Booking, Payment & Cancellation Policy
Lessons are invoiced monthly in arrears, and cancellations with less than 24 hours' notice are charged in full.
Booking lessons
All new students start with a free 15-minute consultation, after which we match you with a tutor.
Lessons run at a regular weekly time agreed with your tutor. Extra or one-off lessons can be arranged on request.
Lessons are 60 minutes unless agreed otherwise. Current rates are listed on our Subjects & Pricing page.
Payment
At the end of each month you'll receive one invoice for the lessons that took place that month.
Invoices are due within 7 days and can be paid by bank transfer or card.
If an invoice is more than 10 days overdue, we may pause lessons until it is paid.
We'll give at least one month's notice of any change to our rates.
Cancellations by you
Please give at least 24 hours' notice to cancel or move a lesson. You won't be charged, and we'll try to find another time that week.
Lessons cancelled with less than 24 hours' notice, or missed without notice, are charged in full.
If your child is unexpectedly ill, let us know as soon as you can and we'll use our discretion.
Cancellations by us
If your tutor needs to cancel, we'll give as much notice as possible and offer another time. You'll never be charged for a lesson we cancel.
If your tutor is more than 10 minutes late, the lesson will either run its full length or the missed time will be taken off your invoice.
Stopping lessons
You can stop lessons at any time. Just let us know before your next scheduled lesson, and you'll only pay for lessons that have already taken place.
Privacy Policy
We only collect the information we need to arrange and run lessons, we never sell it, and you can ask us to see or delete it at any time.
Who we are
Watson Tutors is run by Rufus Watson, based in Bristol. For anything about your data, email info@watsontutors.co.uk.
What we collect
Parent or carer details: name, email address and phone number.
Student details: first name, level of study, year group, subjects, exam board, and what they'd like help with.
Lesson records: dates, notes on progress, and attendance.
Payment records: invoices and whether they've been paid. We don't store card details.
Why we use it
To contact you about your enquiry and arrange a consultation.
To match your child with a tutor and plan their lessons.
To send invoices and keep financial records.
Our legal basis is that the information is needed to provide the tutoring you've asked for, and to meet our legal obligations for financial records.
Who sees it
Your details are shared only with your child's tutor and the service providers we use to run the business, such as our website platform, email provider and payment processor. We never sell your information or use it for marketing by anyone else.
How long we keep it
We keep lesson and contact details for up to 12 months after lessons end, so it's easy to restart. Financial records are kept for 6 years, as required by HMRC. Enquiries that don't lead to lessons are deleted after 6 months.
Your rights
You can ask us to see, correct or delete the information we hold about you or your child, or to stop using it. Email us and we'll respond within one month. If you're unhappy with how we've handled your data, you can complain to the Information Commissioner's Office (ico.org.uk).
Safeguarding Policy
Every student's safety and wellbeing comes first, and every Watson Tutors tutor follows the same rules on checks, communication and reporting concerns.
Our tutors
Every tutor holds an up-to-date DBS check, which we'll happily show on request.
Tutors are interviewed before joining and agree to follow this policy.
Communication
Lessons are arranged through the parent or carer, not directly with the student, for students under 18.
Tutors contact students only through channels agreed with parents, and never through personal social media.
Parents can see any messages between tutor and student on request.
During lessons
For in-person lessons in a student's home, a parent or carer must be in the house throughout.
Tutors keep lessons focused on learning and maintain professional boundaries at all times.
Raising a concern
If a student tells a tutor something that suggests they may be at risk, the tutor will not promise to keep it secret. They will report it to our safeguarding lead, Rufus Watson, the same day.
Where a child may be in danger, we will contact the local authority's children's services or, in an emergency, the police.
Parents with any concern about a tutor's conduct should contact Rufus Watson directly at info@watsontutors.co.uk. Every concern will be taken seriously and dealt with promptly.
This policy is reviewed every year, or sooner if anything changes. Last reviewed: October 2026.
Online Lessons Policy
Most lessons take place online over Zoom, and in-person lessons can be arranged during university holidays.
Before the lesson
Your tutor will send the same meeting link for each lesson, to the email address agreed with the parent or carer.
Students need a laptop or tablet with a camera and microphone, plus a pen and paper.
During the lesson
Students should join from a shared space in the home, such as a kitchen or living room, rather than a bedroom, where possible.
Cameras stay on for both tutor and student.
Lessons are not recorded unless the parent has agreed in writing, and any recording is shared only with that family.
Technical problems
If a lesson is cut short by a connection problem on our side, we'll make up the time or take it off your invoice. If the problem is on the student's side, the tutor will wait up to 15 minutes and try to reconnect before the lesson is treated as a late cancellation.