you recognise that your child is going to be unable to make their session due to sickness, contact us, before the session, and we can organise a catch-up from there. Parents find that texting or emailing is easiest for them.

Options for catch-up sessions

When organising a catch-up session, your child is able to do either a double session (so the 4:30 and 5:30 time slots, or 3:30 if it is available, on the same day) or they can organise a single session for an alternative day. Catch-up sessions can also be used straight away or can be saved until the end of term when the school workload is often a little heavier and exams are looming. When you first contact us about organising a catch-up session, if you have preferred times and days, let us know and we will try to make that work for you if we can.

Forgetfulness

It sometimes happens that parents simply forget to bring their child on a particular day. Sometimes life is crazy like that. We charge for missed lessons because we still pay our staff whether your child comes or not.

Siblings joining/leaving

If a sibling joins or leaves, your direct debit schedule will be updated by our office to accurately reflect the changes to your tutoring rate as of the week the sibling have their first paid session or leave.

Continuing next term. Guaranteeing your time slot

We assume your child will continue tutoring the next term. We will reserve the same timeslot in the following term until you get in contact with us to change it.

To secure your preferred timeslot… ensure your direct debit is operating with up-to-date details.

Termination of tutoring

No lock in contracts. We understand that things change, and if at any stage you need to leave, we only need 2 weeks’ notice so that our team facilitate the cancellation process. Once notice is received your tutoring sessions and direct debit schedule will be adjusted.

We do not reimburse fortnightly EziDebit payments and we encourage families to get in contact with us early when things change.

After families have left Big Improvements Tutoring, we will occasionally reach out to families to let them know of tips or ideas to help them in the long-term, or to offer them their place back after they have left for a while in case they need it.

Pausing tutoring due to exceptional circumstances.

We require 10 days written notice to pause tutoring due to exceptional circumstances. Once notice is received your tutoring sessions and direct debit schedule for sessions greater than ten days will cease.

Defence Families

If your child is eligible for Defence funding for tutoring please send us an email and we will send you a Defence-Friendly modified invoice. Simply let us know which subjects you are getting funding approval for, and number of sessions (if needed). For example: English and Maths for 14 weeks of sessions.

Changes of operations

We reserve the right to change days and location of operation. If that happens, we’ll contact parents by email, text message or phone call.

Privacy Policy

Your privacy is very important to us. Accordingly, we have developed this Policy in order for you to understand how we collect, use, communicate and disclose and make use of personal information. The following outlines our privacy policy.

If something is not working

Contact our office, and we will resolve it.