Terms of Service

Tao provides private tuition and admissions support to students (“Students”) and to the parents, guardians or other persons who arrange and pay for that tuition (“Clients”, “you”). Where an adult Student arranges and pays for their own tuition, they are both the Student and the Client. Tao is the provider of that service. Tuition is delivered on Tao’s behalf by carefully selected self-employed tutors engaged by Tao (“Tutors”).

Depending on the service purchased, our services may include:

Unless expressly stated otherwise in writing, we do not guarantee that we will be able to identify a Tutor who meets every aspect of a Client’s requirements.

Your contract is with Tao, not with the Tutor. Any question, concern or request about the tuition should come to us.

Tao operates as an employment business for the purposes of the Employment Agencies Act 1973.

You must be at least 18 years old to enter into an agreement with us.

If tutoring is being arranged for a Student under 18, the Client is responsible for ensuring that the Student uses our services appropriately and in accordance with these Terms and any applicable rules or policies.

You must provide accurate and up-to-date information when requesting our services.

Tao reserves the right to refuse, suspend or terminate our services where we reasonably believe that a Client or Student has breached these Terms, acted unlawfully or misused our services.

A contract is formed when you accept a written quotation or booking confirmation from us, or make a payment against one.

These Terms apply to every booking. We will send you these Terms, or a link to them, with your quotation. By accepting a quotation or booking confirmation, or by making any payment, you agree to these Terms.

Our fees are set out in the quotation or booking confirmation. Fees are ours, set by us, and are payable to Tao only. Please do not pay a Tutor directly.

The applicable price may depend on factors including the Tutor, subject, level, duration, frequency and type of tutoring requested. Where you purchase a package or block at a discounted rate, your quotation or booking confirmation will also state our standard hourly rate.

Tao is not currently registered for VAT, so no VAT is charged. If Tao becomes VAT registered we will tell you before your next booking.

Admissions programmes and other packages are sold as a fixed number of hours for a fixed price. When you purchase a package in advance, payment is made for the package as a whole. The full price of the package is payable at least 24 hours before the first session.

Where we agree to provide ongoing tuition outside a package, it is bought in blocks of 5 hours, with each block payable at least 24 hours before the first session of that block is due to take place.

We will provide you with our bank details and payment instructions in advance of the first session, and payment must be made by bank transfer by the deadlines specified in clauses 4.4 and 4.5.

If a package or block has not been paid for, we may pause tuition until it is. We will always provide prior notice before any services are paused.

For payments more than 2 weeks overdue, we may charge interest on overdue amounts at 4% above the Bank of England base rate.

Hours are added to your balance when a package or block is paid for, and come off the balance as sessions are delivered.

We will tell you when your balance is running low, so you can decide whether to continue. We will not charge you for further hours without telling you first.

Hours are valid for six months from the date of purchase. If hours remain unused at the end of that period, we will contact you and, at your choice, either extend their validity or refund them in accordance with clause 5.4.

You may stop at any time. We will refund the value of the hours on your balance that have not been used (calculated in accordance with clause 8.6 where that clause applies), except for any session already scheduled to take place within the next 24 hours, which is chargeable under clause 6.2 because the Tutor’s time has been reserved.

Money you have paid for sessions that have not yet taken place remains refundable under clause 5.4 until those sessions are delivered.

Please give us at least 24 hours’ notice to cancel or reschedule. If the appropriate notice is provided, the lessons will not be charged and the relevant hours will be returned to your balance.

Where insufficient notice is provided, the Client will be charged 100% of the session fee.

If a Student does not attend without notice, the full session fee is charged.

If a Tutor cannot attend, we will reschedule or provide a suitable alternative Tutor at no cost to you. If a session missed by a Tutor cannot be rescheduled, or we are unable to find suitable cover, the cost of that lesson will be refunded.

If the first session with a new Tutor is not the right fit, tell us within 48 hours and we will match you with a different Tutor at no additional fee. The first session remains chargeable, as it was delivered.

If tuition has not been delivered with reasonable care and skill, tell us. We will first offer to put it right — normally by repeating the session or reassigning the Tutor at no extra cost. If that is not possible or does not resolve it, you are entitled to an appropriate reduction in price. This reflects your rights under the Consumer Rights Act 2015 and does not replace them.

Refund requests should be submitted to hello@taoeducation.co.uk.

Refunds are made to the original payment method.

We do not offer refunds based on examination results, grades or admissions outcomes. No tutor or agency can guarantee an outcome, and we will not pretend otherwise.

You may stop future tuition at any time. Clauses 5.4 and 8.6 set out how any refund for unused hours will be calculated.

We will make any refund due within 14 days.

Where you purchased a package or block at a discounted rate, any hours already delivered will be charged at our standard hourly rate (as stated in your quotation or booking confirmation) rather than the discounted package rate. The amount charged for those hours will be deducted from the amount you have paid, and the remaining balance will be refunded. This clause does not apply where you cancel within the 14-day cancellation period under clause 9, in which case any charge is calculated in proportion to the price you agreed to pay.

We will not provide a refund where no refund is due under these Terms, the applicable booking terms or applicable law.

Nothing in these Terms limits a Client’s statutory rights relating to faulty, misdescribed or otherwise legally defective services.

Because this contract is made at a distance, you have 14 days from the day it is formed to cancel for any reason and receive a full refund. Email hello@taoeducation.co.uk to do so.

If you want tuition to begin within those 14 days, you must expressly request it, and we will ask you to confirm that request in writing before the first session. You may still cancel within the 14 days, but we may charge you, proportionately, for tuition already delivered.

This right applies in addition to clause 8.

The welfare of the Student comes first. Every Tutor engaged by Tao provides a DBS certificate, two professional references, evidence of their qualifications and proof of identity before being offered any assignment.

While we take reasonable steps to assess Tutors, no vetting process can eliminate every risk or guarantee that information supplied by a Tutor is complete or accurate.

Any safeguarding concern should be raised immediately to our designated safeguarding leads, Wei Heng Liu and Wei Jia Liu, at hello@taoeducation.co.uk, marked “Safeguarding” in the subject line.

For online sessions, we set up a group chat that includes you, so you can see communication between the Student and their Tutor. Tutors use a Tao email address or that group, and should not exchange personal contact details with a Student under 18 or message them privately. A parent or guardian should be aware of when sessions take place and contactable during them. Sessions are not recorded without your written consent.

For in-person sessions with a Student under 18, a parent, guardian or other responsible adult should be present at the premises for the duration of the session. Tutors will not arrange to meet a Student outside booked sessions or transport a Student.

We may suspend or terminate access to our services while investigating a safeguarding concern where we reasonably consider this necessary to protect a Student, Tutor or other person.

Where appropriate or legally required, we may report safeguarding concerns to relevant authorities or professional bodies.

If, during the Relevant Period, you engage a Tutor introduced by Tao other than through Tao (directly, or through another person or agency), you must tell us and we may charge a transfer fee equal to 15 hours of tuition at the hourly rate you were last charged.

The “Relevant Period” is whichever of the following ends later:

Instead of paying the transfer fee, you may choose to continue booking the Tutor through Tao on these Terms for a further 30 hours of tuition, after which you may engage the Tutor directly without any fee.

Nothing in these Terms excludes or limits liability where doing so would be unlawful.

We will provide our services with reasonable care and skill as required by applicable law.

We are responsible for loss 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, and do not guarantee, any particular examination result, grade, admissions decision, career outcome or other academic outcome.

We are not liable for indirect or consequential losses to the extent that such exclusion is permitted by law, or for losses arising solely from events outside our reasonable control (see clause 17).

Except in relation to death or personal injury caused by our negligence, or anything else we cannot limit by law, our total liability is limited to the total fees you have paid us under the contract to which the claim relates.

We process personal information in accordance with applicable data-protection legislation.

Further information about how we collect, use and protect personal information is contained in our privacy policy, available at taoeducation.co.uk/privacy.

Our website, branding, logos, materials, databases and other content supplied by us remain our property or the property of our licensors unless expressly stated otherwise.

You may use materials supplied to you as part of our services for your own personal educational purposes, subject to any restrictions communicated with those materials.

You must not reproduce, commercially exploit, distribute, publish or make available our proprietary materials without our prior written permission.

Tutors retain ownership of materials they independently create unless otherwise agreed.

Clients and Students retain rights in content they independently create, subject to any rights granted to us or a Tutor where necessary to provide the services.

Each party must take reasonable steps to protect confidential information received from the other party.

Confidential information must not be disclosed to third parties except where:

This section does not prevent us from sharing information where necessary to operate our services, protect Students or Tutors, investigate concerns, or comply with legal or regulatory obligations.

We encourage Clients to raise concerns as soon as possible so that we have an opportunity to resolve them.

Complaints should be sent to hello@taoeducation.co.uk.

We will review complaints fairly and will aim to respond within 7 working days.

Where a complaint concerns the conduct or performance of a Tutor, we may investigate and, where appropriate, facilitate communication between the parties.

We do not currently use an alternative dispute resolution provider. If we cannot resolve your complaint, you may bring a claim in the courts as set out in clause 20.

We will not be responsible for delay or failure to perform an obligation where this is caused by circumstances beyond our reasonable control.

Such circumstances may include serious technical failures, interruption to communications networks, natural disasters, government action, industrial disputes, widespread illness, war, terrorism or other events which could not reasonably have been prevented.

Where such an event affects a booked tutoring service, we will use reasonable efforts to minimise disruption and, where appropriate, arrange an alternative session or solution.

We may update these Terms from time to time.

Where a change materially affects your rights or obligations, we will provide reasonable notice where required by law.

The version of the Terms applicable to your booking will normally be the version in force when you entered into the relevant agreement, unless a later change is required by law or otherwise validly incorporated.

If any provision of these Terms is found to be invalid or unenforceable, the remaining provisions will continue in effect.

A failure or delay by us in enforcing a right does not mean that we have waived that right.

These Terms do not create a partnership, joint venture or agency relationship between the parties except where expressly stated.

No person other than a party to these Terms shall have rights to enforce them under the Contracts (Rights of Third Parties) Act 1999, except where expressly stated otherwise.

These Terms, together with any documents expressly incorporated into them, form the agreement between you and us concerning the relevant services.

These Terms are governed by the law of England and Wales. Subject to any mandatory consumer rights concerning jurisdiction, the courts of England and Wales shall have jurisdiction over disputes arising from these Terms.

Nothing in these Terms affects your statutory rights as a consumer.